Expectations

Raising a guide dog puppy comes with no shortage of high expectations. You are preparing this puppy for training which will teach him to guide a visually impaired individual. That is no small responsibility for a dog to take on, so it can be easy to get into the trap of wanting the puppy to be perfect.

The problem is, puppies aren’t perfect. They are going to exhibit behaviors that will baffle you, or frustrate you. No two puppies are alike, and as soon as you feel like you have this raising thing down, a mischievous new pup will come along to respond in a completely unexpected way that humbles you.

In puppy raising, you are giving the dog tools and behaviors in order to help him grow well-adjusted and well behaved. Dog training is a journey, not a destination. There are no quick fixes; there is no perfection. Mammalian behavior is never 100% reliable. Success will be mostly incremental, with occasional great leaps forward as well as regressions backwards.

Keeping that in mind, here are some categories where expectation adjustment can help you and the puppy achieve success.

1. House manners

Most dog breeds are not mature adults at a year and a half old. Retrievers are definitely not. Some individuals will display more maturity early on than others, but there is most definitely still a puppy inside of them. So generally, not a single dog will come in-for-training completely trustworthy when it comes to house manners. It is expected that when a dog comes in-for-training, he will still be well versed with tie-down and crate usage. In fact, when we send the dog home as a guide dog, he goes home with strict rules about tie downs, crates, and leash tethers at all times in order to continue to enforce good behavior.

House manners are a difficult, nebulous concept for dogs. Dogs are inherently scavengers and opportunistic eaters. Why wouldn’t they knock over the trashcan to get to the food they smell inside, or reach onto the counter to grab a snack? From a survival standpoint, that behavior makes sense. No one let the dogs know that meals will come with regularity, and there is no need to gorge. That leftover instinct is also why shredding items (such as paper) or chewing on toys feels so satisfying to them. Part of the hunting/eating prey sequence is still coded inside.

The best way to ensure good house manners is through prevention. Behaviors such as counter surfing or trashcan hunting are self-rewarding behaviors; if the dog attempts the behavior and finds food there, he has just become far more likely to attempt that behavior again.

If you know you are going to have food on the counter and your attention is going to be diverted from the puppy, he needs to be on tie-down. Even if you think he wouldn’t dare attempt to put paws on the counter, it’s a much better practice to be safe than sorry. I’ve seen too many handlers get lulled into a false sense of security, believing the pup to be more trustworthy than he actually is. Often, the puppy just hasn’t tried that behavior yet, and one day, he is bored and feeling extra curious... and the first counter surfing attempt appears.

It is MUCH easier than to prevent problems than it is to fix them.

Blue Cape entry:
House Manners

2. Leash manners

Every so often, a dog comes along that naturally falls into a comfortable walking pace and doesn’t ever challenge the leash. Mostly, guide dog puppies will not be that kind of dog.

Loose leash walking, of all the behaviors we ask of our dogs, is probably the one that makes the least sense to them. Why would they walk at an agonizingly slow pace, ignoring every interesting thing they pass? There are scents to be investigated and dogs to visit and leaves to pick up... as far as the dogs are concerned, we are the most boring walkers on the planet. Combine that with guide dogs needing to have an innate desire to drive forward and take the lead, and you get a dog with a tendency to pull or lunge on leash.

So if you find this the toughest command to teach the puppy you are raising, congratulations. You have a normal dog.

Think of loose leash walking as a complicated trick. When you approach teaching it as an unnatural behavior that must be broken down into steps, it tends to be a little less stressful (if not any less time consuming). It is a comprehensive undertaking that involves a lot of persistence and consistency on the part of the handler.

As a reminder, here is a great video resource on teaching leash manners:

Loose Leash Walking 

3. Jumping on people

If you have a dog that jumps on people, ask yourself whether or not the dog jumps in the following scenarios?

-       On leash with strangers?

-       On leash with familiar people?

-       Off leash (in a fenced yard or in the house) with strangers? Familiar people?

-       When being greeted by someone calm and quiet?

-       When being greeted by someone loud and excited?

-       When the dog first gets out of the crate?

-       At the front door?

-       At the back door?

-       When putting on the leash?

-       When visitors first arrive in the home?

-       After visitors have been there for 30 minutes? An hour?

-       While the family watches television?

-       When the dog has a toy in his mouth?

-       While the dog is eating treats?

-       When someone approaches the dog making direct eye contact?

-       When someone approaches the dog but the dog is facing the handler and getting treats?

-       Walking past crowds of people who are not paying attention to him?

Out of those possible scenarios, there are likely several during which the dog is less likely to jump. Some of those scenarios would be very difficult for just about any dog, while others are likely to be successful. Expect that the dog will jump; if you are struggling with it, do not allow people to greet the puppy if you are in a scenario where you think the puppy will be unsuccessful. If you run into excited people in a mall who are making eye contact with him and want to say hello, you may have to tell them that the pup is in training and working when he has his coat on. If you really do want to allow the pup to say hello, at least take his coat off first so that he doesn’t have a chance to practice the jumping behavior in coat.

If however, you are at a Publix where everyone knows your pup, and you have some helpful employees willing to help you, try having them greet your pup quietly while the pup is facing you and eating cookies. If the pup jumps, take a step away with him and try again. Utilize helpful people when you can and create a scenario where the pup can succeed. If he is too excited, try again another day.

Blue Cape Entries:

Greeting Behaviors
Jumping

4. General training and behavior

Dogs are like people in that they can have good days as well as bad days. The puppy might perform beautifully in a variety of situations, then one day is just off his game and doesn’t seem to want to listen. There could be a lot of reasons for this, including hormones, stress build up, or just not feeling up to it. They can also pick up on the handler’s mood, so if you get frustrated or anxious, the puppy’s behavior may be affected as a result.

Dogs also do not generalize very well. Even small changes in environment and routine can affect command responsiveness. The dog may be so focused on novel stimuli that he doesn’t fully hear you, or he is having trouble processing the command and it’s meaning. It is good practice to warm a dog up with familiar, simple, well-rewarded obedience before embarking on a novel exposure, or entering an exciting environment (such as a mall or a pet store). This will help the puppy get into “thinking mode”, and will also give him time to process the environment. Don’t rush the puppy into an exposure if he tells you (through his lack of listening or normal responses) that he’s not ready.

Blue Cape entry: 

What to do when the puppy says no

Slow treat technique

Giving a treat reward can become a very deliberate exercise in itself. The "slow treat technique" does not just teach the dog to take the treat nicely. It can also help to calm an excitable dog, encourage patience, and refocus lost attention.

If the dog is revved up and activated, it is a good time to set up some calm, deliberate treating to try to bring things back to baseline. This is also useful if the dog is extremely treat distracted and persistent. For dogs who tend to snatch at the treat, hold the treat in your left hand between your thumb and forefinger (making an "OK" sign). When you bring the treat to the puppy, hold your hand at your side, so that the puppy has to place his muzzle into your palm to reach the treat.

This will give you some more control over releasing the treat when the puppy is gentle, while also saving your fingers.

 I like to start this with the dog sitting in heel position (but it can also be used when the dog is in a "down"... more on that in a bit). I put the treat into my hand and slowly start to bring it to the dog. If the dog gets up, grabs for the food, or even does a big lean to meet the treat coming towards him, the treat is moved away and the process starts over. I want the treat delivery to be gentle and deliberate. I'm looking for him to wait patiently for the treat to come to him.

Giving the dog this task to focus on is often calming. If the dog can't focus, then he is in an environment that is too stimulating. Take him to a quiet area and try it again there. You also may want to adjust your expectations; if the pup is getting frustrated, start with just requiring that the puppy keeps four feet on the floor or remains roughly in the same position.

Try this three or four times in a row. I'd be looking to see the dog getting gentler and more patient. My goal is also to deliver the treat with the dog's muzzle level and close to parallel with the ground (as compared to reaching up to meet the treat). This can also be helping in teaching the dog to maintain heel position rather than coming around to be closer to the treat bag.

Continue to build up his patience threshold. You can integrate this technique into Relaxation protocol. This is especially helpful when the pup is going through the motions but not actually relaxing, or popping up immediately after receiving a treat.

Sit in a chair, make sure the treat bag is out of the pup's reach, hold the leash short, take a deep breath, and relax. You can tell the dog to "down" if you want but do not enforce a stay. Allow him to stand up if he wants to; the leash should be short enough that he can stand up or lie down comfortably, but he cannot go and visit other dogs or pace for a large distance. Relax and wait until he relaxes. He may just lie down and look up at you in anticipation of the treat. Slowly reach towards the treat bag and take a treat out. If his elbows leave the ground, calmly put the treat back and relax. Wait for him to settle again. The goal here is that you can reach into the treat bag and bring the treat all the way to him without him getting up (place it between his legs on the ground if you can, to encourage him to stay down). If at any point during the sequence, he gets up, put the treat away and start over.

As he progresses, give him a treat only when he is relaxed and not looking at you. Keep things calm and slow, and that will help keep his energy levels steady. Be prepared that he will probably be revved up again as soon as you get up; just ask him to sit at heel and wait for his energy levels to steady. You may want to calmly reward him after he takes a few steps at your side.

In this video, I am working with Idunn on her tendency to get revved up and activated with social interaction, as well as working on her patience as the treat comes to her. Notice at first, when she is in heel position, that she jumps and is very unsettled waiting for the treat. By the end of that session, she is waiting nicely at heel and stays firmly planted in place. During the relaxation protocol, she is worried about some sudden noises, and keeps jumping up. After the session (which lasted about 12 minutes), she is able to maintain a down position even though she is still a little worried and is starting to relax.

Slow treat from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

Conditioned Emotional Responses

The last few Blue Cape Journal entries have focused on preparation, set ups, and training ahead of time to achieve good behavior. This month’s topic is less on behavior and more on the emotions that drive it.

So often, our focus is on what the dog is doing rather than what is going on internally. We’ve talked a lot about body language lately, and now I want to talk about some common “stress triggers”, or stimuli the dog will be exposed to that usually cause a startle or arousal response.

Our puppies get exposed to particular stimuli quite frequently in training, so planning ahead to have some meaningful exposures paired with rewards is a great strategy. Simply exposing the puppy to stimuli may not be an effective way of desensitizing the puppy; in fact, a puppy can just as easily make a negative association with stimuli if it is too overwhelming.

Your goal should be to ensure that the puppy has a positive outcome as often as possible. This is especially important with puppies who have demonstrated some sensitivity (to sounds, crowds, people, etc.). By building up lots of positive associations, you will help to minimize inevitable negative experiences. This is called a conditioned emotional response. You are conditioning the dog to have positive emotions in response to particular stimuli. With this type of conditioning, the delivery of the reward is not dependent on the dog’s behavior. Instead, it is dependent on the presence of a particular stimulus that you are seeking to make positive.

A common example is applause. The sound of applause can be quite jarring for a pup (or even an adult dog). I commonly see pups in a down/stay or otherwise resting. When the applause starts, the pup jumps up and looks around, startled. The puppy is not necessarily frightened, but he is clearly aware of the sudden sound and is trying to sort out how he feels about it. That is a great time to start doling out kibble. I like to give one kibble at a time rather than a handful; that way, I can spread 4 or 5 kibbles over the duration of the applause (instead of one lump reward).

If I had focused on the fact that the puppy got up from the down/stay and wanted him to lie back down before getting the reward, I would be missing a prime opportunity. He didn’t get up because he was distracted or forgot what he was doing. He got up because he was truly startled by the sound of applause. When I see a startle response like that (especially to sudden noise), I am more concerned with the dog’s emotional state rather than their behavior. Giving him a few kibbles, THEN asking him to lie back down will go a long way towards making him more comfortable with applause. As he gets older and more experienced with applause, I can start enforcing the down/stay. But it is especially important to be aware of initial introductions, and to give the puppy the support he needs in order to make future exposures more pleasant. Food is often the easiest way to achieve this. It is also a good check-in: if the dog won’t take food or takes it without really focusing on it, the exposure is probably too intense.

Some other exposures to think about pairing food with:

• Night time walks 
• Traffic coming from behind 
• Close or especially loud traffic 
• Garbage trucks
• Screaming children 
• Buses 
• Automatic doors 
• Shopping carts 
• Any sudden loud bang or other sharp noise 
• Restraint/nail trims 

Be more aware of what your puppy is finding concerning or startling. Any opportunity to work on improving a puppy’s conditioned emotional response is valuable.

"Proofing" for real world distractions

A question I am commonly asked is, “All of these training set-ups are nice, but how do I deal with distractions in ‘real life’ with the puppy?” My answer is always, “With more set-ups!”

Training around distractions is also known as “proofing”. When you are in the proofing stages, you are taking trained behaviors and adding varying distractions. You do this expecting that the dog’s performance will falter. The dog has to learn how to perform the behaviors in the presence of things that will capture their attention.

The most effective proofing happens in small steps. You don’t want to teach a loose leash walk in your driveway, then go to the farmer’s market the next day and try to achieve the same behavior around novel objects, food spilled on the ground, and people cooing at your puppy. Instead, you want to take out some of the puppy’s toys into the driveway and work around those. Or put the treat bag on the ground and teach the puppy how to walk around it. Or have a family member come outside and sit on the ground. (Note: you do not want to introduce all of these at the same time; take it one distraction at a time in the beginning)

Before you ever take the puppy on an outing, it is a good idea to practice obedience around distractions at home. If the puppy can’t behave in his familiar environment with planted distractions, he is not ready for “real world” distractions yet. A new environment and unplanned distractions will only be more stressful and frustrating.

This month, I’m working Idunn around toys and food. She tends to scavenge, and she is also very attuned to movement. So I start with stationary toys, then progress to tossing toys. I later toss food as well (not shown in video). The challenges get harder only as she shows understanding and progress. If she had struggled with the toys on the ground, we would have just started with that, at a distance, and not moved to tossed toys in this session. I also allow her to sniff the toys on the ground, because she is not snatching them, and she also seems a little unsure. As long as she is not getting into trouble, I don’t mind her checking them out.

She is also a great lesson in body language. Idunn absolutely loves to learn, is having fun, and nothing bad happens to her in this session. But learning is stressful! Watch for lip licking in particular. Notice the tension and occasional compression. And she has several big reactions when I go to pet her; she is revved up, and petting is NOT rewarding to her at this time! She is actively avoiding my hand. If I tried to use petting as a reward, she would actually see it as a punishment. Many dogs (including my personal dog) don’t enjoy being touched when they are working. They are already in a state of “drive” and arousal; petting is an overdose of stimuli. Idunn works much better for praise and food. Other dogs may lean in closer to you when you pet them as a reward. They will tell you what they find rewarding! Every dog is different, and Idunn’s body language is (repeatedly) trying to tell me that she is not in the mood (sometimes it takes me some time to get the memo).

This whole set-up is designed to challenge Idunn in a manageable way. Some toys may be more difficult than others; movement certainly adds a level of difficulty. But she remains able to focus on me and work. That is important. That lets me know that the scenario is not too challenging for her. If you try this with your puppy and they are yanking all over the place, then it is too difficult. Be sure that the dog can walk nicely without any distractions first, then add in a single distraction at a distance. Start simple and keep the session brief. Then try it again the next day. The more set-ups and creative distractions you try, the better the puppy will understand how to deal with challenging environments. You will also know what to expect and can be prepared. What is it you would like the puppy to do instead of jumping/lunging? Train the puppy to do that around low level distractions first before you ever take it on the road.

Distraction set-ups/proofing from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

Meeting/dog distractions

One of the most challenging parts of raising a puppy is dealing with behavior at meetings. Most puppies are distracted by other dogs, and they quickly learn that meetings are an exciting, dog-filled adventure.

When dealing with any distraction or problem behavior, you want to break it down into more manageable levels. Trying to train a puppy at the height of his distraction is often counter-productive if you have not worked on the behaviors in a less intense environment.

Most distractions can be divided into four or so levels. If arriving at a puppy raiser meeting is a level 4 distraction, working backwards can help you arrange a training plan. Every dog will have different individual triggers/difficulties, but this is a typical breakdown for a dog who has a hard time at meetings:

Level 4: Arrival at puppy raising meeting. Even if the puppy has been well exercised, the puppy has been recharged by the restful car ride and is very excited by all of the other puppies arriving and moving around.

Level 3: 30 minutes into the puppy meeting, when the initial excitement has died down and the other pups are settled or are working with their handlers.

Level 2: A group of dogs/people (at a reasonable distance) that the dog is not familiar with.

Level 1: A group of people without dogs.

Baseline level of obedience: at home with no distractions.

So what level is your puppy able to perform his baseline behaviors? Let’s say you have a puppy who at level 1 is very well-behaved and responsive to commands. But at level 2, he gets a little sloppier, tends to jump and lunge more, although he quickly recovers. Even though he is mostly “fine” at level 2, you are seeing some of the same underlying distraction that is present at a meeting.

Remember that dogs do not generalize well. So how did you teach the puppy to behave at level 1? You probably used food, praise, luring, and lots of encouragement and patience, all while keeping the puppy under his distraction threshold. So at level 2, you need to do the same thing until you are getting crisper responses. If the dog has a nice “heel” at level 1, but he gets crooked and slower at level 2, it is not because the dog is lazy. He hasn’t been taught how to focus and perform properly in that situation. He isn’t “wrong”; he doesn’t have the skills yet to work in that kind of environment. So at that level, where he is just somewhat distracted, lure him a few times to help him find that nice, precise “heel” position. Work on loose leash manners and practice collar pressure protocol. Start only rewarding the best responses.

It is far more beneficial to do little 5 minute training sessions around very mild distractions than to only seek out big distractions and do long obedience sessions. So even if the pup is behaving reasonably well around a mild distraction, use it as an opportunity to work on increasing focus and precision for a few minutes.

When you arrive at a meeting, know that the puppy’s behavior is going to be difficult to manage. You’re at a level 4 distraction: your goal is to stand at a distance where your puppy can control himself at least somewhat. Reward him any time he offers you any attention and walk around with him frequently (revved up puppies tend to calm down faster if they are allowed move their bodies, rather than trying to focus on a “stay”). After he has had some time to settle down (and is headed towards level 3), you can gradually ask him for more behaviors. Remember how you gave him guidance at level 2? Try to recreate that as you achieve some focus from your pup. Be patient; this takes time!

In this month’s video, I am working with Cadillac, who has a fairly intense dog distraction. He is not a very high-energy dog (you can see him become very tired as the training sessions go on), but he does have significant strength when he lunges. We use a low energy dog as a distraction; even though Myra the collie is supremely uninterested in Cadillac, he still is highly distracted by her (even at a distance). This would be about a level 3 distraction.

Dog distraction work from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

So in the beginning of the session (0:58), we just stand and watch the collie. Cadillac stares but doesn’t lunge. I offer him a treat and he takes it, but doesn’t connect with me. At 1:21, a full 23 seconds later, he finally disconnects from Myra. That 23 seconds feels like a very long time when you are standing there with a puppy, but in the grand scheme of the training session, that was nothing.

The training sessions are spent rewarding attention. I am allowing Cadillac to move and sniff if he would like to, but he sometimes starts the “zoomies” (tucking his butt and running around like a crazy dog). Dogs often use “zoomies” as stress or excitement relief, but that is no good when the pup is on leash. You’ll see me shorten the leash and become stationary in order to prevent him from continuing to zoom and hurt himself or me (in particular at 4:50). After he stops, I immediately redirect him for a chance to earn a reward. He responds beautifully to collar pressure.

When I progress to getting closer to the other dog, I begin treating more frequently and “chatting” with Cadillac as a reward. If he is looking at me, I quietly tell him how wonderful he is for ignoring the other dog and he gets cookies. If he disconnects from me, I disconnect from him.

Dog distraction work part 2 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

We take a break for about 10 minutes. At the start of session 2, you can see that Cadillac has slowed down his pace, is panting heavily, and is pretty clearly tired (and sniffy). That doesn’t stop him from lunging when we get close. Expecting a puppy to not lunge is unrealistic. When he does a hard lunge bordering on frantic zoomies, I tighten up and shorten the leash again. He immediately reconnects with me and sits, which gets him a reward. He has learned that collar pressure means good things are coming for him, so it is successful in both interrupting and redirecting his behavior.

When he gives him some nice attention, I do allow him to greet Myra. He clobbers her, and she expresses her displeasure fairly. You can see him respect her space a bit more after that. This sequence will have to be repeated over and over again. I would expect the puppy to make progress, then back track, then eventually make progress again. Breaking down our training sessions into more manageable pieces is the key to making long-term progress. Try not to miss opportunities just because they are very mild: if you pass a neighbor’s house with a barking dog, or bushes that you know other dogs have pottied on, those are low level dog distractions. You will probably see a change in your puppy’s energy, speed, or sniffing distractions. Stop and work on it. Teach the puppy the behavior you want, then move on. The more practice you get, the more progress the pup will make.

Collar pressure protocol - Problem solving: Jumping

Over the last few months, we have discussed the basics of teaching a collar pressure response. There are several useful applications of this method that help to teach appropriate responses. It also helps to prevent the need for harsh corrections.

Jumping at home

There are several ways to use collar pressure response to your advantage. If the puppy is jumping on you and mouthing, gently taking a hold of the collar (or put him on a short leash) and redirecting the puppy into a SIT will often calm him down greatly. If the puppy jumps, keep pressure downward to prevent the puppy from being able to continue leaping wildly. The goal is not to force him into a position, but rather to limit his movements to keep him from continuing to escalate.

When you first start working on this, go get a treat or toy reward once the puppy SITs. Many puppies who jump are overexcited or overstimulated, and trying to use praise as a reward often will rev him right back up again. By contrast, if you walk over to the cabinet to get the dog a treat after he SITs, he is focused on the possibility of a reward, rather than continuing to leap for attention.

There are many ways to raise the bar to continue to calm him further. You can tell him to SIT and then STAY; he has to hold his STAY until you return to him with the treat. This is tough and will take a lot of practice. Do not correct the dog when he gets up; simply bring him back to the original position and try the STAY again.

Other puppies may benefit from a game of fetch as a reward. Get a Kong as a reward and toss it a few times. This will help expel some energy as the dog moves away from you to chase the toy (rather than leaping back up on you wildly).

Jumping on strangers 

One of the best parts about collar pressure is that it helps with management. There are situations that you may find yourself in where the puppy starts jumping or lunging on the leash before you have a chance to react or redirect him. Dogs with a history of collar pressure protocol recover attention on the handler MUCH faster than dogs who haven’t.

If you have a jumping dog, set him up in a SIT in heel position with a loose but short leash. Have a “stranger” come up towards you and the puppy. When the puppy jumps, hold onto the leash so the puppy cannot reach the stranger. The stranger should just stand there and ignore the puppy. When the pup checks back in with you, reward him! Then ask him to HEEL again. Keep working on this until he is more focused on you than the stranger. The "stranger" can gradually become more exciting, depending on how the puppy is handling it. The goal is NOT to make the puppy jump and set him up for failure; the goal with set-ups is to present a less challenging version of the distraction and manage the puppy's bursts of arousal. If the puppy pulls towards the stranger and appears to be "revving up", that is pre-jumping behavior and is an excellent place to start.

The more set-ups like this you can do, the easier it will be to manage the puppy around distractions. We are not expecting the puppy to never jump; what we are looking to do is to reduce the frequency and the persistence. Very persistent jumpers are annoying at best and unsafe at worst. They will often keep jumping in spite of corrections. Working with collar pressure is a very effective way to teach an alternative behavior.

The key here is to work on set ups frequently, rather than waiting for a “real life” situation to try to train. Often, in “real life” situations, the dog gets over his threshold too quickly and is too revved up to focus on the handler. Start with lower-intensity distractions and build up to more excited, “crazy person” greetings.

Another option is to have the dog facing you for greetings, rather than the stranger. Encourage the stranger to calmly pet the dog on his back, rather than getting in the dog’s face or petting him on the head. You can reward the dog for paying attention to you, and he will not have the social pressure of a stranger in his face. If he jumps, he will have to turn away from you to do it, so you have an extra half a second to shorten the leash and take a step away from the stranger; the dog will reach the end of the leash and self-correct, plus have a chance to re-engage with you and get set up in the proper position again.

Finally, a third option would be to practice passing by a friendly stranger. Warm up with some loose leash walking, then have the “stranger” pass by you and talk to or reach out for the puppy. Do not stop moving; keep the puppy with you using pressure on the leash, and reward him when he re-engages with you. As he gets the idea of the exercise, only reward him when he sticks with you instead of trying to socialize with the stranger. For some dogs, keeping moving past a stranger makes it easier for them to be successful in choosing not to jump, rather than remaining stationary for a greeting.

In this month's video, I work the three techniques with Idunn and a friendly stranger. The stranger is able to progress to a high pitched, typical "excited greeter" squealing voice. She stays far enough away though that Idunn does NOT jump. Idunn is excited, but makes good choices and is rewarded for these. It becomes increasingly difficult to distract her. With some dogs, we may not have progressed to having the stranger use an excited voice in a single session, but Idunn has had a lot of foundation work and is showing good understanding of the training game.

Growing up Idunn - jumping from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

Collar pressure protocol – Problem solving: Food distraction

One big challenge when training retrievers is food distraction. Retrievers tend to think with their stomachs, and dogs in general are opportunistic scavengers. Guide dogs especially need to be able to ignore food distractions. Not only are there crumbs under tables to ignore, but unthinking strangers will actually offer a guide dog food.

The great thing about using food in training is it provides an opportunity to teach when it is appropriate to take food, and when it is not.

Food on the ground 

Once you have taught collar pressure protocol, you can up the ante by adding distractions. Have the puppy in a SIT in heel position, with the leash loose but short. Toss the food several feet in front of you (well out of reach of the puppy). The puppy will probably lunge for the food. Allow him to reach the end of the leash. Note: the leash should be short enough that he does not hit the leash hard and hurt himself.

Allow him to stare at the treat or attempt to get it for as long as he wants. When he looks back at you, or at least relaxes his attempts to pursue the kibble, give him a reward from your hand. Do not allow him to get the treat off of the ground.

Do NOT give the puppy extra cues or tugs on the leash. Just keep the leash short enough that the puppy cannot reach the food. Wait him out. A visually impaired handler will not be able to see the food distraction ahead, so do not say “leave it” or any other command while you are working this. The goal is to teach the puppy to leave the food ON HIS OWN, without any external cues. Only when he checks in with you does he receive praise and a reward. This will be familiar to him if you have been working on the collar pressure protocol. We want the puppy to have a new default behavior: if the handler stops and the puppy feels pressure on the collar, we want him to “check in” for further instructions. This is also good training for you as a handler; it is much more effective to give commands or instructions to a dog when he is paying attention to you and has acknowledged your existence.

With a very young puppy, I don’t worry much if he occasionally drops a reward and then picks it up off of the ground. However, as he gets older, I make it a point to only allow him to have treats from my hand. This can help with scavenging; however, dogs are opportunistic scavengers so you will still have to set it up many, many times before the dog can regularly override his instinct to grab every piece of food in sight.

By setting up “treat tosses”, the puppy starts to learn that you are a sure thing, while food on the ground is not. Be opportunistic in your set-ups: if you are at a grocery store and there is a spill down an aisle, work up to it and stop short of where the puppy can reach it. Be sure that you are far enough away and that your leash is short enough that he can’t reward himself by pulling it towards him with his feet or lunging suddenly. Allow him to look at it, stare, lean towards it, etc., while you stand absolutely still and wait him out. When he finally relaxes the leash and checks in with you, reward him and walk away from the spill. Repeat the game several times, asking him to HEEL or SIT after he checks in with you before rewarding him. Ask for higher standards of behavior as he starts to learn.

If the puppy tends to be treat bag distracted, put the treat bag on the ground. Have a kibble or two hidden in your hand. Walk towards the treat bag, following the same protocol: stop short of where the puppy can reach it, and reward him when he WILLINGLY looks away from the treat bag, WITHOUT a cue from the handler. As he improves, walk him up to the treat bag, put him in a SIT/STAY, and make him wait while you get a treat out of the bag to bring to him as a reward. (Bonus tip: if you have a counter surfer, practicing this same game with the treat bag on the counter can help teach appropriate kitchen behavior)

In the following video, Idunn and I work with tossed kibble first, then work with the treat bag as a distraction. The treat bag is actually easier for her to ignore, and she shows great patience when I retrieve her reward (probably because of the foundation work she had with impulse control, as demonstrated in her first video!). But working around the little bits of kibble on the ground is very challenging. This will take lots of practice and repetition for her to become reliable around "spilled kibble".

Collar pressure - Food distraction 1 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

Food from other people 

This is an excellent exercise to practice at a puppy meeting or anywhere that you have helpful “distractors”. The distractor will have food or some other tempting item in his or her hand; your job will be to use collar pressure and patience to teach the puppy to not take food.

Depending on the age, distraction level, and skill of your puppy, you may want to try walking them past the distractor (beginner level) or seated in HEEL position (more advanced level). Walking past the distractor is less pressure on the dog than trying to stay still and resist temptation.

The distractor’s job will be to show the dog the food in a non-teasing way. They can approach and stop a few feet away, opening a hand to display some treats. If the puppy reaches towards them, they can just close their hand around the treats. Your job will be to allow the puppy lean towards or otherwise attempt to get the treats (but prevent him from actually succeeding) and to reward him when he returns attention to you. Try to resist the urge to correct him or give him instruction. Because this is a set-up and a very controlled situation, it is a great opportunity for the puppy to make a choice to leave the food.

As the puppy improves, raise the bar on the behavior before you give a treat. At first, you can reward him as soon as he looks back at you, but then start withholding the reward until he looks back at you, then responds to the HEEL command. Then, only give him a treat reward when he doesn’t attempt to grab the distractor’s food at all.

In the following video, we set Idunn up with a stranger approaching with a peanut butter cracker. You can see in the video that being seated at HEEL is very difficult for Idunn, probably because not only does she find the cracker distracting, but she is VERY distracted by people coming to say hello to her. We actually don’t make as much progress as I would like during this portion, so we switch to having the stranger stationary and holding the cracker, while Idunn and I pass by. She is much more successful with this technique. These set-ups are designed for the dog to succeed; our first attempt was too difficult and she was having trouble getting the right answer.

In the final portion, we switch back to Idunn in HEEL position and this time the stranger slows down her approach when she sees Idunn getting excited. This helps Idunn be successful. Although she shifts position a lot and has a tough time holding perfectly still, she tries extremely hard to maintain position and is not challenging to handle at all.

Collar pressure - Food distraction 2 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

There are generally two ways to handle food distraction. One is to set the dog up and correct her when she fails. The other is to gradually work towards greater distractions and reward the dog when she succeeds. In this case, it is especially relevant because Idunn is a very soft dog, who is sensitive to verbal or collar corrections. If you re-watch the videos, you will see some mild compressions in her body language (especially when she is leaning towards the stranger, or when she is offering behaviors and trying to figure out the right answer). In the second video in particular, notice her jump at 0:58, as the stranger walks away and startles her. She is a dog who is trying very hard and does not want to be incorrect. Correcting her will only make her more afraid to be “wrong”. We realized that we were actually pushing her too hard and needed to work more under her distraction threshold. For a 9-month old puppy such as Idunn, the onus is on us as handlers to lay a good training foundation, set the dog up to succeed, and gradually raise the expectations of behavior.