Monday, December 1st, 2008
by: Elyse Grau
During long, cold winters, dogs and their owners may need a little more exercise. This article shows you some fun ways you can play with your dog indoors.
Some of you may have been told never to play tug of war with a dog. The fear is that it might make a dog aggressive or aggravate any possessive tendencies. Other trainers feel that there is nothing wrong with the game, as long as you follow certain rules: 1)The toy you choose must be long enough to avoid accidental injury. A thick rope with knots in the middle is good.
2)The game should be played only with the tug toy. Teach your dog a command such as “drop it” or “leave it” before you start playing. (It’s a good idea to do this even if you never intend to play tug. That way if he wants to play with your shoe, you can simply ask him to drop it.) Never try to pull anything away from the dog, use your command instead.
3)You must be in control of the game. You decide when to play. Keep the toy out of sight in between games. You should win at least most of the time. When you decide you’ve had enough, simply say “that’s enough” and ask the dog to “drop it.” Always stop immediately if the dog gets too excited or puts his mouth on your hand.
Another game you can play is hide and seek. There are two ways to play this game; either you can hide and encourage your dog to find you, or you can hide toys or treats around the house and ask the dog to find them.
If you are to be the target, simply have the dog stay while you go into another room. At first don’t go far, and hide in an easy spot. Then call the dog with “Come find me!” or something like that.
Continue to call as long as you need to. Reward the dog for finding you with treats, excited praise, belly rubs ‘ anything he loves. Once your dog gets the idea, you can hide in more difficult spots, and call less often.
To use treats or toys as the objects to find, start by hiding a treat under or behind something while your dog watches, then exclaim, “Find it!” in an excited voice. Once he gets the rules of the game, have the dog stay in one room while you hide treats in another.
If your dog likes to use his nose, try hiding the treats inside shoes, under rugs, between couch cushions and places like that. For other dogs you may want to put most of the treats in plain view.
Break up large treats so that you are not giving him too many. Toys can be used if your dog has a strong prey drive, or if the he is overweight.
You can also try some brain teasers with your dog. For one, find three boxes of the same size. Have the dog sit and stay, facing the boxes. Place a treat inside or underneath an overturned box.
Release the dog and allow him to find the box the treat is in. Eventually you can begin hiding the treat with the dog facing away from the boxes.
Here’s another puzzle the dog can work on. Place a morsel of food on a flat plate. Cover the plate with a towel or inverted foil pie tin. If using the tin, make a small lip in it so the dog can smell the food. If the dog is good at working things out, he should soon at least try to get the towel or pie tin off of the plate to get to the food.
You can increase the difficulty by placing the plate under a chair or other obstacle. Give him a way to get it out, such as placing it on a towel or attaching a rope to the plate. Don’t let the dog get too frustrated with these games ‘ if he’s not quite up to it, help him along and let him have the treat anyway.
There are toys that you can buy that will keep the dog busy on his own. A number of toys are now made to dispense treats. These are balls or cubes in which you place small treats. When the toy is overturned, the treats come out. You can even feed the dog this way, placing his daily ration in the treat toy.
Also on the market are some puzzle toys such as the Iqube and Puzzle Pup by Kyjen. These are similar to those made for toddlers. Instead of putting rings on a stick, or shapes in a box, the dog takes the toys out of a container. Most of these are plush toys, and might not be suitable for some aggressive chewers.
These are just a few suggestions, use your imagination and your dog’s abilities to come up with even more games you can play indoors.
About The Author
Elyse Grau is an herbalist and a long-time pet owner, well-versed in pet nutrition and feeding. She is the author of Pet Health Resource, your web guide to a healthy, happy dog or cat. For more information on this subject, visit: http://www.pethealthresource.com
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
by Hagar Lagarto
Most training revolves around giving the dog consequences for his behaviour, in the hope of influencing the behaviour the dog will exhibit in the future. Operant conditioning defines four types of consequences:
Positive reinforcement adds something to the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, giving a dog a treat when he sits.)
Negative reinforcement removes something from the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, releasing the tension on an uncomfortable training collar when the dog stops pulling on the leash).
Positive punishment adds something to the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, growling at a misbehaving dog).
Negative punishment removes something from the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, walking away from a dog who jumps up).
Most modern trainers say that they use “positive training methods”, which is a different meaning of the word “positive” from that in operant conditioning. “Positive training methods” generally means preferring the use of reward-based training to increase good behavior over that of physical punishment to decrease bad behavior. However, a good trainer understands all four methods, whether or not she can put operant-conditioning terminology to them, and applies them as appropriate for the dog, the breed, the handler, and the situation.
Rewards
Positive reinforcers can be anything that the dog finds rewarding – special food treats, the chance to play with a tug toy, social interaction with other dogs, or the owners attention. The more rewarding a dog finds a particular reinforcer, the more work he will be prepared to do in order to obtain the reinforcer.
Some trainers go through a process of teaching a puppy to strongly desire a particular toy, in order to make the toy a more powerful positive reinforcer for good behaviour. This process is called “building prey drive”, and is commonly used in the training of Narcotics Detection and Police Service dogs. The goal is to produce a dog who will work independently for long periods of time.
Some trainers believe that the toy acts as a positive reinforcer for the desired behavior, when in all likelihood the prey drive works on an entirely different level from standard training and conditioning techniques. This is seen most clearly in the fact that, according to the laws of operant conditioning, positive reinforcers lose their effectiveness if they’re given every single time a dog does what is desired of him; the more predictable the reinforcer, the less reliable the behavior. Yet detection dogs only work well when they are always rewarded with a toy, every single time they find drugs or explosives, etc. The reason for this disparity is that when a dog is trained through the prey drive, the training activates an instinctive, automatic sequence that has to be completed in order for the dog to feel satisfied. That sequence is: search, eye-stalk, chase, grab-bite, and kill bite. So when a dog searches and finds drugs or explosives, he feels he hasn’t finished his job unless he can bite something. This is the primary reason he’s always given the toy. It’s not really a positive reinforcer. If it were it would reduce the reliability of the behavior overall. It’s a means of completing the predatory sequence for the dog.
Punishments
“Positive punishment” is probably the consequence that is least used by modern dog trainers, as it must be used very carefully. A dog is generally only given this type of punishment if it is willfully disobeying the owner. Punishing a dog who does not understand what is being asked of him is not only unfair to the dog, but can make the dog a fearful or unwilling worker.
Punishments are administered only as appropriate for the dog’s personality, age, and experience. A sharp No works for many dogs, but some dogs even show signs of fear or anxiety with harsh verbal corrections. On the other hand, certain dogs with ‘harder’ temperaments may ignore a verbal reprimand, and may work best if the reprimand is coupled with a physical punishment such as a quick tug on a training collar. Trainers generally advise keeping hand contact with the dog to positive interactions; if hands are used to threaten or hurt, some dogs may begin to behave defensively when stroked or handled.
Avoiding punishment
Keeping a puppy on a leash in challenging situations or in his crate or pen when not closely supervised prevents the puppy from getting into situations that might otherwise invite an owner’s harsh reaction (such as chewing up a favorite pair of shoes).
Next: Dog Training Part V – The Command Voice
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Hagar Lagarto is a long time pet lover with many articles and websites on the subject.You can get much more info at http://pet.freehostia.com .
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