Level 2 Homework: 10 reasons why a dog may not obey a command

6 months 1 week 2 days old

This is part of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels. As part of each level you need to do homework, and for Level 2, you need to list 10 reasons why a dog might not obey a command. I've thought about this before and I knew finding 10 things would not be easy. This first couple come to you quickly, but after that..... Well, we'll see!

I have written comments after the reasons in italics, which spell out clearly what I can learn as a trainer from each reason.

1. You may not have your dogs attention when you give the cue

This is especially the case in high distraction environments, where your dog just won't hear you unless you focus him first. However it is applicable everywhere. It is worth saying your dog's name first and maybe doing a few seconds eye contact so you both reconnect before asking for what you want.

2. The connection between behaviour and cue may not have been made yet during training

It can take many repetitions of the cue word and hand signal whilst the dog does the behaviour to have the dog remember it. Some dogs learn cues quickly, others need a lot of repetition. If your dog is consistently not responding to a cue, consider this possibility.

3. You may have upped distractions too quickly in training so that a cue your dog could normally respond to becomes background noise

When teaching a cue, you go through a stage called proofing, where you expose the dog to more and more distractions as you continue to ask for the cue. It should be a gradual increase in distraction level - if you increased the level too quickly the dog will just become completely oblivious to you.

4. Your dog could be sick or just tired out and feel unable to respond

Sickness, heat, being thirsty or hungry, exhausted.... all these things will cause a dog to potentially 'misbehave' . You and your dog are a partnership, be aware of how it is feeling and its needs, and don't work it if it isn't feeling up to it. If it isn't responding to the most basic of cues, that in itself can tell you something about the dogs wellbeing.

5. Your training session may have gone too long and your dog may have lost interest

All dogs have a finite attention span. For puppies it is very short, sometimes only a couple of minutes. For a fully mature working breed it can be about an hour without a break. You should make sure that your dog isn't worked past the point that it still wants more. Once training becomes a chore it becomes either ineffective or actually can do harm to previous training.

6. If you are still at the stage you are training with treats, the treats may not be of high value enough for a difficult cue
                                                                                                                                                                 

When learning cues, treats are always used for reinforcement... but for some more difficult behaviours, more interesting treats must be used. If you are outside in a high distraction area trying to train loose leash and kibble just isn't cutting it, try exchanging it for real meat. Change the treat for every individual situation as necessary.

7. If you have faded treats for the particular cue, you may have done it too early while the cue was half learnt, or done it too suddenly leaving the dog unsure

When you stop using treats with a particular cue, it needs to be done slowly and systematically, not just suddenly cutting the treats off. The dog could become uninterested in working for you, or just confused because it isn't being rewarded for something it is usually - so thinks it is getting it wrong.

8. You yourself may not be feeling well, or may not be in the mood to train and your dog might be reacting to your lack of enthusiasm

Our dogs pick up on our moods and our wellbeing extremely sensitively. If you don't feel like training, don't train. If it's just a random 'sit' that your dog isn't responding to in the course of the day, remember that you being not yourself could have a great deal to do with it.

9. The dog might substitute another 'new' behaviour for the older cue you asked for, because you had been working a lot on the new behaviour and it is used to giving it so doesn't really think -

This happens quite often with a dog who knows sit and then learns down and starts thinking sit means down too and forgets about sit because of the shiny new down.  It is important when concentrating on a new cue that you don't train it to the exclusion of everything else. Continue to train your old behaviours as well as new, so that your dog doesn't start getting confused.

10. The dog could be actively 'rocking the boat', being cheeky, trying to get away with things it knows are pretty naughty

This is especially applicable during adolescence, as the perfect puppy disappears and the evil teenager from hell appears in its place. During training and during the day at any time, you must always act as leader in your house - not boss, but leader. I operate on a Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) policy, so that anything good that Knightley wants he has to do something to get it, even filling the water bowl he has to go in a nice polite sit stay until I have finished. This is about respect, which transfers into our training.

EXTRA ONES!!! WHEEE!!! (after racking my brains for days, I have more than 10!!!)

11. The dog could be scared - of the environment, the handler, other dogs... anything.

Some dogs have serious fear problems, and when the fear and shyness takes over, cues become a low priority. There are good techniques in clicker and positive training which can build confidence, like Look At That (from the book Control Unleashed) and BAT (Behaviour Adjustment Training, which I have mentioned before in another post). A good resource for dealing with a fearful dog is http://fearfuldogs.com/

12.  The dog might not be getting out for enough exercise, which can turn them into tightly wound springs - unable to concentrate on the task at hand

All dogs need exercise, as well as the mental stimulation of getting outside. An adult dog needs one good significant walk each day, and a smaller walk too. You can substitute something like time at a dog park for one of those walks, but dogs must get out - for both the exercise and the stimulation of sights and smells. If they don't get this, don't expect an obedient dog

...... and I think that will do. I've actually learnt from doing this, which was of course was rather the point! I am sure the more I thought about it, the more I could come up with, but this is certainly a good chunk of the the main ones. I will think more next time when Knightley doesn't do what I say.

A trip to the dog park, a little training, slowly getting better

5 months 3 weeks 6 days old

Well I'm still not well, but I am feeling a little better I think. I think I have been pushing myself a bit overall, and last Thursday/Friday was just the final straw, trying to balance everything. The pile has finally come falling down. Unfortunately the timing is pretty bad! I have very definite commitments at the Arts Centre I volunteer at this week, and they aren't something that can be put off. Nevermind, I will just try to minimise the hours and rest as much as I can.

The hubby and I did manage to take Mr Knightley to the dog park again for some fun and exercise, since he isn't getting his normal walks at the moment. He had a really great time, solid socialisation with both people and dogs, and is starting to develop some manners around adult dogs - one of the main reasons we are taking him there. He's learning that if he bugs and bugs adult dogs to play, they may just turn around and tell him off. Twice when we've been there now there has been a guy with two muzzled rottweilers, and the first time he bothered one of them a bit, it started to lash out at Knightley. I was certainly glad it was muzzled, although it did back off quickly. The next time he visited he stayed clear though - there was no bothering. He still needs to learn to be nice to the little dogs as well as the big dogs, although he seems to have stopped both running and jumping over the little dogs! There were two huge mastiffs, as well as an alaskan malamute this last time, and he was extreeemely polite to them, it was quite amusing to watch.

I do have to bite my tongue at the dog park though. There are people there who in my opinion are doing absolutely the WRONG thing to manage behavioural problems with their dogs..... but who am I to offer advice? Especially as from what they can see I am just the normal pet owner. I have felt like asking "and is that technique visibly improving matters?" several times though. Must control myself, although if I see those two terrified Italian Greyhounds being made to come to the park once again it will be very hard........ their owner has obviously received advice from these trainers/dog walkers who come to the park that repeated visits will cure them of their issues.... but IMO it will make them worse. Wish I could say something.... I know exactly what I would do to help the poor creatures (one of which tried to bite Knightley it was so terrified of him) but it isn't right to butt in if actual dog 'professionals' are helping her.

Knightley today on his new bed doing 'on your mat!' training.
He's such a good boy these days with his training, so quick
and willing to please. I am very proud of him!

I have officially crossed off two behaviours on my Sue Ailsby's Training Levels Level 2 'to do' list and we're working on a third. The first is a behaviour where you have a jump and a mat next to each other and using cues you ask for your dog to either jump over the jump or lay on the mat and actually get the one you asked for consistently - testing cue recognition. Knightley had no problems with that, and we have been continuing to work on getting him used to other mats, even things like cotton shopping bags.

The second behaviour to tick off is recall. For a while I have been taking Knightley out the front to do his business, which I started doing to lower his excitement levels every time he went outside the house. It has worked extremely well - going outside is now matter of fact for him and I think it has helped our loose leash training, and also helped him take treats outside. At first he wouldn't eat food outside at all because he was completely over threshold, but now he is happy to eat his dry kibble, partly thanks to taking him out so often. However, I've been feeling rotten the last couple of days obviously, so have just been letting him out the back, giving him his cue to go as he goes past me, which works well. I give him a couple of minutes, then call him back in. His response to the call in is pretty impressive, considering he can be as much as 40 metres away, out of sight around the other side of the house. Sometimes I have to call a couple of times, but he certainly does come. So considering Level 2 only asks for a 12m (40 feet) recall we are definitely able to tick that one off. We've also been doing some hide and seek at a distance of about 20m (66 feet), and he's been loving that... and the hide and seek was also on the Levels too. So recall is done too!

We did some work on the 6m (20 feet) down stay, which is further than I have been usually doing down stays, but I am taking it up slowly to the desired 1 minute. At the moment we are at 20 seconds, which isn't bad. He didn't once break his stay today, so that is great. I want him to think that stay is never to be broken. If your dog is breaking stays often then you are doing stays that are either too long, with too many distractions, or too far from you. Take it slowly, and whenever you make something harder, re-teach the whole behaviour. We haven't done much stay work outside, so when we finally do go outside I will be starting from 1 second standing right next to him - without a cue. Only once he has grasped what I want will I add the cue again and then start making it harder - slowly. If you can set your dog up for success in his training - like me taking his stay training slowly so he doesn't break a stay - then he is much more likely to succeed in the end. If I had jumped up to 10 seconds straight away, then he would have likely broken, and then I would have been fighting the idea that he can break a stay if he wants for much much longer.

It is very important with clicker training - and probably all dog training - to always set your dog up for success by keeping it easy at the beginning. You can increase the difficulty of a behaviour once your dog understands later. Make it as easy as possible for you dog to succeed in training every new behaviour. This is such an important thing to remember, as well as behaviour re-teaching - which I sometimes forget about too and just expect Knightley to do a 1 minute wait outside because he can do it inside even though he has never done it outside. Then I get annoyed when he doesn't do it..... and then DOH! it hits me that I needed to take a few minutes to explain it again. Unfortunately that little mistake will put Knightley backwards. So make sure you re-teach your behaviours whenever you change anything like difficulty, distance, duration, place, surface or distractions.

Anyway, hopefully the posts will be a little more frequent once again now. I swear my body picks the worst times to collapse in a heap! Over and out from me.