Treats, treats, treats!

Beginner students always want to know, “What are the best kinds of treats for training?”  Ideally, treats should be

1.)    Small—roughly pea-sized or smaller

2.)    Smelly—holding a smelly treat in front of a dog’s nose is most effective at getting the dog’s attention

3.)    Soft—hard treats require chewing and generally are not as enticing or smelly

4.)    Variable—dogs get bored with a single type of treat, so mix it up!  Your dog never knows, in advance, which kind of treat he’s getting.  Training night is like Halloween trick-or-treating for dogs!

For the first night of a beginner class, you will need a lot of treats.  However many treats you think you need, multiply by four.  It’s OK to have too many, but training is very difficult in the learning phases when you run out of treats.

Recommended treats:  far and away, my favorite choice for a treat is Natural Balance Lamb or Turkey

dog food rolls.  Sliced into ½” thick slices, they are easy to break into pea-sized treats, nutritionally balanced as dog food, and most dogs love them!   The downside is that they need to be refrigerated after opening, and they will turn to crumbs if they are smashed in a treat bag.  Petco sells these rolls. 

Petsmart sells something similar, and also good, the Pet Botanics Dog Food Rolls.  You will need to experiment to see which ones hold up best (some are more moist, while some are more crumbly).

Other great options are diced pieces of chicken, turkey, ham, braunschweger, cooked liver or steak, small pieces of hot dog, or string cheese.  Check out the deli section of your local grocery store.   You definitely want to test these with your dog before bringing a huge amount to a training class.  For my dog, too many hot dogs will cause diarrhea, but he adores, and is fine with the messier turkey-cheese dogs!   Too much cheese can also cause digestive problems for some dogs. 

A final healthy option for dogs is dehydrated liver or dehydrated meat.  Most dogs go bonkers for the dehydrated treats, but they are expensive and very difficult to break into smaller pieces, so I use them sparingly.

Occasional treats:   variety is the spice of life, so I mix in some “occasional” treats while training.  Some dogs like crunchies: mini-Milkbones, Charlee Bear treats, or even Cheerios.  Try them first to make sure

your dog likes them—my dog likes the egg and cheese Charlee Bears, but not the liver variety.  In the “junk food” category of dog treats, are marketed soft dog treats like Bil-Jac Liver treats, Pupperoni sticks, Canine Carryouts, Milo’s Kitchen, and Beggin’ Strips.  These are not the healthiest choices for your dog, but may be okay in small amounts.

Things to AVOID:  Avoid any treats made in China, especially chicken or duck jerky.   The FDA is currently researching Chinese jerky treats to determine why so many dogs are getting sick from them, but for now, simply avoid them and make sure if you buy something with chicken, it is made in the U.S. or Canada. For info about the FDA and chicken jerky, click here: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm092802.htm

Important reminder:  Your dogs will get fatter than a turkey at Thanksgiving if you start training them regularly and do not reduce their regular food intake.  If you are training at home, it is perfectly okay to use part or all of their regular meal to work with them.  Dogs are generally happy to work for their ordinary food, if they like their food. However, ordinary food will not entice them when they have extraordinary distractions such as other dogs and new smells in a training class.  Bring the good stuff to training and reduce their food for the day.  Your dog will thank you!

An introduction to AKC Rally

This video was taken several years ago, when I was competing in AKC Rally with my Giant schnauzer Atlas.  For those who aren't familiar with Rally, according to the AKC, "Rally is a sport in which the dog and handler complete a course that has been designed by the rally judge. The judge tells the handler to begin, and the dog and handler proceed at their own pace through a course of designated stations (10 - 20, depending on the level). Each of these stations has a sign providing instructions regarding the next skill that is to be performed."  The signs test your partnership as you ask the dog to perform maneuvers such as "left turn", "halt", and "send your dog over the jump".

The Advanced level, seen here, is more difficult than the Novice level because the dog is off-leash for the entire performance, and some of the course signs are more difficult than a Novice level.  As a handler, you are allowed to talk to your dog and encourage him as much as needed, and you can use hand signals and repeat them as needed.  In AKC Obedience sports, the handler needs to either have their left arm swinging naturally at their side, or have their left fist held up at the waist so it doesn't bonk the dog in the head.   AKC Rally doesn't require any particular hand or arm position, but I adopted the traditional obedience posture out of habit and to avoid accidentally hitting my dog.

In this video, Atlas is frequently gazing up at me intently to follow my next move.  This is exactly what you train for in obedience and rally.  It looks like the dog is completely devoted to his person, but in reality it is a behavior: practiced and trained and practiced some more.  That devoted, loving gaze is the same loving gaze you see in your pet when you are eating something delicious like a steak or a hot dog! In fact, the way I trained the sustained attention was by holding a hot dog in my left hand, and offering Atlas little tiny bits of it whenever he offered to look up at me.  For an AKC Rally trial, however, the dog has to learn to work without food, so it is important in training to gradually wean them off the expected treats.

For the record, we earned a perfect score of 100 with this routine.  It was definitely one of the best moments ever in my training with Atlas.  What was surprising, though, is that during the previous Rally trial, roughly 2 months earlier, Atlas and I disqualified because Atlas decided to go exploring the course without me and generally ignored me.  This is a common problem with dogs, and in the next video I'll show an embarrassing example of this and explain how I worked through those difficulties.

Finding a Good Dog Trainer

Currently, there is no licensing or credentialing system required in Illinois to be a dog trainer. Anyone can claim to be a trainer.  How can you find a good trainer?  Here are some questions to ask:

• Does the trainer have experience working with your breed of dog?  Each dog breed has different characteristics, and a good trainer will have experience with multiple dog breeds and hopefully with your specific breed.  A trainer who only works with German Shepherd Dogs, for instance, may not fully understand the timid nature of an Italian Greyhound or the tenacious focus of a Jack Russell Terrier.  
• Does the trainer keep up with the latest scientific methods of learning and behavior?  A good indication of this would be if the trainer is a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. If the trainer is doing the same thing they've been doing for years, it indicates they might not care about finding the best methods of dog training. Older, outdated methods of training can be effective, but often are unnecessarily harsh.

  

  Group training classes cannot fully address
  difficult-to-manage behaviors at home.

• Will the trainer work with you to practice in your home, neighborhood, or areas of difficulty?  While learning in classes can help create good behavior, problem behavior is best addressed at the source. Correcting problem behavior almost always requires some creativity and a willingness for the trainer to observe and make recommendations based on the dog's environment during the behavior. 
• What training tools will the trainer use with your dog?  ​A trainer's motto should mimic a doctor's creed, "First, do no harm."  Find out specifically what the trainer will do to correct problem behaviors. Does the trainer plan to use a prong or pinch collar; an electronic collar; a harness; head halter; clicker and treats; or toys? If you are not comfortable with it, do not let him or her do it.  You are responsible for your dog's well-being.  Your dog depends on you to protect him in the human world.  You have the right to refuse any part of the training regimen that you think will be detrimental to your dog, no matter how learned or experienced the trainer is.  You know your dog best.  
• Finally, observe the trainer in action.  If a trainer isn't willing to let you see what he or she is doing, you probably don't want him or her touching your dog!