How to teach your dog to eliminate on verbal cue?

Have you ever traveled with your dog and really needed her to eliminate, and have found yourself doing laps around and around the hotel grounds because your dog is having such a fun time and she not ready to eliminate?  Or, how about when it is raining or snowing, and your pup decides this is her favorite weather and would like to stay outside just a wee bit longer?  The same holds true for young puppies that are just learning where to eliminate. The training plan below, while not technically a house-training plan, can help you teach your already house-trained dog how to eliminate on cue.

No magic potion here, just enough pairings via classical conditioning (all about associations, remember?) between a verbal cue and the act of eliminating.  In addition, and in order to make the behavior “stick” and not go into extinction, you will need to present a reinforcer as your dog is learning to associate your verbal cue with the act of eliminating.  Once this association is achieved - meaning your dog eliminates whenever you give the cue, you will have to reinforce (unless your dog really needed to eliminate and this serves as the reinforcer). So, continue to pay on occasion with a treat, a short game session or anything else your dog finds reinforcing. Here is how to train:

1. Think of the verbal cue you want to use. For example: Go potty, Do your business, etc.
2. Arm yourself with some tasty treats.
3. Take your dog out to eliminate when you think she has to do so.
4. Observer your dog closely; when she is ready to eliminate say the verbal cue.
5. Pay your dog as she is eliminating.

• Continue to follow the steps above until your dog begins to eliminate just after you have given the verbal cue.
• Pay for eliminating.
• You can use the same verbal cue for peeing and pooping or use different cues.

Voila!  No more standing in the rain or doing laps at the hotel grounds, your dog will be able and willing to eliminate because you have paired it with good stuff for her, and because after all mother nature is also calling.

Slowing down and its benefits: Your dog will thank you.

Slowing down has many benefits.  It permits us to enjoy what is in front of us- begging for our undivided attention.  It allows us to make better decisions, it calms frail nerves and it splendidly reminds us that while the clock is ticking we can choose to show up to live our lives.

So, what then might slowing down with our dogs bring? Besides the tremendous pleasure of becoming an observant of their most individual qualities, slowing down and making a habit of observing our pups can be a very important first step in seeing their world from their perspective.  What is it that they like to do?  When?  Where do they prefer to lie?  Do they lie on their side or belly up with four legs gently bending downward?  Or perhaps the curl up in an almost perfect ball of fur. Are they sick when their food goes untouched? Or is it that the other dog in the household is perhaps harassing them and they cannot get to their bowl to eat?

Slowing down is not only pleasurable with our dogs, but it is indeed of paramount importance in understanding exactly what might be triggering in them a not so perfect reaction. Dogs are excellent discriminators and because of this, tiny stuff makes a huge difference to dogs. Besides being such discriminators, dogs also are always looking out for their safety, for a sense of comfort.

Their avid sense of discrimination is all good news when it comes to doing any behavior modification because as such we can hone via our training plan to the exact trigger or scenario that elicits that which we choose to change. On the other hand, the need to be so very precise makes behavior modification complex.

For my part, I love this aspect of my job.  Paying close attention to nuances in a dog’s response and coming up with a training plan (s) to targets the specifics of what makes the dog uneasy or really afraid makes my work very enthralling. This is also where the rubber meets the road …If one does not give careful consideration to these tiny yet very crucial aspects of modifying behavior, the results will be paltry at best.

There is another aspect that is vital in addressing *exactly* what in the environment or the interaction is making the dog act in a certain way.  Every good training plan has quite a few steps and sometimes these steps must be presented in a smaller dosage so to speak, so that the dog can learn and then perform.  Not only will the dog’s confidence soar when they are successful BUT every single instance the dog gets it “right” the new and desirable behavior can be reinforced.  And whatever gets reinforced (over and over again) the more likely it will become the default behavior.

I don’t know about you, but I have made the close and meticulous observations of my dogs one of the central themes in my life. I observe them often- daily!

My closing: almost intimate observations makes their quirks come to light.  I also know their preferences and their small misgivings.   My choice of slowing down and engaging in observing my dogs has made my life very rich. And can you think then of a better reason why one should keep in the company of dogs?  I don’t!

More Training at the Front Door

For some dogs impulse control at the front door is literally mission impossible.

Rio is one of those dogs! Her impulse control in other circumstances such as waiting to be released to go after a toy is superb.

The reason behind the lack of impulse control at the front door could be for a myriad of reasons, but I am guessing that it boils down to interest in going to say hi. This genuine interest in interacting with a guest can also be intertwined with our dog’s predisposition to alerting when someone has entered in their perceive territory.

Either way, what we must ask ourselves is: What would I rather my dog do instead of dashing out the front door full speed? In my case, I want Rio to learn to be released AND then to proceed to meet the guest by walking towards them versus running towards them. Yep, I have my work cut out for me on this one! I should have had this protocol in place on day one after acquiring Rio… now she has a few years of practice that I need to undue.

So I designed the following training plan for her. I want her to begin by lying down close to the front door, but not so close that she is encroaching on my personal space as I get to the door. After being released with “go say hi” I want her to lie down on our front porch one more time before proceeding calmly towards the guest.

The training plan above requires of Rio multiple behaviors, executed one after the other and as such they all must be very reliable before I can even attempt to use them in the presence of a real guest. I begin by asking her to lie down as I reach for the front door. I treat her with really high value stuff, as I want to make an impression on this girl. She does this beautifully for a few trials so I progress to releasing her from the front porch to lie again next to me as I proceed to reward her again. We now have this combination down pat with no distractions present. Distractions for Rio will include Deuce, and of course, a real visitor outside.

After practicing this routine a few times and her being successful, I began to make it more realistic by walking around my living room and sometimes the adjacent kitchen area and  saying: Go say hi! Again, a more realistic situation.

Once by the front door I wait for her to lie down without me asking her first to do so. She does it
immediately- good girl Rio! And we end the session here.

The following morning I incorporate Deuce into this part of the exercise. Rio has also the bad habit of rushing out the door without even considering if she is stepping on Deuce at all! A bad case of Bull in a China shop.

For this exercise on impulse control, I ask both dogs to either sit or lay down. The verbal cue given after their names so that each dog is clear about what they are suppose to do. Once in place, I reward them when they get into position at once. I then ask Rio to stay in place as I release Deuce out the front door in chase of a treat.

Rio, of course, gets rewarded handsomely for staying put. This is much harder than we sometimes give it credit. I repeat a few more times. Sometimes Rio gets released first while Deuce remains in place, other times Deuce goes first.

I will continue to add the second part of my training plan, which is: Rio walking slowly once she is released from the down on the front porch. This is easy - when there is no one to greet. I manage the situation by throwing treats on the ground for her to locate. She is busy with this task, which keeps her from dashing forward at full speed.

As we progress with Rio being successful, I will add more distractions such as her favorite ball at the end of the front porch. If she walks down the front porch instead of rushing down while she can see the ball at the end of the porch I will let her play with the ball.

Once we have mastered walking slowly towards the ball and she has been rewarded many, many times it will be time to set up mini-training sessions with guests. My goal is to teach Rio that exercising some much needed self-control at the front door will result in tasty treats and even saying hello to whomever is here to visit.

Car Toubles

The dogs and I have been going sheepherding (Rioja is just good company :)) for the past 2 years - same place, days and times. In fact, I only take this route with the two of them when we are going sheepherding. The only variables are that sometimes Rioja stays behind and goes for a hike with John and sometimes Deuce is wearing his fluorescent vest so that passing cars can see him when we work outside the big
enclosed pen.

I noticed about three weeks ago, on one of those days when Deuce was coming solo that he began to whine out of excitement. Well there is my boy, who for the most part is quite silent, now expressing pure joy and anticipation on what lays ahead.

Whining dogs in moving cars is a phenomenon that quite a few people experience once their dogs have figure out that a certain route as well as other contingencies, such as items of clothing - a prop like a walking stick, and a myriad of other non-verbal cues which dogs are masters at observing which means fun for them is to be had.

Dogs are masters at flow charts… When she wears these pants or those shoes it means we are going… weeee, how exciting!

If the whining and barking is excessive and the route long, this could turn out to be a torturous activity for the driver - and it is never the dog behind the wheel.

It is hard to modify the barking and whining behaviors because people should be driving when behind the wheel and not training! However, not impossible.

I am not ready to jump into training mode with Deuce because I kinda’ like hearing his excitement. And besides, it got me thinking once again: When is it appropriate for our dogs to express joy? Sadness? Frustration? ANYTHING?

This is a big lesson for me because I am sensitive to pretty much any loud noise. In fact I hate noise! Well I should have thought about that before I got involved in training dogs for a living and having my own dogs, no? Because whining and barking are normal parts of the canine vocal & emotional repertoire. So there you have it.

I have noticed however that Deuce’s whining is beginning a bit earlier (farther away from our destination) with every outing and that his whining is accompanied many a times with a typical Deuce move: the stretching of his front leg – almost looking like a dressage horse, only to let it drop full force on whatever surface happens to be there. Now this has to stop! Because besides my distaste for noise I also hate it when my car gets “trashed” by dogs.

If you have been reading this column now for a while, you probably have taken note that I am constantly assessing my emotions and responses towards my dogs, their behavior as well as the behavior of client’s dogs. I don’t mind this part, in fact, I welcome it – I definitively do not want to go on living blindly - without engaging in making [personal] choices.

Should I ask Deuce to stop expressing joy (whining) in the car because of my own neurosis towards noise? Should he be allowed to do so as long as it is not too "high" a pitch or for too long? And what about his pawing? Should I just accept the fact that if you live with dogs some of your possessions will get trashed?

There are times, of course, when the whining in the car is so unbearable that one can make the case of jumping into full training mode in consideration for the safety of all passengers or if not that, the possibility of the dog being scolded waaay too much by an exasperated driver.

In cases like this, I must say that curtailing vocalization or any possible car destruction is necessary. The training plan for something like this is not much different than any other behavior modification plan: You have to think like a detective or at least like a problem solver (love this part… totally fun) you must weigh in fairness for the dog by taking into account what is normal part of canine behavior with the fact that dogs live in our world and travel in our cars in addition to sound knowledge of the science of animal learning.

Yes, you are right! It will take patience, many, many “reps” and creative thinking. Sometimes it will require the use of some aids such as a crate - if the dog is crate trained or a calming cap, which will also require of prior desensitization.

For the time being, I have managed to calmly, in an almost -as-melodious- pitch, as Deuce is whining ask him to tone it down a bit. And he has. So we take turns: he whines in excitement and I look at him in the rear view mirror while I politely ask him to curtail the noise.

So far no need for a more elaborate training plan. And the beauty of it is, that I also enjoy knowing that my dog is having a grand time!