Loose Leash Walking

Loose Leash Walking

By Benah Stiewing

In order to train a pleasant, enjoyable loose leash walk for you and your dog, we must first recognize that walking in a straight line at a steady pace may seem simple to us, but to your dog it’s an incredibly unnatural behavior. Leashes prevent dogs from doing what is natural to them: roaming, sniffing, and generally exploring the world! Though our goal is to have our dogs walk at a steady pace near our side, understanding the difficulty of what we’re asking can help inform our training going forward. 

In order to train a leash walking behavior, first we need to identify our criteria. Do you want your dog at your side, in front, or behind? Do you want a leash to be loose with a J shape, or is it okay for it to be taut? Where are you going to be walking your dog - a rural road where you might only see a few people, or a busy city street where other people and dogs are a constant? The more consistent we can be with our expectations, the more clarity we can provide our dogs and set them up for success. 

Next, let’s consider your walking equipment! We prefer a front-clip harness, especially if you’re new to or struggling with your leash walking journey. View our Recommended Gear Page to check out all our favorite walking equipment! When you select your leash, refer back to your pre-selected criteria. If you want your dog walking at your side and you live in an urban environment, a shorter leash (5-6 feet) is going to make the most sense. If you want your dog in front of you and live in a more rural environment, a long-line (10-30 feet) will make more sense. 

Now we are ready to begin walking! The first concept we want to teach is giving in to leash pressure. Dogs pull because usually, it works! If they pull you towards that good sniff, they will generally be successful. If they don’t pull towards that sniff, they won’t get to enjoy the activity and the otherwise boring walk will continue. Loose leash walking is all about teaching your dog that it is more reinforcing to remain close to you, so we start by letting our dog know that when the leash tightens, this is a cue to give in to the pressure from the leash rather than pulling against it.

Teaching Give to Leash Pressure:

• Step 1: With your dog on a leash, make some space between you (see video linked below for

visual example!) and add a light amount of tension in the leash. This level of tension should

be about pinky-finger strength, so not very much at all! Watch your dog carefully, and pay

attention to that feeling of leash pressure as you stand stationary. As soon as your dog

moves to release the pressure in any way, even if that isn't looking back at you directly, mark

with your clicker or verbal marker and offer your reward close to your knee.

• Step 2: Repeat! Again, apply a slight amount of tension, stand still, and watch for your dog

to move in a way that releases that tension. As soon as they do, mark and offer your reward

from your hand placed at your knee so that your dog has to come back towards you all the

way to retrieve it.

• Step 3: Move around a bit, find different places to rehearse this skill! Remember, for this

stage of the exercise, your dog doesn't need to look back at you all the way. They just need

to give in to the leash pressure and work to release the tension on the leash rather than

adding to it. When you are seeing your dog quickly turn back to you when they feel leash

pressure, you can start adding in a few steps backwards before you reward so that they are

following and engaging with you for longer each time they check in.

Watch a video on how to give in to leash pressure:

Start practicing this game indoors, in a low-distraction environment! As your dog is successful, start to add in distractions (like your friend or partner doing jumping jacks). Eventually, take the game outside! Can your dog give in to leash pressure in the backyard, on your front porch, on the sidewalk in front of your house? On walks, start to generalize the behavior. When your dog pulls you towards a certain area, stop moving and wait for them to redirect their attention back to you. When they do, mark, and reward by allowing them to continue moving. On walks, we can use movement as reinforcement! It’s a lot more fun to walk than stand still and do nothing, so use that to your advantage. 

Teaching your dog to meet your expectations for loose leash walking is no easy task - it’s a complex behavior that requires consistency and effort. If you’re struggling, consider our Loose Leash Walking virtual course! This course, developed and taught by certified dog trainers, is a comprehensive dive into teaching your dog leash skills, and transitioning those skills into the world. Not ready to enroll? Check out our Loose Leash Walking Playlist on YouTube!

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s leash walking, it’s vital to remember that your dog is simply being a dog and working to access what is reinforcing - the more we can understand this and pay our dogs well for desired behavior, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Reactivity on Walks

Supporting Your Leash-Reactive Dog

By Benah Stiewing

A dog who barks, lunges, and experiences elevated stress when another dog or person appears during a walk is a difficult habit for you and your dog to experience. The word “reactive” is a label we use to describe a certain set of behaviors that dogs exhibit

under specific conditions, such as exposure to a “trigger” like another dog or person. Since we all might have slightly different visions of what a “reactive” dog looks like, below are some of the behaviors that might put your dog into this category. Having a dog who displays any of the below behaviors is stressful at best and extremely emotionally draining at worst for both you and your dog. 

• Fixation on the trigger (orienting towards, unable to turn away)

• Pulling toward the trigger 

• Hard staring (no blinking, jaw stiff, often includes a freeze as well)

• Barking

• Lunging

• Snapping / Biting

Though your dog’s reactivity may be frustrating and invoke anger from you or folks on the receiving end of their reactive behavior, it’s important to understand that your dog is having a bad time, not being bad. All behavior is affected by what comes before it (antecedents) and what comes after it (consequences). Understanding this sequence can help us understand why your dog does what they do, and how we may successfully modify undesirable behavior, like leash reactivity.

• Antecedent: whatever happens BEFORE the behavior. (e.g. trigger entering the

  environment, a cue that you give, etc.)

• Behavior: whatever observable actions the dog takes following an antecedent (e.g.

  whine, bark, lunge, respond to your cue, etc.)

• Consequence: whatever happens AFTER the behavior. (e.g. the trigger leaving the

  environment, the trigger getting closer, the dog being pulled from the environment, you

  delivering a tasty treat, etc.)

• We can visualize the whole sequence like this: Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence

To understand how to modify behavior and change the reactivity we see in our dogs, it is helpful

to think about what consequence the dog might get out of the behavior they are currently

choosing. What function does the reactive behavior serve for the dog? If a dog’s behavior functions in a way where the consequence is advantageous to the dog (i.e. it is something the dog wants), the behavior is more likely to occur again in the future. For example, if your dog barks at another dog on a walk, and what your dog really wants is for that dog to go away, when the other dog walks away with its human, your dog will learn that the most effective way to achieve their goal is to bark at dogs that make them uncomfortable.

This is important to understand because a critical key to behavior modification is to prevent rehearsal of the undesirable behavior. The more the behavior is practiced (and reinforced), the stronger the behavior will become. To prevent undesirable behavior, we need to understand your dog’s threshold. Threshold is the term we use to describe the point at which a dog transitions from a comfortable state of mind to a more distressed mental state, in which we see outward behavioral symptoms of their discomfort (i.e. reactive behaviors). Before we are able to effectively modify a dog’s behavior, we need to recognize situations that cause them to become distressed and work to prevent them so we can keep our dogs comfortably just below that threshold level while we teach them new coping skills. 

Things that can bring a dog over threshold:

• A separate event that has caused the dog stress recently - i.e. a thunderstorm during the night before or a recent vet visit.

• A trigger becoming more intense and/or coming closer to you - i.e. dog walking towards

  you rather than away.

• The dog being tired / hungry / thirsty (like at the end of a walk)

• Encountering multiple triggers in a row / at the same time - this is called trigger stacking.

The goal threshold for training sessions with our reactive dogs fluctuates at the borderline between their comfort-zone (no reactions) & over-threshold (big reactions), and well within their comfort-zone. We want to give our dogs exposure that will help them learn, and then contrast that exposure with easy recoveries at a distance where they feel as comfortable (and non-reactive) as possible. Initial learning (such as foundation skills like focusing on you, responding to basic cues, etc.) is best done well below the comfort-zone threshold line. If you are trying to teach your dog new skills for the very first time at or above their level of comfort, this will be very difficult. Start by rehearsing good behaviors and skills in practice areas where your dog feels most comfortable, like your living room or your backyard.

Our goal through behavior modification is to create a different set of behavior patterns for our

reactive dogs that fit better into our human expectations of appropriate canine behavior. In order to help our dogs do this, we need to set them up for success with some environmental management. This means facilitating situations where our dogs can be successful and guiding them, through our training, to make better choices. Management comes into play to prevent our dogs from rehearsing the unwanted behaviors until the dog has a better behavior built up to replace the reactive behavior. Pushing your dog into uncomfortable situations just because they haven't reacted yet is not necessarily setting them up for success. They don’t need to cross their threshold to learn!

Management ideas:

• Cross the street or duck behind a car if a dog is approaching and you won’t have the space you need for your dog to be successful.

• Install visual barriers on your windows and play white noise so your dog can’t practice their reactivity in the home.

Behavior modification is the process by which we teach our reactive dogs a different set of

feelings and, most importantly, behaviors about situations they would typically default to reactive

behaviors. To help change your dog’s current association to the sight of other dogs, we provide VERY HIGH VALUE treats (think diced chicken, liverwurst, and hotdogs) when your dog is in the

presence of other dogs (or other triggers). Over time, and with proper desensitization, your dog will learn to associate the presence of other dogs with yummy things. Your mantra should be “good things happen for my dog when other dogs are around!” We would prefer if the presence of another dog was a happy, exciting event for your dog. Our goal is for your dog to see another dog and immediately look to you as if to say, “Yipee! I see another dog! That means I get chicken, right?!” No barking or lunging, just an excited, expectant look on your dog’s face.

Behavior modification is a complex task, and if you are struggling with leash reactivity we  recommend seeking the support of a certified trainer. This post barely skims the surface of all the components that could be part of a leash reactivity training plan! Consider starting with our Reactivity in Dogs Webinar that dives deeper into the complexities of this behavior, and how we may support our dogs in developing different behaviors around their triggers.

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons for reactive dogs  in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s leash reactivity, it’s vital to remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time - the more we can understand this, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Reactivity at the Fence

How to Get Your Dog to Stop Barking At The Fence (or Windows & Doors!)

by Benah Stiewing

Excessive barking in the home is not a pleasant behavior for us as humans to experience! It’s easy for us to become agitated, frustrated, or upset, which in turn can actually make the behavior stronger because the dog’s stress level may increase as ours does!. First, it’s important to understand that barking at the fence, window, or door is a very normal behavior, and it can be extremely reinforcing to the dog. If a jogger runs past the fence and your dog barks, the jogger will leave. As humans, we know the jogger left because they continued with their run, not because of the barking. But to your dog, they effectively protected their home from the potentially dangerous jogger - barking works! Whether your dog barks at the fence, window, or door, it’s very easy for this behavior to become quite strong because the trigger that causes the barking is generally going to continue on their walk, mail route, or run, and your dog has accomplished the task of getting the scary thing to go away. 

The trigger outside of the home is a cue for your dog to react with vocalization. We want to shift that trigger into a cue to check-in with you! To do this, we are going to utilize the Thank You Protocol. To start this protocol, our first step is management. We want to eliminate rehearsal of the behavior when we are not present to actively train it. 

• For dogs who are stimulated by the sight of a passerby, add window screens to block the visual (for windows/door barking) or keep the dog indoors (for fence barking). 

• If your dog is stimulated by the sound, play white noise.

• Try to use x-pens or baby gates to block access to any doors or windows where your dog usually goes to bark.

• Check out our favorite safety and management tools here! 

For the Thank You Protocol to be successful, we need to reframe our own narrative around barking. Even though we may feel that barking is  a bad behavior that needs to be corrected right away, to the dog the barking is very functional for communicating their needs and feelings in that moment.  . If we react with stress and intensity, we are essentially  affirming the underlying feeling of concern that prompted the bark. Instead, we want to tell our dogs “Thank you for letting me know, I’ve got this from here.” To do this, we teach the dog to come find us and receive reinforcement when we give a verbal cue that signals they can stop barking, we have heard them and will take care of whatever may be present. 

Next, we want to begin loading the cue we will say to our dog to interrupt the reactivity. Select a word that doesn’t have a strong history of not working, so their name or “come” may not be effective. Pick a novel word that your dog doesn’t have any feelings about. (If your dog’s name cue is usually an effective way to get their attention, you can use it here - but if your dog has a long history of ignoring this cue when they are barking, choose a different word to start with.)

• Once you’ve selected a word, say the word to your dog while you have their attention and then immediately deliver 10-15 treats directly to them, regardless of what behavior they offer. Practice this a few times a day in the location at which they generally bark. 

• We want to pay really well for this behavior, so use food that your dog is going to really care about, like boiled chicken or freeze-dried raw. Rotate between different high-value foods so your dog doesn’t get bored of the same thing.

• Once your dog starts to get excited when you say this word, begin saying the word at random moments when your dog isn’t already paying attention to you. 

• It’s critical that you deliver the treats to your dog whether they have looked at you or not. 

• Practice at different times of day, wearing different clothes, and at different prime barking locations. 

Once your dog has a solid response to your verbal cue, we want to start using that cue when your dog begins barking. 

• Say your cue right when your dog begins barking, or right before. 

• If your dog doesn’t look at you when you give them the cue, get closer to your dog before giving the cue again. 

• If your dog even gives you a shred of a glance, start rewarding.

• If your dog still doesn’t look at you with decreased distance, end the training session and try again next with higher-value food.

• The goal at this stage is for your dog to look at you for food after a few barks at the fence/door/window, so if they are unable to do that then we need to increase the value of our reinforcement and/or decrease the difficulty of the trigger. 

Watch the helpful video below of Liz Burke demonstrating this technique! 

Eventually, as you practice this skill with your dog, we want them to turn to you or come find you when they see a trigger that they previously would have reacted towards. When successful, we have turned the trigger into a cue to come to you for reinforcement. This is a complex behavior that takes time and devotion to solve, so take it slow and remember that management is key to success. If you need help with solving your dog’s reactivity, consider our Reactivity in Dogs Mini Course! Don’t hesitate to reach out  - we are available for private in-person and online training to support you and your dog. 

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Everything You Need to Know about Adventure Camp

By Meredith Decker

Summit Adventure Camp is a day training program specifically designed for puppies between the ages 9 weeks and 16 weeks. We curate our curriculum around foundational skills that will follow your puppy through their life and take advantage of the critical socialization period that they are in during their Camp experience. Camp is a great place to begin your puppy’s training and for you to get a break from the hard job that is puppy raising. 

Primary Goals

Socialization

Socializing your pup is all about exposing them to new situations or environments and creating positive associations in these interactions. The key to socialization is helping your puppy feel comfortable and offering support when they need it. There are lots of things in our human world that might be scary to your puppy and we want them to feel safe enough to confidently say  “yes, I’d love to check that out!” or calmly say “no thank you, I’m not feeling up for it today”. At Adventure Camp, we make sure that the new things we expose the puppies to are age appropriate and that if the puppies feel unsure we can support them to learning that new things are normal and usually fun. Your puppy gets an outdoor adventure (weather permitting) and we like to take this opportunity to help them become comfortable with new noises or smells. If the puppy wants to move closer to a stimulus, we will join them, but if they decide that the new thing is too scary, we help them work through those feelings and show them that it’s okay to move away from things as well.

One of the biggest pieces of socialization is to have your puppy meet new dogs. At Adventure Camp, your puppy gets ample opportunity to interact with the other puppies in a way that is safe for everyone and also helps teach them polite social skills. Puppies need help learning how to politely greet other dogs and regulate their play. If puppies had their choice, many of them  would never stop playing. However, taking breaks from play is imperative to your puppy learning how to play appropriately. We want them to learn how to listen to their bodies when they feel done playing and how to respond appropriately. It’s also incredibly important that they learn to respect when another dog tells them that they are done playing.

Foundation Behaviors

In Adventure Camp, we focus on establishing foundations with your puppy from which you can build many different behaviors. All training sessions follow a curriculum that clients will have access to as their puppy progresses through Camp. 

The first thing we want to do is establish a form of communication and teach the puppy the sound of a clicker or verbal marker (“yes or “good”). Marker Conditioning is the basis for positive reinforcement training. We familiarize the puppy with the sound of the marker so they learn that the sound of the mark means that they’ve just done something correct. It is our main form of communication with puppies when we are teaching them a new skill.

We also like to take time to help your puppy become comfortable with any kind of gear that they will wear regularly. We need leashes, collars and harnesses, so we help teach puppies how to be comfortable with the gear itself and the physical handling that will go into putting their gear on.

Potty training is probably the first skill you ever begin working on with your puppy. We continue all of that hard work at Camp with frequent potty breaks and plenty of management to make sure we minimize accidents.

The training work that we begin at Camp isn’t all active. One of the most important skills we work on is helping your puppy learn how to rest while other things may be happening around them. Each puppy has a pen with activities like puzzle toys, frozen kongs, or chews that they can occupy themselves with. It’s important that puppies learn how to appropriately entertain themselves rather than always looking to humans for entertainment.

Once we’ve established all of these behaviors, we move into building skills like coming when called or loose leash walking. We are also always happy to discuss with you any other skills that you may need help with and want to work on while your puppy is at Camp.

Adventure Camp Details

Adventure Camp is run on Wednesday and Friday mornings throughout the year. Drop off begins at 7:30 am and you can pick up between 11:30-12:00. We host a total of 4 puppies at a time so that each puppy gets individualized attention from our two Camp instructors and plenty of opportunities to work on their skills. 

Adventure Camp is a package service, so when you sign up for camp, not only are you enrolled in 4 weeks of camp, you also get two 45 minute private sessions with the lead Camp instructor. In these sessions you learn how to apply the skills that your puppy is learning and you can ask any questions about puppy raising. You also get a treat pouch and a lifetime enrollment into our online Puppy Basics course. The Adventure Camp curriculum is based on this course so you can reference it throughout your puppy’s time at Camp. This is an excellent resource which we frequently reference in our daily report cards. 

Because Adventure Camp is a day training program while you are not directly with your puppy, we offer plenty of opportunities for you to receive support while you work on transferring these skills to your home. In addition to the private sessions, we offer opportunities to connect with our trainers at our Parent-Trainer Conferences for 30 minutes every other Friday following Camp pick up. We also write up daily report cards which summarize what your puppy worked on each day at Camp and make sure to take at least one video every day of your puppy working on skills.

Daily Schedule

When your puppy arrives at Camp, we like to give them a few minutes to settle into the space by bringing them into their pen as each puppy enters the room. Once all of the puppies have arrived, we start the day with a little bit of play so they can get their wiggles out. Following the play session, each puppy will get their first individual training session. This is one opportunity that we take for the other three puppies to learn how to rest or occupy themselves while the fourth puppy is training. Each puppy also gets one outdoor walking adventure to help them grow in their confidence and begin working on loose leash walking.

Well-rested puppies make for the best learners, so once each puppy has gotten their first training session and walk we put them down for a nap. After nap time, the puppies will get their second training session and some more play time.

At the end of the day, you will be taking home a happy and tired puppy who has learned lots and is ready for a nice afternoon nap!.

Preparing for Puppy’s First Day of Camp

Once you have signed up for Adventure Camp, you will receive an email which has a link to some forms that you will need to fill out before your puppy’s first day and a place to submit your puppy’s most most recent vaccine records. 

On your puppy’s first day of Camp, we offer you the opportunity to come into the training room to meet our Camp trainers and see the space where your puppy will be spending time. If you are interested in this opportunity, we suggest you arrive right at 7:30 to make sure we can get you in before all of the Camp puppy crew arrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from Dog Day Care?

Adventure Camp is specifically designed with young puppies in mind. At their current age, puppies are always learning, so we want to take advantage of their sponge-like brains and create habits and skills that are helpful to you and to them. Our Adventure Camp is set up so that your pup will be coming home mentally & physically tired rather than feeling over-taxed from being in a consistent state of high-arousal often associated with play-all-day day care settings. 

What about my puppy’s vaccinations?

We use the Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's Statement on Socialization as a guideline for our early socialization classes. We take special care to keep our training facilities clean and safe for your puppy as they continue to get their vaccines. We make sure that everything your puppy will interact with is cleaned before and after camp. This includes our floors, any toys your puppy will play with and platforms they might climb on. If you are interested in learning more about our full cleaning routine, we have a blog post dedicated to our facility cleaning routine.

How do I sign up?

There are a couple of ways that you can sign up for Camp! If you are ready to get your puppy enrolled, you can schedule a phone consultation where we can learn more about you and your puppy. We can sign you up for Adventure Camp during the phone call. If you would like to schedule your Discovery Call you can do so here.

You can also join us at a Puppy Playschool drop-in class. This is a great way for you to meet the trainers in person and see our facilities. We would love to chat with you and provide additional information about Adventure Camp and help you sign up. If you would like to sign up for Puppy Playschool, you can do so here.

What are the next steps after Adventure Camp?

Your puppy’s training has only just begun. Once your puppy finishes camp, they will be old enough to join our Puppy Basics class! This is the perfect opportunity for you to practice all of the skills your puppy has learned and continue to build on them further.

If there is a specific skill that you would like to continue to work on, we also offer additional private lessons for our camp clients at a discounted rate. The structure is similar to the 45 minute transfer sessions that you would have during camp.

Our goal at Adventure Camp is to provide support. Raising a puppy is a wonderful experience but it can easily be overwhelming. We want to help you create foundations that you can build from throughout your puppy’s life. 

You can find all of the information discussed in this post and testimonials from former clients here. If you have any questions, you can also contact us today!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Supporting Your Human Reactive Dog

By Benah Stiewing

It’s never easy when our dogs struggle to feel secure in the world, especially when their fear is directed towards humans. We use the general term “Stranger Danger” to describe a dog that is reacting towards an unknown person in some way. This reaction could be wanting to flee or otherwise move away from the person, or directing “big behaviors” towards the person such as barking, growling or snapping. These behaviors could be directed to someone that the dog just met or someone they have known previously who suddenly appears in their environment. 

Behavior is functional, meaning that when an individual is behaving in a certain way, it is to get certain outcomes from the situation. When a dog demonstrates behaviors such as barking, growling, snapping, or other unwanted behaviors towards a person, usually this is the dog’s way of asking for distance away from the scary stranger. The dog could be feeling threatened, overwhelmed, startled, or cornered - they use their behavior in an effort to get the space that they need to stop feeling those things.

Understanding Your Dog’s Body Language

Our dogs’ primary method of communication is body language. As humans who speak a different language from our dogs, we can easily miss what our dogs are trying to communicate when they use mild forms of communication. In order to truly understand and support our dogs we need to become familiar with the behaviors that dogs use to communicate.

When our dogs are worried about something, we often notice it the most when they have big behaviors that are hard to miss, such as barking, growling, hunching over, running away, or variations of those things. However, there are typically many smaller behaviors leading up to the big behaviors that are also worth noting and understanding, because they're going to tell us about how that dog is feeling before the dog is over their comfort threshold and they feel the need to use their big behaviors to get out of the situation. Watch the video below about how to read and understand what your dog is saying with their body language. To help our dog’s reactivity, it’s critical that we are able to recognize the early warning signs that something is wrong.

Management & Training

In addition to understanding body language, there are many ways we can support our dog experiencing stranger danger! Most “Stranger Danger” dogs are using their reactive behaviors to help them feel safe. If strangers are scary to the dog, and the dog’s barking makes the strangers go away, the barking behavior has worked to meet the dog’s need of feeling safer. If interactions with strangers go a different way every single time, the dog’s one option for creating a predictable outcome is to use their undesirable reactive behaviors to make it go away. We want to create a predictable way for the dog to experience strangers, so that they can start to feel more comfortable and safe without the need to bark or growl. Instead of stranger interactions being a big question mark to the dog, we can instead create a routine where the dog knows exactly what to expect and what to do. This not only keeps the dog (and the strangers) safe, but also  builds the dog’s confidence that strangers maybe aren’t so dangerous after all. 

We want to create a predictable routine for any moments where the dog becomes reactive. This may be your front door, on walks, or in the backyard. Wherever it occurs, we want to eliminate rehearsal of the undesired behavior through a different set of practiced behaviors. For example, if your dog struggles with door reactivity, have the dog behind a baby gate away from the door (i.e. kitchen or side office or hallway) or have the dog in a crate or bedroom completely away from the door (with food puzzle or other enrichment toy) until stranger is in the home and settled. Once the visitor has settled, bring your dog out on-leash (muzzled if necessary) and have them practice their visitor routine (like settling on a mat with frozen Kong). Aim for quality over quantity - if your dog can remain calm and relaxed for 15 minutes while being in the stranger’s presence, end the session there and put your dog away.

If your dog’s stranger danger mostly presents out and about in the world, limit those to positive, structured experiences. On a weekday morning (when there will be less traffic) visit a Lowes or Home Depot. Sit outside the building, far enough from the entrance that your dog can observe but is not reacting. Bring some form of enrichment, like a snuffle mat or Kong, and just sit calmly while your dog observes. If someone tries to approach you, have a few prepared sentences so you don’t scramble to create space. Here are a few ideas:

• “My dog is really worried about new people and you could really help them out by staying right there and letting me reward them for just watching you.” 

• “Would you mind just taking a few steps back so that she can feel a little bit more comfortable about you?”

As you support your dog experiencing stranger danger, remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time. If you find an experience too difficult for you and your dog, try to remove yourself as quickly and calmly as possible, and brainstorm how you can avoid repeating it in the future. If you believe your dog may be at risk of biting you or someone else, we strongly suggest that you consider muzzle training, which you can find more information about by clicking here. We are always here to help, and especially love supporting teams who struggle with fear and anxiety. 

Training Support for Your Human-Reactive Dog

Supporting fearful, reactive dogs is our passion! We understand how challenging a reactive dog can be, and we are here to help. We have our Reactivity in Dogs Mini-Course which is available fully virtually. If you are local to Fort Collins, CO, we have our Reactive Dog 101 group class! Training is done in a safe, low-stress classroom environment to teach you and your dog the skills to manage and modify your dog's current reaction to the presence of other dogs and people. Private lessons are an excellent way to work on your dog’s reactivity, with an individualized training program created for you and your dog. Private training is available in-person in Fort Collins, CO, Hudson, NY, and everywhere virtually!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Training Your Dog to Avoid Snakes

Let’s talk about rattlesnake avoidance training for our dogs!

As spring quickly approaches, we are all excited to once again begin our summer outdoor adventures with our dog! Hiking, paddle boarding, trail running– so many adventures await! However, this change in season also marks the start of snake season. As the ground thaws and the temperature rises, rattlesnakes will be coming back to trails, fields, and parking lots to soak up the sun and hunt for prey. As dog guardians and outdoor enthusiasts, we want to keep our dog safe and respect animals in their environment. To do this, we can train our dog to avoid all snakes, significantly decreasing the chances of a venomous snake bite. 

To train our dog to avoid snakes, there are two main components: a rock-solid recall and teaching a snake alert. A snake alert is a behavior you teach your dog to perform when they perceive a snake in their environment. The snake itself becomes the cue for the behavior. However, the alert won’t be strong enough if the dog doesn't also have a secure recall. Coming back to you has to have a strong reinforcement history, or else the alert won’t be reliable. A snake alert is a behavior chain, outlined below.

1. Dog perceives snake in the environment, through sight, scent, or sound.

2. Dog visually locates handler.

3. Dog runs to handler enthusiastically.

4. Dog performs their snake alert when they get to handler.

5. Handler marks and rewards.

6. Team is able to move away from the snake safely. 

In this article, we will focus on teaching your snake alert. You can click here to read our recent blog post, Building Blocks for an Off-Leash Recall!, to learn more about teaching your dog a rock-solid recall. 

To teach your dog a snake alert, we start by teaching the behavior itself. Essentially any behavior can be a snake alert, but ideally you want it to be something that your dog isn’t likely to perform without being prompted, such as a hand-touch or leg-touch. If your dog doesn’t jump, a jump-up cue could work well, while if your dog is a frequent jumper that wouldn’t be a good match. Once you’ve settled on a behavior, teach the behavior to your dog and generalize it to many different environments and contexts. Before we transfer the cue over to the snake, we want to be sure that the alert is fluent. 

Teaching a Hand-Touch:

1. Present your hand to your dog

2. Mark & reward for any engagement with the hand presented

3. In between repetitions, hide your hand behind your back and then bring it out again - this maintains the novelty

4. Gradually increase criteria until you are only mark and reward when your dog touches your hand with their nose

5. Watch the video below on teaching a hand touch!

Once your dog’s alert behavior is fluent and can be performed under a variety of circumstances, it’s time to transfer your cue over to the snake. We do this by isolating the components of sight, scent and sound of the snake cue, and asking our dogs to do their alert behavior when they perceive any or all parts of the snake’s presence in the environment.

This is just a brief overview of how we teach rattlesnake avoidance training at Summit Dog Training! If you are interested in learning more and taking your dog’s rattlesnake avoidance behavior to the next level, consider joining our virtual and in-person training options, where instructor Amy Creaven provides in-depth, expert knowledge and guidance. We are offering in-person and online practice sessions, both are available a la carte or as packages with our new online course! If you are an outdoor adventure enthusiast and want to protect your dog from venomous snakes, this course is for you!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Polite Greetings at the Door

By Benah Stiewing & Amber Quann

Barking and excitement at the door is a very normal canine behavior. This behavior usually stems from a combination of genetics (dogs of many breeds have historically been used as guardians) and the opportunity to rehearse this behavior quite a lot. It can be very rewarding for a dog to bark at something outside and see that trigger go away – even though the UPS man didn’t actually vacate the porch because the dog was barking. Below, you will find some helpful guidance for how we can support our dogs practice calmer, quieter front-door greetings! If your dog is showing signs of aggression or fear when new people enter your home, we recommend contacting us as soon as possible to begin private training, as this is a more complex issue that requires individualized attention.

To work  on addressing reactivity or rude manners associated with front door greetings, we will approach this from three angles. We’ll start with each of these aspects individually, then we’ll string them together into a chain and work on them simultaneously.

• Counter-Conditioning for the Door Cues

• Managing Door Interactions for Safety & Success

• Teaching an Alternative Door Behavior

Counter-Conditioning for the Door Cues

Counter-conditioning is pairing something good with the trigger repeatedly so that the dog learns positive feelings associated with hearing the previously scary or arousing sound (doorbell/knock/etc.). In a nutshell, counter-conditioning requires presenting the trigger sound in a mild form (i.e. you knock quietly on the wall in your house while your dog is right in front of you) followed immediately by something the dog enjoys (treat/toy/belly rub/etc.).

Keep in mind that even if the dog barks in response to the sound (as they usually do especially when we get to working on the doorbell sound), you are going to offer the pleasant response anyways. If we only waited for the dog not barking (which is a behavior that has been practiced a LOT at this point!), the dog would never get a pleasant response to the door sound and we would miss a lot of opportunities to pair good things with the sound that triggers the barking. So right now, as you are getting started on this process, offer a treat EVEN IF your dog first barks at the trigger sound.

Common Door Cues that we can Counter-Condition:

• Car pulling into the driveway

• Doorbell sound

• Knocking

• You rushing to the door

• The visual of the person on the outside of the door

Managing Door Interactions for Safety & Success

The goal of management is to keep unwanted behavior patterns from being practiced. If you are in a rush, and can’t take the extra time to help your dog be successful at the front door, or that type of interaction is still harder than what your dog can handle, it would be better for your dog to be somewhere else in your house during the immediate door interaction. Think of a place your dog already feels comfortable. Ideally it should be near the door or the path to the front door so that it is convenient to send your dog to this area on your way to the front door. 

• Teach your dog that going into that designated space (a room, their crate, etc.) is a great thing! Toss a treat inside, have them spend time in that area with a kong or bone toy,and keep the duration short.

• Once your dog is comfortable going in and out of that area, it’s time to add a verbal cue that tells them to run there to get rewarded. 

• Examples of words other students have used: “Emergency!” “Crate” “Let’s take a break” or “Get in Your Bunker!”. 

• Once you’ve picked a word, encourage your dog to follow you to the entrance of their area. Say your cue, then toss a treat into the space. Reward your dog again when they get into the area. Repeat, until your dog is quickly moving into the safe space when they hear that word.

• Next, add the doorbell or knocking (or other door trigger) as an additional cue. When your dog first hears the sound, they might need to run to the front door in order to assess. That’s normal, especially after barking at the front door has been practiced for a while. 

• You can follow them to the front door, reward them for calm (like in our counter-conditioning work), and then encourage them to follow you to their area. Reward them heavily for going into their safe space, and keep the duration of that stay in the area very short. Repeat!

Teaching Better Alternative Door Behaviors

To shift an undesirable behavior, we first need to decide on a different behavior that we want instead. So how do we want our dog to react to the presence of a stranger at the door? Establish a routine that you and your dog can practice. Here is one alternative scenario that works well for door manners:

• Doorbell rings. You and your dog go to the door together. Your dog sits or lies down on a rug placed in the foyer area a short distance from the door. You open the front door and greet the guest on the other side. Your dog stays on the rug until you give a release cue.

To teach your dog this routine, you first need to begin with counter-conditioning as described above. If your dog is so excited by the sound of a knock/doorbell that they are unable to think and work with us, we need to first use counter-conditioning to bring down their overall arousal level. 

Once we have started to shift their emotional response to the sound of knocking, we can teach our dog to Settle on a Mat and Look at That, which will form the foundation of building the routine.

watch a video about how to teach your dog Look At That

watch a video about how to teach your dog to Settle on a Mat

watch a video about adding distraction & duration to your dog’s mat behavior

Front-door greeting is a complex behavior and it’s important that we approach it with the understanding that our dogs are simply following their natural instinct to react to a change in the environment. We cannot fundamentally change that our dogs will notice the change, but we can shift their emotional response and behavior pattern by using the above protocol. To really dive deeper into polite greetings in your home and out in the world, check out our class Nice to Meet You! - available as a self-study course or in-person as a group class in Fort Collins, CO. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re struggling with polite greetings - we are available for private in-person and online training to support you and your dog.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Puppy Raising & Welfare

By Benah Stiewing

Raising a puppy is very exciting and also a huge responsibility - it’s critical that we, as their guardians, do our best to prepare them for a secure, confident, and stable adulthood. Puppies are born not knowing any human rules or desires - we have to prepare them for the expectations we will eventually have for them and reinforce the behaviors we desire. Below you will find some basic tips and techniques to help you prepare your puppy for being a well-adjusted dog. To dig deeper into puppy training, check out our blog posts for puppy training basics and how to handle common puppy problems. If you’d like more support, consider our webinar Adventure Puppy Basics, which gives a well-rounded, detailed approach to raising your puppy. 

Rest

Make sure your puppy is getting lots of rest! Puppies do not have the same emotional and physiological control as older dogs who will generally nap when they need to. If our puppies are getting extra nippy or loud, they may be over-tired and need to be encouraged to take a nap. By putting them in their crate in a quiet space, we can help them get the rest they need. Below is a video of Amber helping Jamie settle in for a nap in his crate. 

Confinement

Confinement is a very important skill throughout your dog’s lifetime! Whether it’s being home while you’re out running errands or crated for an overnight at the veterinarian, confinement comfort is an invaluable skill for your puppy. Our webinar Separation Anxiety Prevention is an excellent resource for giving your puppy the absolute best start with confinement! 

• Place your puppy’s crate in a quiet area of the house away from the hub-bub.

• Turn on a white noise machine so your puppy doesn’t have to hear all the fun happening without them.

• Inside your puppy’s crate, have a soft towel/bed, a toy, and a couple different options for chewing.

• Build a positive association with the crate! Click here to watch a video of Amber teaching Jamie about his crate.

• Feed all your puppy’s meals in their crate to continue building that positive relationship!

• Before putting your puppy in their crate for a nap, make sure their needs have been met to the best of your ability. If your puppy needs to potty or is hungry or thirsty, they won’t be able to settle.

• Use technology! A baby monitor can be used to keep an eye on your puppy while they are resting.

Potty Training

Teaching our puppy where to eliminate (and where not to!) is usually one of our first training goals. It sounds daunting, but with a combination of management, training, and physical development your puppy can master this challenge! Your new puppy is eliminating in the house because it doesn't know any differently yet, and it has a really small and still-developing bladder. Management is necessary to help your puppy make the right choice every time by removing most of the opportunities to make the wrong choice. Giving your puppy the ability to free-roam in your home means that they may potty indoors or get into something they aren’t meant to.

• When your puppy is awake: set a timer to take your puppy outside every 20-30 minutes during the first few weeks of a new house training regimen, even if you think he doesn’t need to go that often.

• When your puppy wakes up from a nap: Take him outside immediately! Every time!

• Puppies often potty after eating, drinking, and playing, so be certain to take them outside after these activities.

• Join your puppy outside to ensure that they have eliminated AND so you can reward them for making the choice we desire.

• If you are certain your puppy needs to potty (they just woke up from a nap, for example) but it’s just not happening, bring them back inside and put them back in their crate for 5 minutes (set a timer!) and then bring them back outside to try again. Repeat until you get the desired behavior. 

• Once you have been accident-free for a few days on the 30 minute increments, you can expand to 40-50 minutes between potty breaks.

• Never punish your puppy for pottying inside - they are not dirtying your floors on purpose, they are doing the best they can.

Biting/Chewing

Chewing is a normal behavior for dogs, especially from 8 weeks to 6 months. During this period, puppies lose a whopping 42 baby teeth and replace them with adult teeth!  Additionally, while humans explore the world through our hands, dogs explore through their mouths. Together, these two factors turn puppies into chewing machines! While this behavior is very normal, that doesn’t make it pleasant or fun and there are concrete steps we can take to help our puppies chew appropriately.

• Have lots and lots (and lots!) of safe toys and chews around your puppy at all times. Your puppy should always have access to something appropriate to chew, like Benebones, antlers, hoofs, and toys. 

• Use every meal as an opportunity to let your puppy chew! By using puzzle feeders, snuffle mats, Kongs, and Toppls, you can meet your puppy’s innate need and burn some extra energy. 

• You can use sweet potato, pumpkin, canned food, raw (if you feed a raw diet), or kibble soaked in water to stuff in the Kongs and Toppls.

• Rotate your toys/chews/feeders so that your puppy doesn’t become bored with the same items.

• Plenty of regular rest for your puppy throughout the day - puppies that are overtired are often the most bitey puppies!

• If your puppy begins to chew on something inappropriate (like your hand or the couch), simply grab an appropriate chew item and give it to your puppy.

• Teach your puppy appropriate ways to interact with your hand instead. Our favorites are teaching a Hand Target or teaching “Lick not Bite”

• Lick Not Bite: Put a small amount of a delicious lickable treat, like yogurt or sweet potato puree, on the back of your hand. Present it to your puppy to lick off your hand.  Praise them while they do this!  If your puppy changes from licking to nibbling, calmly remove your hand for a few seconds, then represent your hand for them to lick again. 

Grooming/Handling

Whether you have a poodle or a labrador, all dogs will require a certain level of grooming throughout their lives. For a poodle, that could be a full groom every 6 weeks, while a labrador may only need their nails trimmed bi-weekly. Grooming is an important part of our dog’s welfare, so we want the experience to be positive and stress-free. Building a positive relationship with grooming is something we can start from day one with our puppies. If you want to learn more about preparing your puppy for grooming and handling, check out our webinar Cooperative Care for Better Veterinary and Grooming Visits!

• Prepare for your puppy’s first nail trim by slathering a Licki-mat with some peanut butter or wet dog food.

• Make sure your puppy has recently eliminated so they aren’t uncomfortable throughout the process.

• Offer your puppy the licki-mat on a towel or blanket - once they begin licking, reinforce with extra cookies tossed onto the licki-mat.

• Start very gently touching your puppy’s back, neck, ears, legs, toes, etc.

• If at any point your puppy leaves the mat/towel, stop touching them and do not force them to get back on the mat. This is your puppy’s way of declining the touching - though we want our dog’s to be comfortable with touching, we never want to force it on them and from a young age we want the puppy to understand that they can decline by simply moving away. If your puppy comes back on the mat/towel, give them a few seconds to just lick before you begin touching again. 

• If your puppy is doing really well with just touching while licking, in your next session bring a metal spoon and gently touch it to your puppy’s nails while they are licking. This metal sensation starts to prepare them for the actual nail trim.

• Once they can tolerate the spoon well, begin actually trimming one foot. Don’t try to trim all 4 feet in one session - aim for quality over quantity. Stay very far away from their quick (the pink part of the nail closer to their actual toes) so you don’t risk hurting them while you’re building a positive association.

• Once your puppy is doing well with their nail trims, practice at least once a week until they are around 6 months old - then move to bi-weekly. This is a sensation we want your puppy to be very comfortable with and look forward to because it means lots of yummy snacks for doing basically nothing!

• To help your puppy become acclimated to bath time, start building positive associations with the bathtub way before a bath is required. 

• Put down a non-slip surface in your bathtub to keep your puppy safe and help them feel more comfortable, then practice placing them in the bathtub and immediately giving them their prepared licki-mat.

• Stay with them as they enjoy their licki-mat and periodically scatter a few extra treats as they are enjoying the licki-mat. 

• As your puppy is successful with this exercise, start to gently turn on the water and allow it to flow into the drain as your puppy eats. If they seem uncomfortable, slow down the water flow or move it farther away from your puppy. 

Socialization

Socialization is about teaching our puppy how to cope with the world around him and how to handle future adventures. Our puppies are constantly absorbing information about the world around them so it’s vital that we ensure their first few months of life are as positive as possible. While it’s important for your puppy to be exposed to different dogs and people, think about quality over quantity and what skills you want your future dog to have. If you walk your puppy down the street and allow them to pull you towards every person and dog for a greeting, you’re going to have a much more difficult time teaching focus, attention, and loose leash walking. 

• When you’re out in the world with your puppy, think about neutrality and the reaction you eventually want them to have towards a change in environment. 

• Grab a coffee at your favorite shop, get your puppy out of the car, and sit outside the coffee shop with treats and your puppy on-leash. 

• Bring a comfortable mat for your puppy to settle on and some low-value chews like an antler or a Benebone. 

• As the world passes by, reinforce your puppy for the behaviors you want (lying/sitting down, attention on you, chewing on their antler, and watching stimuli pass by) and use the leash to prevent them from approaching people passing. 

• If someone wants to greet your puppy, ask them to wait until you have your puppy’s attention, reinforce with a treat, then release them with a “Go say hi!” cue. 

• If your puppy offers attention on you during the greeting or after it’s finished, reinforce your puppy with a treat.

From 7-16 weeks of age, puppies are in a critical socialization period that offers us a fantastic opportunity to help them acclimate to our world. Remember that learning is always happening, so what goes on in our homes, backyards, and friend’s homes is just as important as the trip into town. If you are central to Fort Collins, CO, our Adventure Puppy Camp is an excellent learning opportunity for your puppy and a chance for you to take a break!

Raising a puppy is so much fun! You get to learn about this entirely new life and build a relationship together from the very start. At times it can feel overwhelming and challenging, so take lots of breaks and ask for help when you need it. If you need extra support, don’t hesitate to contact us today and get started with in-person or online training to help you feel better prepared to raise your puppy. 

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Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Management & Training for Common Puppy Behavior Problems

By Benah Stiewing

Welcoming a new puppy into your family is loads of fun, and brings laughter and joy into any household! However, puppies are also a lot of work and can often feel quite overwhelming and exhausting.

Remember throughout your puppy raising to give yourself and your puppy lots of breaks - rest is critical to everyone’s success. Check out our blog from a few weeks ago for training basics, including a discussion of why management like a crate or pen is so important to setting our puppies up for learning the behaviors we want them to learn!

Below you will find our recommendations for common puppy problems that can arise while raising your puppy.  Many of these are normal, and different puppies may face different challenges based on their unique combination of genetics, early learning history, and individuality.  Sometimes, puppy behavioral problems can be unique and require special attention, and we are always here to help if you find yourself experiencing any of these - or other - issues with your puppy. (Check out our Puppy Raising Private Program package for one-on-one puppy raising support - available both online and in-person in Fort Collins, CO!)

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Biting/Chewing

Chewing is a normal behavior for dogs, especially from 8 weeks - 6 months. During this period, puppies lose a whopping 42 baby teeth and replace them with adult teeth!  Additionally, while humans explore the world through our hands, dogs explore through their mouths. Together, these two factors turn puppies into chewing machines! While this behavior is very normal, that doesn’t make it pleasant or fun and there are concrete steps we can take to help our puppies chew appropriately.

Management: 

• Have lots and lots (and lots!) of safe toys and chews around your puppy at all times. Your puppy should always have access to something appropriate to chew, like Benebones, antlers, hoofs, and toys. 

• Use every meal as an opportunity to let your puppy chew! By using puzzle feeders, snuffle mats, Kongs, and Topls, you can meet your puppy’s innate need and burn some extra energy. 

• You can use sweet potato, pumpkin, canned food, raw (if you feed a raw diet), or kibble soaked in water to stuff in the kongs and topls.

• Rotate your toys/chews/feeders so that your puppy doesn’t become bored with the same items.

• Plenty of regular rest for your puppy throughout the day - puppies that are overtired are often the most bitey puppies!

Training:

• If your puppy begins to chew on something inappropriate (like your hand or the couch), simply grab an appropriate chew item and give it to your puppy.

• Try not to pull your hand away quickly or sharply as that will only encourage your puppy to chase as you’ve made it more exciting. 

• If your puppy is unable to transfer from an inappropriate item to an appropriate item, ask yourself if your puppy has an underlying need that isn’t being met. Are they tired? Hungry? Do they need to potty? Excessive teething can often notify us that our puppy may have an unmet need.

• Teach your puppy appropriate ways to interact with your hand instead. Our favorites are teaching a Hand Target, or teaching “Lick not Bite”

Lick Not Bite: Put a small amount of a delicious lickable treat, like yogurt or sweet potato puree, on the back of your hand. Present it to your puppy to lick off your hand.  Praise them while they do this!  If your puppy changes from licking to nibbling, calmly remove your hand for a few seconds, then represent your hand for them to lick again. 

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Introducing Your Puppy in a Multiple Dog Household

It’s important to remember that we made the decision to add a new puppy to our household, not our current dogs. It’s our responsibility to make sure everyone’s needs are met, and it’s not our older dog’s responsibility to babysit or parent the puppy. It’s normal for your older dog to go through an adjustment period when you bring home a new puppy, and they may not behave towards your puppy the same way they behave towards strange dogs out in the world. Below are some steps we can take to alleviate stress and meet everyone’s needs. 

Management:

• Do not leave your puppy and older dog unattended together. Puppies can be very pushy and relentless, and you might only hear the sixth correction that the older dog has given the puppy, not realizing that the puppy ignored the first five. 

• Make sure both dogs get to enjoy solo activities with you, solo naps, solo meals, and solo time in general. They should not be together 24/7. 

• Use puppy pens, crates, and baby gates to manage the space.

• Remove resources (toys, bones, etc.)  if both dogs are present in a space.

• Have a leash dragging from your puppy so you can prevent them from pestering the older dog if that’s a possibility.

• Always have treats on you to reinforce the behavior you want!

Training:

• When your dogs are together, have them simultaneously practice calming behaviors, such as sniffing. If they are struggling to relax enough to sniff, tossing cookies for each of them in separate directions (foraging) can help. 

• Simply delivering treats to your dogs simultaneously can be helpful! Have your puppy and your older dog sit in front of you and deliver cookies to them as they continue to perform the behavior. 

• Make yourself more interesting! By building value for engaging with us, we can make the older dog less exciting and have a puppy more interested in us. 

• Focus on Quality of interactions over Quantity. Give both your puppy and older dog break time away from each other, so that they are feeling positively about the time spent together. 

Resource Highlight: Our colleague Katie at Wise Mind Canine has a lot of wonderful content on creating positive introductions between a new puppy and existing dogs.

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Resource Guarding

Resource guarding can occur on a spectrum with a variety of objects, including yourself or others. To a certain extent, all beings are protective of their resources, so it’s normal for your puppy to have some level of resource guarding tendencies. The advice offered below just skims the surface - to dive deeper into this topic, check out our online webinar Puppy Resource Guarding. 

Management:

• Remove all food and toys from a space if multiple dogs are present (this may include empty food containers).

• Use barriers and confinement to separate your dogs while they are eating or enjoying bones. This helps your puppy learn that meal times are a time for them to focus on their own meal, rather than investigating what the other dogs have.

• Don’t take bones or toys away from your puppy without their consent unless it is an emergency situation. If it’s not an emergency, think about trading your puppy for something else (high value treat, another toy) when you have to remove something from their possession. 

Training:

• Teach a Supercharged Name Cue, which will be your first response when your puppy grabs something off limits. Call your puppy and reward with a handful of treats tossed on the ground. Continue reinforcing until you are able to put your puppy behind a barrier to quickly remove the object, then let your puppy back into the space. 

• Practice walking towards your puppy, tossing cookies towards them and then simply walking away. We want your puppy to anticipate good things happening when you approach.

• Allow your puppy to enjoy a low-value chew (like Benebones), approach with a handful of cookies, toss the cookies at your puppy, and then walk away. 

If your puppy is demonstrating significant resource guarding behavior, such as growling and snapping, towards you or your family members, we recommend getting connected with a trainer for a Private Program as soon as possible so that you can start working on a quality behavior modification plan for this behavior.  Much of the common advice you may hear about how to respond to this behavior has the potential to make the behavior worse instead of better; we recommend connecting with a professional trainer for the best support on resolving this challenge!

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Fear Reactions

As puppies physically mature, they begin to notice more in the world and be surprised by novel objects or people. A fear reaction generally presents as barking, hackles raised, front approach, and running away. During these moments, it’s critical that we support our dogs and be their advocate - do not laugh at your puppy or force them to move closer/interact with the object or person that is scaring them. We always want our puppies to know that they can trust us to keep them safe. 

Here is Jamie the Papillion working through being startled by a statue:

Management:

• Go slowly! Do not overwhelm your puppy by exposing them to too much, too fast. If you are exposing your puppy to something new, start at a distance and gradually move closer if your puppy is calm - always staying far enough away that your puppy can feel safe and calm. 

• Reinforce calming behaviors, like sniffing, rolling, and shaking.

• Keep your puppy on-leash! Do not allow your puppy to get too far away from you and run into something scary.

Training:

• Click here to watch a brief clip about training your puppy to interact with unfamiliar objects.

• Train your friends and family to ignore your puppy and sit quietly while your puppy adjusts to their presence.

• Click here to watch a brief clip about teaching your puppy the Look At That game. 

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Confinement Stress

Throughout our dog’s life, it’s critical that we are able to safely leave them confined or behind a barrier. Whether we are out running errands or the dog has to spend an overnight at the veterinarian, confinement comfort is a critical skill. To give your puppy an excellent foundation in confinement comfort, consider our webinar Separation Anxiety Prevention Starts Now! 

Management:

• Before confining your puppy, do your best to ensure they are tired and ready for a nap, so this could be after some playtime or a walk. 

• Make sure that your puppy doesn’t have any underlying needs, like being hungry or needing to potty.

• Have your puppy’s crate or pen in a quieter area of the house with some white noise playing and a few chews available. 

Training:

• Train entering the crate to make it fun and familiar! Click here to watch a brief clip about shaping Get in The Crate. 

• Support your puppy! Stay present as they’re settling in and wait until they’ve relaxed before you start moving away.  Here’s a video of Jamie learning how to settle in his crate for nap time, with his human’s support.

• Here’s a great video from one of our colleagues on teaching puppies to love their confinement management.

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As your puppy grows and develops, it’s normal for their behavior to fluctuate as hormones impact their body and brain. During this period of rapid growth, it’s critical that we act as their advocates and meet them where they are at with their needs and difficulties. Understand that your puppy is an animal in a world that may seem very normal to us, but is all new and foreign to them - your puppy will need your compassion and understanding as they use their behavior to have their needs met. Adequate rest is enormously important, for both you and your puppy. If you are located in the Fort Collins, CO, area, our Adventure Puppy Camp is a great opportunity for your puppy to experience positive, gentle socialization and training while you take a puppy break!   If you are feeling overwhelmed by your puppy’s behavior, don’t hesitate to contact us today and get started with in-person or online training to help you feel better prepared to support your puppy.

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Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Puppy Training Basics

By Benah Stiewing

When we bring home a new puppy, we usually have an extensive list of behaviors we eventually want our puppy able to perform. However, before we begin teaching specific behaviors, such as a recall, sit, or heel, there is a certain way we can build the relationship between you and your puppy to set you both up for success for a lifetime of fun and understanding. First and foremost, we want a relationship with our dogs that is founded in trust, positivity, and effective communication. From day one, we have the ability to begin building this bond! 

Putting genetics aside, puppies usually come to us as a blank-slate and we are able to shape their world to help them make the choices we value. We want our dogs to consider us the very best thing in the world! To do this, we want our interactions to be positive and rewarding, and use management to set our puppies up for success whenever possible . What does that look like? In general, with puppies under 6 months, we want them either:

1. In their crate or puppy pen

2. Directly supervised by you/someone you trust

3. In a restricted area with leash dragging

Here are some example puppy playpen set-ups for good management when you can’t be supervising your puppy directly!

If we give our puppy complete freedom, they are guaranteed to begin making mistakes, whether that be pottying in the house, chewing up your favorite shoes, or stealing snacks from the counter. Instead, we set our puppy up for success by preventing the mistake in the first place, so that we don’t have to be the bad guy and end the fun activity that your puppy has found for themselves. Instead, reinforce the behaviors you do want! 

How do I reinforce good behaviors? 

The very first exercise you start with your puppy should be the introduction of a marker cue. Your marker tells the dog that they have done the correct behavior and will be reinforced. We love using clickers as our marker cue, but you can also use a word, such as “yes” (if you opt for a word, be careful to keep your tone and intonation consistent).

We teach our marker cue by clicking (or saying the word) and then delivering a treat to our puppy. The delay between marker cue and treat delivery should not be any longer than 1-3 seconds. The marker cue should always be followed by reinforcement, or else the cue will lose its significance. Repeat the steps outlined above for a couple minutes a few times a day to load your marker cue. If you see your puppy begin licking their lips or widening their eyes when they hear the cue, it’s working!

Once we have established a marker cue, we can begin using it throughout the day to let your puppy know they have done something good and will be paid for it. If your puppy is jumping on you for attention, wait for them to naturally lean back into a sitting position - mark and reward. (Here’s a video of this!) If your puppy runs to you excitedly, mark and reward. If your puppy offers attention while people are walking near your house, mark and reward. If your puppy hears a dog barking next door and looks to you for information, mark and reward. If your puppy comes back inside when you open the door from the yard, mark and reward. Quickly, your puppy will begin repeating behaviors that are paid, and we can then begin pairing the behavior with a verbal cue. 

Excluding genetics, puppies offer us the opportunity to shape the adult dog we want. We want our dogs to orient to us, their handler, regardless of circumstances, location, or distraction. Upon noticing a change in environment, such as a stranger approaching you during a hike, we want our dogs to check-in with us and wait for more information. We have the opportunity to shape this orientation from the very beginning! Set your puppy up to make the decision you desire, and mark and reward when it occurs. If we want our dogs to pay attention to us around other dogs, we can take our puppy to a local park, on-leash, and mark and reward every time a dog passes us. Our puppy will begin anticipating the reward and looking at us when they see a dog passing. Armed with your high-value cookies or toys, you will be the most reinforcing item in the environment. 

We have endless opportunities throughout every day to reinforce desirable behaviors! Make yourself the most fun, rewarding person to be around, and teaching specific skills as your puppy grows will be much easier and more rewarding. To learn more about training your puppy using this philosophy, check out our Adventure Puppy Basics online class! It dives deeper into marker training and shaping our puppy’s behavior, and is an excellent resource as your puppy develops. 

And if you are looking for in-person puppy training in Fort Collins, Colorado, check out our Puppy Basics 6-Week Class at our Training Room!

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Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.