Mental exercise for your dogs
In the previous entry titled "what dogs can learn from playing", I wrote that playing is very important for dogs to learn many things.
Very first play dogs would experience is when they are still puppies. They play with siblings and dog parents and learn how to greet other dogs, how to read body language, how not to bite others hard, and other social etiquette in the doggy world.
These things are something we, human parents, cannot teach them enough, and also it is something playing alone cannot teach them. So, playing with siblings and dog parents at early puppy hood becomes first important things in their life.
Puppies who did not play much with siblings or dog parents at early puppy hood might have hard time playing with other dogs because of lack of knowledge in social etiquette in the doggy world.
Interactive play..
When they play with us, human parents,it helps build strong bond between us,and they learn the social etiquette in our human world. Needless to say, playing is also a good physical, mental exercise.
I think that through interactive plays such as fetch ball/Frisbee, tug of war,they can learn impulse control (being calm down when they are very excited and wanted to bark out loud), they can learn cue such as "give"/"Drop".
Also, canine sports such as flyball,Agility etc.. are also good mental exercise for dogs,and give them opportunity to let the pent up energy out, have fun with you while building the bond stronger, and it gets them tire out physically,and mentally.
*squeak,squeak,squeak..*
I love bringing the squeaky egg toy back to mom!
*pant,pant,pant..*
This is so much fun!
Can I play fetch squeaky egg game more,mom?
When we play fetch ball/Frisbee, there is a rule for Palette.
** Sit & quiet before the game - I would not toss the ball or Frisbee if she were jumping around or barking continuously. Only when she is calm and quiet, game begins. Also, she needs to release the object in the mouth to continue playing the game.
You can read how to teach your dog to bring the ball back to you and see Palette in action with fetch ball/Frisbee game via videos in the previous entry titled "Playing game of fetch ball/Frisbee".
With Tug of war games,when I play Tug of war with my stumpy little dog "Palette", I pick the tug of war toy,and usually,just having it in my hands and move around gets her attention. She gets excited,following around me, and maybe some barks at me. I just ignore her and walk up to the place where I like to play,and she follows me and shows her excitement with pawing at me or barks occasionally.
My rule number one for playing with our dog is that I never start any kinds of play unless she sits nicely and stop barking. She already knows how to get me in the favorite play quicker so,she tends to sit and quiet right away to play the fun game with me.
Once Palette gets sit and gives me attention and quiet,I say "Take it" and play tug of war but now and then during the tug game, I say "Give" or "Down" or "Bang!(Play dead) or "Spin" etc and I give her little treats every time she did her tricks.
It is, in a sense, like playing "Musical chair" if you will. It is just my version of tug of war play. If I say " Give" and if she released the tug toy,I give treats and then,I pause one second and make sure she sits and quiet before continuing the tug play.
When playing games with your dogs or when your dogs got into something they shouldn't and you would like them to give the stuff back to you, and when your dog did not release the object in the mouth, don't take the object away with force, just simply be patient,say nothing,just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
If someone tries to take objects away with force from dogs, it is in a way reinforcing the bad behavior and possibly the dogs would feel the need to guard the objects from you more. So, don't take objects away with force.
Normally, dogs would release the object if they were offered higher valued item than whatever he is having in his mouth..
Practicing "give" with low valued item and up the value as they do better is good way to go. When you take the low item away from them, right away, click the clicker and give treats, and give the stuff back to them and repeat over and over. This will teach them that everything you would take away would not go away completely but will back to them.
I sometime feed big meal (big meat with bone) to Palette and sometimes,I need to pick up the meal when she ate enough of it. Sometimes I need to take bone away because some type of bones are not edible.
When that happen, I use the "trade" cue and I trade the meal she was munching on or naked bones I need to pick it up with high valued stuff like chicken feet or duck feet,which she really really loves.
She spit out the bones or move away from whatever she was working on,and she sits down on the feeding mat,staring at me and I take the bone/meat away as I give her favorite snack. She does not go back to bones or meat to guard them,she is just being busy enjoying her favorite snacks.
"Find it" game is also good interactive play.It teaches them to use the eyes (sight),use their nose (smell) and, it is a good game for mental exercise.
There are also interactive toys on the market. I love interactive toys because those type of toys let them think and figure out what to do to get the treats, for example by experimenting the toys with all kinds of methods they could think of.
Palette playing "Hide a squirrels animal puzzle"..
I can see you,Mr.Squirrels...
Palette has buster cube for example.This interactive toy is a treat dispensing toy,and it is like a plastic square dice. You can put dry treats/food into the dice and adjust the difficulty of how much treats/food would come out with adjuster inside the cube.
Roll,roll,roll..
This toy is also good to teach the impulse control; dogs sit,you will place the toy on the floor, and if your dogs tries to stand up to nose at it, don't put the Buster food cube on the floor yet and tell them "wait".
Then,you will try again to put the Buster food cube on the floor and if they kept "wait" cue, put the toy on the floor and give about a few seconds or so of waiting time,and give them a release cue from "wait".
With your release cue, they can start working on the Buster food cube to have fun.
For 5 years, her meal started with sit and wait and starts eating with my release cue from "wait". She was looking at food I was placing onto the food mat,and decided to position herself in front of the food mat,and good "watch me" behavior (eye contact) and kept staring at me and waited until I finally broke the silence and said "okay" to eat. I am very pleased with her.
"Wait" cue is also good one to teach when you take your dogs for a walk/potty and not dashing out from the house etc.. For you, the item you will practice with has changed from "food bowl"/"Food buster cube" to the "door".
When I was using Buster cubes with kibble when she was puppy, she had a blast playing with the toy,mentally/physically exercising and using their brain to get it work for her.
There are many toys available on the market, but interactive toys like this are more than just being toys. Your dogs can experience mental/physical exercise,and depending on how you let them play with it, they can learn other things such as "wait " cue through playing with the toys.
You can read more on buster food cube treat dispensing toy in the taste testing entry titled "Palette's note;Buster food cube treat dispensing toy" here.
Puppies learn many things not just from the play with siblings,doggy parents, or human parents but also through everything you do with them in your daily life.
Teaching good behavior for grooming..
Are they comfortable being handled by a vet or you or groomer? Nail trimming,teeth brushing,grooming, bathing...
It is not something they can learn through the play or just running around the house or resting and, we are responsible to teach them what they need to do when paws,muzzles etc were handled by not just us but also by vet or groomers. You need to teach them how to respond when they are being handed by the vets,groomers or us from early time.
Mom,time for doggy school
Dogs, just like human, have sensitive spots. For human, spots will be arm pits, back of foot. For certain period of times, you probably can endure touching,poking and all that but if it lasts long, you would become uncomfortable and would tell people to stop tickling you.
Same thing for dogs. If dogs were touched,pulled,hold, poked around their sensitive areas, they too become uncomfortable and as a result, most likely growl with low tone to warn you, then snap at you to tell you to stop touching the area.
Dogs have sensitive areas just like us, but they cannot get away with being untouched. Certain spots such as muzzle area (for teeth cleaning) , paws (for nail trimming) etc need to be handled by you, by groomer, by vet etc for various reasons.
As a puppy, I touched Palette's paws, muzzle, zillions of times.
Paw handling practice..
Whenever you are petting them, keep treats near you, and even if you had no reasons to exam / touch those sensitive areas, touch them short period of time (start with very very short second,not holding the paw,just touch.), praise them big, give them treats. Start with one touch one small lentil sized treats.
Then,if she were okay,meaning if she did not pull her paw away from my approaching hand touch, I then started holding one paw one second and kept doing that over and over with lots of praise and lots of yummy treats.Then, one second hold were comfortable enough for Palette, I held her paw for a little longer and praised her and repeated over and over again.
And when she was okay with longer paw hold, I started touching her nail with clipper. Just touch the nail, click the clicker (Palette is clicker trained), give treats. When she started to not making any flinch when I touch her nail with clipper,I started clipping her nails on my own.
When dogs are not getting used to paws being touched,chances are, they would probably wiggles or try to nip your hands to release themselves from uncomfortable situation. When that happens,I would imagine that many people would try hard to hold dogs to keep them stay still for nail clipping whether the dogs are comfortable during the situation or not, and maybe you might be shouting "no,no,no".
And, often times, they would try to clip all nails at once, right on the spot. I think that the specific way actually make dogs feel more frightened, stressed, and not comfortable and see it as negative events, and I can imagine that next time you go pick up the nail clipper, as soon as your dogs see you moving towards the grooming box or see the nail clipper in your hands, they might go hide under the bed to avoid the unhappy events. That would not working for anybody's favor; for you or your dogs.
Clipping nail does not have to be all nail done in one time. First couple of times,I just clipped one nail, praised her very big following yummy treats and nice lovable massage,and called it done for the day.
I heard that some people use muscle relaxer when nail clipping, but is it necessary? While you are working on paw handling, you can bring them to groomer and let them do the nail and you will keep giving positive experience with nail trimming training with their pace,not yours.
I also have seen in one dog training TV show long time ago that dog was alpha rolled,covered with towel so that he cannot see what is going on and,one holding the dog,the other tried working on his nail.
Now, imagine you are in the situation where you and others cannot communicate each other via language, and you do not know what is going on,but suddenly,you are pushed down to the floor and blindfolded and somebody tried to straight your arm up so that they can do something on your hand.
Aren't you scary,stressful, and you would be fighting with all your power so you can be let go?
Since dogs are being force hold plus blindfolded, for him,it must be very scary,stressful and I would imagine he would try fight back with all of his power.
Negative experience like this is just reinforcing the not appropriate behavior,and we should find the way for positive experience when nail trimming and remember to be patient,be consistent, be calm, go slow,with their pace not yours. If you think you have reached the threshold line while training,just back up and go from there.
I find that Palette does better with dremel rather than clipper.
Muzzle handling practice..
When I am petting her, I just pretend to look her teeth a second or two by lifting up one side of lip very very shortly,and praised her big and gave her treats.
Your dog curls his lip up when you try to touch the muzzle? In that case, you could just touch the body,click,treats,body touch,click,treats and then gradually closer to your goal and you could touch lip,click the clicker,give treats,touch the lip,click the clicker,give treats.
You can always back up a little so you do not reach the threshold,and go from there.
After 5 years living with me, she stays lie down on her side when I look her teeth, and she yawn, and careless about what I do.
I did not start actual teeth brushing until she feels comfortable being handled muzzle. All I did while I was working on getting her used to have her muzzle handled relaxed was just one things.
** putting doggy tooth paste onto my finger, let her lick it off
Then, when she got excited enough for the tooth paste, I put tooth paste onto cloth and massage the teeth with the tooth paste cloth. When she could handled cloth massaging well, I bought a soft baby tooth brush, and started using it to brush her teeth.
Grooming is not physical exercise for your dogs but, when you think about it, since we are teaching them how to respond to what you do for grooming routines, it is in a way,mental exercise.
Mental exercise is the exercise that let them think about it, and let them figure out what to do. Training is one way to give opportunity to them for mental exercise.
Don't be scared of unfamiliar ..
Are they happy and enjoy seeing other dogs? Are they happy to see all kinds of people?
As I have written in the previous entry titled "Wag the tail to the world;Dog socialization",we were told by puppy training class trainer that it is important to take dogs to many places, let them meet all kinds of people, dogs, and try expose to as many things as possible from young puppyhood, and make them positive experiences and fun.
She also said that those experiences will influence on the puppy's social life,and it is important to keep them introduced to many people,places,objects throughout their life even after puppyhood throughout their life.
I learned that at 4 months, most important foundation period to learn good/scary (socialization period) ends, and those positive experiences would help dogs build their confidence.
Therefore,everything you do with them will have huge influences on them and also effects how they will behave on certain things.
They will test you to see what behavior would work for them,and what not, and we are shaping the behavior habits through how we respond to them also.
Palette and I go for walk everyday if not raining/snowing.
On our walk, she can meet all kinds of dogs,people,and unfamiliar objects, sound and smell while she is physically exercising;walking. At the same time, she is learning how to walk nicely or many things through games we play on the walk.
For example, we play green light,red light with car; I taught Palette to go side/ditch when we see/hear cars coming and stay still and start moving when cars passed us. Therefore,when she sees cars, she would be staying still at one spot and I think it is good manner for her with safety reason,and easy for driver to passes by us because she would not jump out to front of their cars or zigzagging the road in front of them.
I also do walk speed game. I walk with slow steps,brisk walk, slow steps and stop etc and she learns to pays attention to my pace and when I stop,she stops too and sit down right next to my legs. She enjoy playing this games with me and tries to keep up the pace with me and, it is good mental exercise also.
Even if we play those games on our walk, she has time to be a dog by sniffing around the grass patch, and she enjoys all kinds of things on walk. Walking is not just for physical exercise.
When I see dogs left outside in fenced yard,jumping,running against the fence wall with loud bark, I wish their human parents could take them to walk everyday and let them enjoy walk and they could experience physical/mental exercise to their heart content.
Training your dogs positive way..
I write a lot about positive training method;clicker training, throughout on the blog. Palette is clicker trained and, I think that clicker training is easy for anybody to try even kids, and clicker is clear communication tool between us human and dogs,and they are quick to learn things with positive attitude.
As I wear the training pouch, Palette comes out from nowhere trotting with her tongue hanging out and gives me big grin and sit down in front of me and always be ready to learn new things through training time.
She has fun during the training and, she is eager to learn things and, she tries thinking about what gave her a click when I am teaching her a new trick and, you will see that it is good activity for mental exercise.
Some people use force/aversive tools to teach thing, teaching dogs what NOT TO DO often with aversive,stressful way.
Alpha roll? When dogs get up after a few seconds of being alpha roll, his tail is often times tacked in between the legs with ears positioned like helicopter. The dogs are eager to learn manner with that scary,stressful way? I don't think so.
Some people say they spray water when dogs bark to stop barking. Some people may make dogs wear shock collar and use that to make them stop barking or to recall. Dogs could associate certain behaviors bring them unpleasant event but,what are they teaching with those things? Barking is natural communication in their world.
Alpha rolls or other aversive training tools teach nothing.They do not teach them how to respond. It just teach them what not to do. Teaching how to respond is more meaningful and in the process of teaching them how to respond, set the dogs up for success and give them a big praise. They will be eager to learn what you like them to do that way.
So, next time when you have barking problem,listen what they say. Barking has its meaning behind it. Could be delivery guy,trash truck,tress passing people in your yards,potty call,fear,boredom,unfamiliar noise,attention seeking..
I prefer to allow my dog a couple of barks.I usually go to her and look what she is barking at,then I say "Enough" and get her attention by blocking her view and she usually sit nicely,no barking. So,when she stopped barking,I click the clicker,give her small tiny treats saying"Thank you".
So, "thank you" means her alerting job is completed and no non stop barking will be going on in the house.
You can also teach your dog to bark on cue (speak)and teach your dog to be "quiet" on cue. Sometimes, it is easy to teach what they are doing with cue and then teach the opposite cue later.
Many people would say exercising your dogs are important and yes, taking your dogs for walk every day or many times if not possible is important for health, but at the same time, mental exercise is equally important.
There are so many opportunity in your daily life where your dogs can learn things. You can become an unpredictable person or the one with full of surprise for your dogs, and you can click the clicker when your dogs are least expecting to be clicked and give them tiny morsel of treats or nice petting as reward for good behavior and they will be happy to give you more good behaviors.
Sit before door open;click. Wait to dig in for the meal;click. Sit before play;click.Come when called;click. Give eye contact/attention when you call your dogs;click. Many,many more opportunity..
With clicker training, it is kind of like a game for your dogs because they would need to think about what they need to do to make you click for the yummy treats. Not just dogs that you can clicker training. Many animals such as horse can be trained with positive clicker training method,too.
I came across a great youtube video of horse and dog are clicker trained.You can see that horse,dog both thinking deep how to get their trainer give them a click. It is in a way, problem solving game.
Shadow the horse, Toby the dog (Clicker training)
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch video.
And, you can teach your dogs many fun tricks. I taught her to close door after me.I taught her to go hide on cue,come out on cue.
I am teaching Palette to go into the crate,pull the bandanna tied to her crate door to shut her own crate...
Sometimes,people say that small dogs are hard to train, but I do not think it true. You just need to be consistent,be calm,be patient and, teach them with their pace,not yours. And possibly be creative in training such as using the sofas for them to stand on during the training session so they can see the hand signal better.
Training does not have to be doggy boot camp either. Just take about 3-5 min a day and use that short time for quick training time and have fun with your dog. Short,fun training time ending the session with your dog's success is the best way to keep their interests in the doggy school time.
Have you heard of Canine free style?
According to Canine freestyle federation website (click here to read more on canine freestyle at Canine freestyle federation website), it is a choreographed performance organized with music, illustrating the training and relationship between dog and handler team.
I have seen many big dogs like Golden retriever, Border collie showing off their dancing skill, but tiny dog like chihuahua can learn the same routine as big dogs.
Bellow is a double canine free style youtube video where tiny chihuahua,border collie,and their mom dancing to the music. They are clicker trained and certainly, they are very good performers.
Double Canine Free style
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch video.
Dogs exercised physically,mentally are less likely to find their own business to do,and get into trouble.
Do you give plenty of mental exercise to your dogs?
What kind of things you do with your dogs for mental exercise?
Very first play dogs would experience is when they are still puppies. They play with siblings and dog parents and learn how to greet other dogs, how to read body language, how not to bite others hard, and other social etiquette in the doggy world.
These things are something we, human parents, cannot teach them enough, and also it is something playing alone cannot teach them. So, playing with siblings and dog parents at early puppy hood becomes first important things in their life.
Puppies who did not play much with siblings or dog parents at early puppy hood might have hard time playing with other dogs because of lack of knowledge in social etiquette in the doggy world.
Interactive play..
When they play with us, human parents,it helps build strong bond between us,and they learn the social etiquette in our human world. Needless to say, playing is also a good physical, mental exercise.
I think that through interactive plays such as fetch ball/Frisbee, tug of war,they can learn impulse control (being calm down when they are very excited and wanted to bark out loud), they can learn cue such as "give"/"Drop".
Also, canine sports such as flyball,Agility etc.. are also good mental exercise for dogs,and give them opportunity to let the pent up energy out, have fun with you while building the bond stronger, and it gets them tire out physically,and mentally.
*squeak,squeak,squeak..*
I love bringing the squeaky egg toy back to mom!
*pant,pant,pant..*
This is so much fun!
Can I play fetch squeaky egg game more,mom?
When we play fetch ball/Frisbee, there is a rule for Palette.
** Sit & quiet before the game - I would not toss the ball or Frisbee if she were jumping around or barking continuously. Only when she is calm and quiet, game begins. Also, she needs to release the object in the mouth to continue playing the game.
You can read how to teach your dog to bring the ball back to you and see Palette in action with fetch ball/Frisbee game via videos in the previous entry titled "Playing game of fetch ball/Frisbee".
With Tug of war games,when I play Tug of war with my stumpy little dog "Palette", I pick the tug of war toy,and usually,just having it in my hands and move around gets her attention. She gets excited,following around me, and maybe some barks at me. I just ignore her and walk up to the place where I like to play,and she follows me and shows her excitement with pawing at me or barks occasionally.
My rule number one for playing with our dog is that I never start any kinds of play unless she sits nicely and stop barking. She already knows how to get me in the favorite play quicker so,she tends to sit and quiet right away to play the fun game with me.
Once Palette gets sit and gives me attention and quiet,I say "Take it" and play tug of war but now and then during the tug game, I say "Give" or "Down" or "Bang!(Play dead) or "Spin" etc and I give her little treats every time she did her tricks.
It is, in a sense, like playing "Musical chair" if you will. It is just my version of tug of war play. If I say " Give" and if she released the tug toy,I give treats and then,I pause one second and make sure she sits and quiet before continuing the tug play.
When playing games with your dogs or when your dogs got into something they shouldn't and you would like them to give the stuff back to you, and when your dog did not release the object in the mouth, don't take the object away with force, just simply be patient,say nothing,just gently holding the object and as soon as your dog release the object,you click the clicker and give treats.
If someone tries to take objects away with force from dogs, it is in a way reinforcing the bad behavior and possibly the dogs would feel the need to guard the objects from you more. So, don't take objects away with force.
Normally, dogs would release the object if they were offered higher valued item than whatever he is having in his mouth..
Practicing "give" with low valued item and up the value as they do better is good way to go. When you take the low item away from them, right away, click the clicker and give treats, and give the stuff back to them and repeat over and over. This will teach them that everything you would take away would not go away completely but will back to them.
I sometime feed big meal (big meat with bone) to Palette and sometimes,I need to pick up the meal when she ate enough of it. Sometimes I need to take bone away because some type of bones are not edible.
When that happen, I use the "trade" cue and I trade the meal she was munching on or naked bones I need to pick it up with high valued stuff like chicken feet or duck feet,which she really really loves.
She spit out the bones or move away from whatever she was working on,and she sits down on the feeding mat,staring at me and I take the bone/meat away as I give her favorite snack. She does not go back to bones or meat to guard them,she is just being busy enjoying her favorite snacks.
"Find it" game is also good interactive play.It teaches them to use the eyes (sight),use their nose (smell) and, it is a good game for mental exercise.
There are also interactive toys on the market. I love interactive toys because those type of toys let them think and figure out what to do to get the treats, for example by experimenting the toys with all kinds of methods they could think of.
Palette playing "Hide a squirrels animal puzzle"..
I can see you,Mr.Squirrels...
Palette has buster cube for example.This interactive toy is a treat dispensing toy,and it is like a plastic square dice. You can put dry treats/food into the dice and adjust the difficulty of how much treats/food would come out with adjuster inside the cube.
Roll,roll,roll..
This toy is also good to teach the impulse control; dogs sit,you will place the toy on the floor, and if your dogs tries to stand up to nose at it, don't put the Buster food cube on the floor yet and tell them "wait".
Then,you will try again to put the Buster food cube on the floor and if they kept "wait" cue, put the toy on the floor and give about a few seconds or so of waiting time,and give them a release cue from "wait".
With your release cue, they can start working on the Buster food cube to have fun.
For 5 years, her meal started with sit and wait and starts eating with my release cue from "wait". She was looking at food I was placing onto the food mat,and decided to position herself in front of the food mat,and good "watch me" behavior (eye contact) and kept staring at me and waited until I finally broke the silence and said "okay" to eat. I am very pleased with her.
"Wait" cue is also good one to teach when you take your dogs for a walk/potty and not dashing out from the house etc.. For you, the item you will practice with has changed from "food bowl"/"Food buster cube" to the "door".
When I was using Buster cubes with kibble when she was puppy, she had a blast playing with the toy,mentally/physically exercising and using their brain to get it work for her.
There are many toys available on the market, but interactive toys like this are more than just being toys. Your dogs can experience mental/physical exercise,and depending on how you let them play with it, they can learn other things such as "wait " cue through playing with the toys.
You can read more on buster food cube treat dispensing toy in the taste testing entry titled "Palette's note;Buster food cube treat dispensing toy" here.
Puppies learn many things not just from the play with siblings,doggy parents, or human parents but also through everything you do with them in your daily life.
Teaching good behavior for grooming..
Are they comfortable being handled by a vet or you or groomer? Nail trimming,teeth brushing,grooming, bathing...
It is not something they can learn through the play or just running around the house or resting and, we are responsible to teach them what they need to do when paws,muzzles etc were handled by not just us but also by vet or groomers. You need to teach them how to respond when they are being handed by the vets,groomers or us from early time.
Mom,time for doggy school
Dogs, just like human, have sensitive spots. For human, spots will be arm pits, back of foot. For certain period of times, you probably can endure touching,poking and all that but if it lasts long, you would become uncomfortable and would tell people to stop tickling you.
Same thing for dogs. If dogs were touched,pulled,hold, poked around their sensitive areas, they too become uncomfortable and as a result, most likely growl with low tone to warn you, then snap at you to tell you to stop touching the area.
Dogs have sensitive areas just like us, but they cannot get away with being untouched. Certain spots such as muzzle area (for teeth cleaning) , paws (for nail trimming) etc need to be handled by you, by groomer, by vet etc for various reasons.
As a puppy, I touched Palette's paws, muzzle, zillions of times.
Paw handling practice..
Whenever you are petting them, keep treats near you, and even if you had no reasons to exam / touch those sensitive areas, touch them short period of time (start with very very short second,not holding the paw,just touch.), praise them big, give them treats. Start with one touch one small lentil sized treats.
Then,if she were okay,meaning if she did not pull her paw away from my approaching hand touch, I then started holding one paw one second and kept doing that over and over with lots of praise and lots of yummy treats.Then, one second hold were comfortable enough for Palette, I held her paw for a little longer and praised her and repeated over and over again.
And when she was okay with longer paw hold, I started touching her nail with clipper. Just touch the nail, click the clicker (Palette is clicker trained), give treats. When she started to not making any flinch when I touch her nail with clipper,I started clipping her nails on my own.
When dogs are not getting used to paws being touched,chances are, they would probably wiggles or try to nip your hands to release themselves from uncomfortable situation. When that happens,I would imagine that many people would try hard to hold dogs to keep them stay still for nail clipping whether the dogs are comfortable during the situation or not, and maybe you might be shouting "no,no,no".
And, often times, they would try to clip all nails at once, right on the spot. I think that the specific way actually make dogs feel more frightened, stressed, and not comfortable and see it as negative events, and I can imagine that next time you go pick up the nail clipper, as soon as your dogs see you moving towards the grooming box or see the nail clipper in your hands, they might go hide under the bed to avoid the unhappy events. That would not working for anybody's favor; for you or your dogs.
Clipping nail does not have to be all nail done in one time. First couple of times,I just clipped one nail, praised her very big following yummy treats and nice lovable massage,and called it done for the day.
I heard that some people use muscle relaxer when nail clipping, but is it necessary? While you are working on paw handling, you can bring them to groomer and let them do the nail and you will keep giving positive experience with nail trimming training with their pace,not yours.
I also have seen in one dog training TV show long time ago that dog was alpha rolled,covered with towel so that he cannot see what is going on and,one holding the dog,the other tried working on his nail.
Now, imagine you are in the situation where you and others cannot communicate each other via language, and you do not know what is going on,but suddenly,you are pushed down to the floor and blindfolded and somebody tried to straight your arm up so that they can do something on your hand.
Aren't you scary,stressful, and you would be fighting with all your power so you can be let go?
Since dogs are being force hold plus blindfolded, for him,it must be very scary,stressful and I would imagine he would try fight back with all of his power.
Negative experience like this is just reinforcing the not appropriate behavior,and we should find the way for positive experience when nail trimming and remember to be patient,be consistent, be calm, go slow,with their pace not yours. If you think you have reached the threshold line while training,just back up and go from there.
I find that Palette does better with dremel rather than clipper.
Muzzle handling practice..
When I am petting her, I just pretend to look her teeth a second or two by lifting up one side of lip very very shortly,and praised her big and gave her treats.
Your dog curls his lip up when you try to touch the muzzle? In that case, you could just touch the body,click,treats,body touch,click,treats and then gradually closer to your goal and you could touch lip,click the clicker,give treats,touch the lip,click the clicker,give treats.
You can always back up a little so you do not reach the threshold,and go from there.
After 5 years living with me, she stays lie down on her side when I look her teeth, and she yawn, and careless about what I do.
I did not start actual teeth brushing until she feels comfortable being handled muzzle. All I did while I was working on getting her used to have her muzzle handled relaxed was just one things.
** putting doggy tooth paste onto my finger, let her lick it off
Then, when she got excited enough for the tooth paste, I put tooth paste onto cloth and massage the teeth with the tooth paste cloth. When she could handled cloth massaging well, I bought a soft baby tooth brush, and started using it to brush her teeth.
Grooming is not physical exercise for your dogs but, when you think about it, since we are teaching them how to respond to what you do for grooming routines, it is in a way,mental exercise.
Mental exercise is the exercise that let them think about it, and let them figure out what to do. Training is one way to give opportunity to them for mental exercise.
Don't be scared of unfamiliar ..
Are they happy and enjoy seeing other dogs? Are they happy to see all kinds of people?
As I have written in the previous entry titled "Wag the tail to the world;Dog socialization",we were told by puppy training class trainer that it is important to take dogs to many places, let them meet all kinds of people, dogs, and try expose to as many things as possible from young puppyhood, and make them positive experiences and fun.
She also said that those experiences will influence on the puppy's social life,and it is important to keep them introduced to many people,places,objects throughout their life even after puppyhood throughout their life.
I learned that at 4 months, most important foundation period to learn good/scary (socialization period) ends, and those positive experiences would help dogs build their confidence.
Therefore,everything you do with them will have huge influences on them and also effects how they will behave on certain things.
They will test you to see what behavior would work for them,and what not, and we are shaping the behavior habits through how we respond to them also.
Palette and I go for walk everyday if not raining/snowing.
On our walk, she can meet all kinds of dogs,people,and unfamiliar objects, sound and smell while she is physically exercising;walking. At the same time, she is learning how to walk nicely or many things through games we play on the walk.
For example, we play green light,red light with car; I taught Palette to go side/ditch when we see/hear cars coming and stay still and start moving when cars passed us. Therefore,when she sees cars, she would be staying still at one spot and I think it is good manner for her with safety reason,and easy for driver to passes by us because she would not jump out to front of their cars or zigzagging the road in front of them.
I also do walk speed game. I walk with slow steps,brisk walk, slow steps and stop etc and she learns to pays attention to my pace and when I stop,she stops too and sit down right next to my legs. She enjoy playing this games with me and tries to keep up the pace with me and, it is good mental exercise also.
Even if we play those games on our walk, she has time to be a dog by sniffing around the grass patch, and she enjoys all kinds of things on walk. Walking is not just for physical exercise.
When I see dogs left outside in fenced yard,jumping,running against the fence wall with loud bark, I wish their human parents could take them to walk everyday and let them enjoy walk and they could experience physical/mental exercise to their heart content.
Training your dogs positive way..
I write a lot about positive training method;clicker training, throughout on the blog. Palette is clicker trained and, I think that clicker training is easy for anybody to try even kids, and clicker is clear communication tool between us human and dogs,and they are quick to learn things with positive attitude.
As I wear the training pouch, Palette comes out from nowhere trotting with her tongue hanging out and gives me big grin and sit down in front of me and always be ready to learn new things through training time.
She has fun during the training and, she is eager to learn things and, she tries thinking about what gave her a click when I am teaching her a new trick and, you will see that it is good activity for mental exercise.
Some people use force/aversive tools to teach thing, teaching dogs what NOT TO DO often with aversive,stressful way.
Alpha roll? When dogs get up after a few seconds of being alpha roll, his tail is often times tacked in between the legs with ears positioned like helicopter. The dogs are eager to learn manner with that scary,stressful way? I don't think so.
Some people say they spray water when dogs bark to stop barking. Some people may make dogs wear shock collar and use that to make them stop barking or to recall. Dogs could associate certain behaviors bring them unpleasant event but,what are they teaching with those things? Barking is natural communication in their world.
Alpha rolls or other aversive training tools teach nothing.They do not teach them how to respond. It just teach them what not to do. Teaching how to respond is more meaningful and in the process of teaching them how to respond, set the dogs up for success and give them a big praise. They will be eager to learn what you like them to do that way.
So, next time when you have barking problem,listen what they say. Barking has its meaning behind it. Could be delivery guy,trash truck,tress passing people in your yards,potty call,fear,boredom,unfamiliar noise,attention seeking..
I prefer to allow my dog a couple of barks.I usually go to her and look what she is barking at,then I say "Enough" and get her attention by blocking her view and she usually sit nicely,no barking. So,when she stopped barking,I click the clicker,give her small tiny treats saying"Thank you".
So, "thank you" means her alerting job is completed and no non stop barking will be going on in the house.
You can also teach your dog to bark on cue (speak)and teach your dog to be "quiet" on cue. Sometimes, it is easy to teach what they are doing with cue and then teach the opposite cue later.
Many people would say exercising your dogs are important and yes, taking your dogs for walk every day or many times if not possible is important for health, but at the same time, mental exercise is equally important.
There are so many opportunity in your daily life where your dogs can learn things. You can become an unpredictable person or the one with full of surprise for your dogs, and you can click the clicker when your dogs are least expecting to be clicked and give them tiny morsel of treats or nice petting as reward for good behavior and they will be happy to give you more good behaviors.
Sit before door open;click. Wait to dig in for the meal;click. Sit before play;click.Come when called;click. Give eye contact/attention when you call your dogs;click. Many,many more opportunity..
With clicker training, it is kind of like a game for your dogs because they would need to think about what they need to do to make you click for the yummy treats. Not just dogs that you can clicker training. Many animals such as horse can be trained with positive clicker training method,too.
I came across a great youtube video of horse and dog are clicker trained.You can see that horse,dog both thinking deep how to get their trainer give them a click. It is in a way, problem solving game.
Shadow the horse, Toby the dog (Clicker training)
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch video.
And, you can teach your dogs many fun tricks. I taught her to close door after me.I taught her to go hide on cue,come out on cue.
I am teaching Palette to go into the crate,pull the bandanna tied to her crate door to shut her own crate...
Sometimes,people say that small dogs are hard to train, but I do not think it true. You just need to be consistent,be calm,be patient and, teach them with their pace,not yours. And possibly be creative in training such as using the sofas for them to stand on during the training session so they can see the hand signal better.
Training does not have to be doggy boot camp either. Just take about 3-5 min a day and use that short time for quick training time and have fun with your dog. Short,fun training time ending the session with your dog's success is the best way to keep their interests in the doggy school time.
Have you heard of Canine free style?
According to Canine freestyle federation website (click here to read more on canine freestyle at Canine freestyle federation website), it is a choreographed performance organized with music, illustrating the training and relationship between dog and handler team.
I have seen many big dogs like Golden retriever, Border collie showing off their dancing skill, but tiny dog like chihuahua can learn the same routine as big dogs.
Bellow is a double canine free style youtube video where tiny chihuahua,border collie,and their mom dancing to the music. They are clicker trained and certainly, they are very good performers.
Double Canine Free style
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch video.
Dogs exercised physically,mentally are less likely to find their own business to do,and get into trouble.
Do you give plenty of mental exercise to your dogs?
What kind of things you do with your dogs for mental exercise?
Posted by yassy at 7/21/2011 1:51 PM 
Categories: Dog training
Tags: dogs mental exercise training grooming clicker training
Categories: Dog training
Tags: dogs mental exercise training grooming clicker training
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