Clean Run - May 2017 - 38

I begin with food on the floor held in my closed fist. When Shay chews on my hand or paws it, I simply hold still until he
remembers what was rewarded. The instant he moves his head away from my hand, I click and reward. I work toward having
hold position until clicked as shown in the third photo. The position is one that he chose.

When we've been out and about Shady
comes home and sleeps. So, as he appears to have stopped growing for a
little, I think it's time to introduce some
more training. He needs to be introduced to perch work, control around
toys and food, and his walk back needs
to be established. I'm wary of making life
and therefore training with me difficult
if he's going through a growth spurt.
But his legs surely can't get any longer?

Assessing Where You Are with
Training
Because his puppy class utilized luring, I have yet to teach him food refusal
(don't grab for treats), which is normally the first thing I teach puppies. There's
several reasons it's an important piece
of training, the most important being
the basic contract with a dog-if you
do what I want, I'll give you what you
want. Or, in other words, here's the food,
work out what you have to do to earn it.
Those are the rules of the game; I detest
dogs that grab! I have decided there
has been enough of a break between
puppy class and where he was then,
that it's not unfair to introduce some
new rules. Once he has the idea that
rewards have to be earned, there will
be a world of opportunity in front of us.
I haven't addressed the issue of him
settling without a crate as I had further
surgery on my hand and just couldn't
face it, so that was added to the list
for this month along with establishing stay. Once Shady discovered how
to ask me to let him out, when he was
bored he went out and in, out and in,
out and in. In most cases, he was not
only bored, he was also tired but didn't
know how to settle down.
38

Food Refusal
For food refusal, the first thing I do is offer food in my closed fist and click any
slight movement of the dog's head away
from the food. I'm sitting down on the
floor, my usual signal to offer behavior.
Placement of reward is very important
here; no matter what anyone writes
about the sound of the click, it would
have no value if it weren't paired with
reward. Make absolutely sure you move
your hand towards your dog to reward.
If you allow your dog to come forward
for reward, you'll make life confusing for
him. Shade was quite impressed with
this. He did chew my closed hand for a
considerable time, but after one reward
the chewing time decreased and after
10 he stopped altogether. After 20 rewards, he was still initially nudging my
hand, but definitely had the idea.
I later discovered that he had associated my closed fist with the down position, so anytime I offered him food in a
closed fist he dropped and then cocked
his head at me. This pup really is bright!
I dealt with it by ensuring that he was
rewarded for movement away from my
fist whilst he was standing which he
found entertaining. It's lovely watching a pup discover that they can make
rewards appear. I really start to enjoy
training when it becomes a conversation, and I have to make an effort to
keep to my aims rather than going with
what the pup finds entertaining!
Dexi had done this training before
and happily scooted away from me for
each reward. Darcey also cottoned on
quite quickly; she wasn't happy about
it though and lost interest after 10 rewards. I tried changing rewards, still
nothing. Then I brought out the liver

cake and she very delicately offered
me a paw. I swapped to a ball and she
perked up, at which point I made a note:
toys produce the dog I want, not food.

Dexi has done this training before
and enjoys it. He immediately
scoots backwards from my closed
fist as quickly as he can. It's
particularly empowering for
a rescue from his background to
be able to make food appear and
he throws himself into training with
obvious enjoyment.

When embarking on this type of training, be very careful about removing
rewards if the dog moves toward the
food rather than away from it. When I
was clicker training my daughter's
show-jumping pony, Lady, I discovered
just how frustrating removing rewards
can be. I was working towards a stay, or
ground tie, as she is a fairly hot mare.
I wanted her to understand what we
were asking, rather than be punished
until she worked out what made the
punishment stop, which is the usual
way of training horses. So, pony on
large rubber mat, reward for stationary
behavior, which she was happy with.
When I had the carrot on the floor in
front of her and picked it back up because she moved, she took off bucking
and squealing in a circle around me.
Frustration is much more obvious in a
pony! That experience has stayed with
Clean Run | May 17

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