The first time my big dog saw a child we were outside the vet’s office.

I’ve heard stories from my colleagues about dogs meeting children for the first time when the child runs up and hugs a dog’s head. I don’t want to think what would have happened if a child had hugged him before the day he saw children at the vet’s. It could have been a disaster.

When I teach classes, one of the steps I always cover is how to greet a dog. I often hear, “My dog always jumps on people so I don’t let him get close“ or “He barks too much.” If handled correctly, owners get to see their dogs being successful at something they didn’t think could happen. Conversely, these techniques can be used to greet others’ dogs, too.

With the prevalence of dogs in public nowadays, everyone should have an idea on proper procedure to greet a dog. Even if someone doesn’t like dogs, the knowledge can be useful. It’s especially important for children to know how to greet a dog properly for the child’s safety.

This article describes a proper introduction if the dog is yours. It isn’t meant to be a “how to” on training. If you have problems with any of these elements, please contact a professional trainer.

If someone is coming toward you and your dog, assume they do not want to meet your dog unless they start to approach or specifically ask to greet the dog. To be a good citizen, your dog should have already learned to stay with you unless told to do something else. Ask him to sit at your side.

Ask the person to stop at least 5’ away and ask if they would like to greet your dog. If they continue toward you, hold your arm out with your palm toward them and say, “Please stop. My dog’s in training.” Even if your dog is perfect, most people will respect the request and stop.

Show the person exactly what you want them to do. Make a fist with your palm pointed down and arm extended. Hold your hand at the level of your dog’s nose. Tell the person that if your dog sniffs their hand then they can scratch the dogs chin or neck.

Give your dog permission to, “Go say hi” and let him go to the person’s hand. After the person has petted your dog, call him to you and continue on your way. Remember to thank the other person for helping you “train” your dog.

This post was provided by Marilyn Wolf, BS, CPDT-KA, Pet Trainer & Behavior Consultant of KorrectKritters, 727-372-9825.

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K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.

photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurat/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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When Nana Will, our dog trainer, said reward-based clicker training was the way to go, and the only way if I wanted to work with her, it was a no-brainer. You see, Nana is a “cross-over” trainer, and, to my mind, that gave her a lot of credibility. When Nana helped me train my previous dog, Morgaine, we used compulsion techniques. I remember Nana saying to me when Morgaine was about 6 months old and ready for her first lesson in ‘heeling,’ “You’re not going to like this,” meaning I wasn’t going to like the choke-chain-collar-pop correction ‘necessary’ to teach Morgaine that not heeling was not good. She was right. But, by compulsion standards, Nana’s approach was mild and Morgaine was a confident, resilient dog.

Then along came fearful, reactive Sadie in 2006 and, again, I called Nana. In the meantime, as she tells it, Nana was blessed to have been able to study with some of the greats, including several years with Marian Breland Bailey before her death in 2001.

I’ll never forget Nana (who has been training service dogs for over 20 years) telling me this story: After teaching her service dogs to do EVERYTHING using reward-based clicker training she said she noticed a huge difference. “The compulsion trained dogs did their jobs–opening doors, picking up keys, delivering the telephone to their person’s lap, and so on. But, the positively trained dogs not only did their jobs, they were really HAPPY!” I wanted ‘happy’!

During our weekly private sessions, Nana tutored me in using a clicker and rewards—I was all thumbs at first and my timing was miserable. But, with practice and Nana’s guidance I caught on and Sadie advanced despite my fumbling. And, because Sadie is fearful and very sensitive I know working with her will be a life-long undertaking.

So, at Nana’s urging I immersed myself in the works of Patricia McConnell, Jean Donaldson, Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor and many others. Now, for me, like Nana, there is no looking back.

You can find Deborah Flick’s entertaining and educational blog about Sadie here or follow her on Twitter: @boulderdog1.

This article has been provided by Grisha Stewart of Ahisma Dog Training.

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K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.

Getting a new puppy is always an exciting time.

For young puppies, it is imperative you use a lot of encouragement, praise and rewards (positive reinforcement) to train your new addition. As soon as you get home, start your training right away…the sooner the better.

Work on developing good habits and preventing the bad habits from the start, as opposed to trying to correct bad behaviors later on. Keep your training sessions fun, consistent and short. Start out with easy commands and build from there. Really celebrate the successes, and reward your puppy for good behavior.

Developing a strong sense of trust between you and your puppy is essential…the puppy needs to trust you, and you need to trust the puppy. Avoid harsh corrections, punishment, and any other kind of negative punishment. The goal is to make your puppy enjoy the training sessions and look forward to them, not be afraid or anxious.

It is important to remember you are dealing with essentially a baby. Don’t create unrealistic expectations…it takes time to learn new behaviors. Be flexible, loving and patient. This is all new to the puppy, and he is not going to learn it overnight. Don’t focus on the mistakes, focus on the positive behavior, and the bad behaviors will eventually subside.

Have fun with your puppy…they grow up so fast! But keep in mind this is a very important time, as you are laying the groundwork for his life with you and your family. You are also developing a relationship and bond with your new puppy, so this time is precious and critical.

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K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.

K9 Cuisine: What is your story-how did you get into pet behavior/training?

Marilyn: I started studying training in earnest when we adopted Tommy at about two months of age. When I saw that little brown face and yellow eyes — that puppy was going to be mine. Tommy was never a cuddly pup. He was always curious, always interested in his environment. Before he was a year old, he had decided his job in life was to be our Sheriff. He took his job very seriously. My fat, round puppy grew into a 90-pound dog that was solid muscle.

I wanted to be as good a partner to my dog as I could be. I learned different techniques, training, behavior analysis, more body language specific to dogs, and environmental management. I became a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT). I used every tool I could find to help my dog.

A more complete story is on my website on the page entitled, “Tommy.”

K9 Cuisine: What is the secret to your success with your business-how have you gotten to where you are today?

Marilyn: When training for other organizations, I was always asked to do something with which I was uncomfortable. Even if it was something as minor as putting on a Gentle Leader when I didn’t think the dog needed it, I didn’t want to have to do it. So I started my own company, Korrect Kritters, LLC. Now I can help the dogs in any way I think is appropriate. And I do.

About that same time, my husband and I decided to foster dogs. We were lucky enough to meet the District Director with Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida (LRRoF). We have fostered several dogs over the years. Once she found I was a professional trainer, I started fostering the dogs with problems. I also do in-person or phone consults for behavior problems on any dogs owned by the rescue. I’ve made amazing progress with a couple of dogs and improvements with all of them.

K9 Cuisine: What makes you different?

Marilyn: I use skills such as analysis, team building, and managing multiple projects in manufacturing (in the Midwest) and the Federal government (in the Northeast). Decades of being a “hobby trainer” preceded becoming a professional trainer. As a parent, stepparent, and grandparent who has lived with dogs of all sizes, ages, and temperaments over the years, I have insight to many family situations.

I am willing to meet people and dogs “where they are” when I do an in-home consult. In the beginning, I do a lot of listening and watching to get an idea of household dynamics. I am usually calm and quiet around the dogs, sometimes whispering to get their attention. I am usually calm and quiet around the people, sometimes teaching them relaxation techniques. Timing and technique in both scenarios is key.

K9 Cuisine: What is it about dogs that you love?

Marilyn: Their almost constant communication. The way they live in the moment. In even bad circumstances, their efforts to make the best of any situation. Their talent for reading people.

K9 Cuisine: What is the neatest part about your work?

Marilyn: I get paid to play with puppies!!! How great is my job!!

I use reward-based training and teach people how to ignore what they want to go away and reward what they want repeated. For some dog owners, this is a new way of thinking about the interaction with their dog. I like seeing the way it improves the relationship. More broadly, a change in the behavior of my clients and their dogs has a ripple effect within the community. Their friends, families, and neighbors often begin to use my techniques, too, because the dog is behaving and having fun doing it.

K9 Cuisine: Where do you see the pet training/behavior industry going?

Marilyn: Dog trainers are becoming professionals, not just people doing a job. Different organizations are developing standards of operation and methodology. More of us have college degrees and/or specialized education. Most of this is going without the attention of the dog owning public currently.

K9 Cuisine: How do you fit into that-what are your future plans?

Marilyn: I’m a member of several professional dog training organizations. I’m on the Board of Directors of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. I also work behind the scenes in many ways.

K9 Cuisine: How can people find out more about you and your organization?

Marilyn: My website http://www.korrectkritters.com, or my blog http://korrectkritters.blogspot.com , or at Lab Rescue of Florida http://www.labradorrescue.net .

K9 Cuisine: Tell us a little about you!

Marilyn: My parents had dogs before they had me. I’ve lived with dogs most of my life and consider myself lucky to have been able to do so.

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K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.

I met Debbie Jacobs on Twitter (her name there is @fearfuldogs and mine is @doggiezen). I followed her because of her thoughtful comments on Twitter, but then I started reading through her blog and was truly impressed. It has such a wealth of information, including some excellent Games and Exercises for fearful dogs. Debbie is also the author of “A Guide to Living & Working with a Fearful Dog” – downloadable here http://fearfuldogs.com/fearfuldogbook.html.

Here is Debbie’s story of how she once thought she was not doing ‘real dog training’ if she used treats instead of force. It gave me goosebumps!

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Training Samantha

I found an old picture of me at age thirteen. My spectacled, smiling gaze was aimed downward at my dog, Sam.  It is possible to see that I am holding my hand, with dog treats, on the side of my leg I want Sam to leap toward. I had, without any instruction discovered lure training, having initially tossed treats over my leg to get her jump my personal agility element. I was ‘fading’ out the lure by using my hand with the treat to cue her to jump. At the time I had no understanding of ‘how’ I was training my dog. I just knew that it was fun to get her to do ‘tricks’ which I proudly showed off to my family.

Despite their applause I knew that I was not ‘really’ training her. It was just too easy, and I was using treats, surely ‘real’ dog trainers didn’t use food rewards to get dogs to do things. Getting a terrier to jump through a hula hoop or over a leg to reach the treat on the other side seemed like such a no-brainer that I couldn’t feel any real pride in the achievement. There must other ways that trainers got dogs to perform tricks, ways that a kid like me knew nothing about.

At that time indeed there were. Trainers like William Koehler were instructing owners on the variety of different chains and collars to use to control and manage their dogs along with the size and material best suited for use as a truncheon to beat a dog that didn’t follow commands. The methods that he and trainers like him advocated had percolated through our culture and were incorporated into some of the relationships I had with dogs. I once jammed my knee into a dog’s chest so forcefully when it jumped on me that when I re-entered the house and the dog cowered away from me I felt only embarrassment and regret when his owner complimented me for ‘training’ him to stop jumping.

On my sixteenth birthday I was given a puppy and could not have been happier. This eight week old ball of fluff and I were as inseparable as a dog and young teenager could be, and more than we should have been. I would regularly skip classes so I could sneak home and cuddle with her. I named her Treble and she was by anyone’s account a beautiful dog. She looked like a small, reddish-gold Belgian Malinois with feathers on her legs and tail. I told people who asked that she was a ‘golden shepherd’, but she was just pure mongrel.

Though I never thought about training Treble she learned to sit, lie down, and would turn on a dime when I called her name, even if she was in pursuit of a squirrel, an activity which I encouraged during our visits to the Boston Common. Treble rode on the subway and wandered the streets of the city with me. I strolled on the beach while she tormented sea gulls pecking at debris along the tide line. I adored her and her seeming adoration of me. She was a dog, my precious dog, and nothing that she did ever seemed to me to be a punishable offense. Rather it was me that snuck her into rooms, allowed her on beds, and into cars that had been designated off-limits to dogs, the tell tale fur left on bedspreads and upholstery earning me frowns and rebukes from my family.

When asked, as children often are, what I wanted to be when I grew up, I did not know how to respond. The only jobs that I was aware of that would have allowed me to spend time with dogs, which is what I would have preferred, were dog catcher (as they were called back them) or veterinarian. Dog catcher was loaded with too many negative connotations, though today I have high regard for people who choose a career in animal control. I was allergic to cats and not interested in medicine. Dog training was limited to military, police and ‘seeing eye’ dogs and ‘dog trainer’ had not made it into aptitude tests or onto the lists of high school guidance counselors.

In this year’s Canis Film Festival there is a film produced by a seventeen year old trainer by the name of Devi Stewart showing how she taught her dog Chaos* to submerge its nose in a bowl of water and blow bubbles. To accomplish this she used a clicker and treats. I was impressed by and envious of this young trainer. More than thirty years after the thrill of getting a dog to jump over my legs, Devi was getting her dog to perform a ‘trick’ which would inspire professional trainers. I could not have begun to imagine how to teach a dog to do this when I was that age, but by applying the principles of positive reinforcement, i.e., dogs will repeat behaviors they get rewarded for, she made it look easy.

While I was living my life, accompanied by dogs, there had been an evolution in dog training. I envy Devi the years she has ahead of her during which she can hone and perfect her training skills and the pleasure she and her dogs will derive from it. As for me, I’m looking forward to learning a few new tricks myself in the years to come.

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You really should watch that bubble video. Very cool!

K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.

A few years ago, we got lucky and Kathy agreed to do private behavior consultations at Ahimsa. My clients rave about how well their dogs are doing now and how much they love Kathy. So here’s the story of how Kathy got into reward-based training, in her own words.

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My choice to train dogs with carrots, not sticks.

I’m embarrassed to write this. At first, I didn’t understand that leash corrections, reprimands, squirt bottles and all the other painful or annoying tools traditionally used to train dogs were unnecessary. This was despite the fact that, at the time, I’d already spent more than 10 years successfully training complex behaviors to dolphins, whales, walruses, sea lions and polar bears without resorting to “sticks” (punishment). A veritable pack of professional dog trainers, some whom I knew well, told me that these force-free training methods (often called clicker- training) would never work on dogs. And, for a while, I believed them.

Then, in 1994, I attended a clicker-training workshop that Karen Pryor presented in Tukwila Washington. I’d met Karen once before and decided to attend mainly to say hello to her and to support her work. I wasn’t expecting to have my entire dog-training paradigm shifted! So I was stunned when her first comment was to request that none of the many attendees use any leash corrections on their dogs during the two days of the workshop. I couldn’t figure out why popping a dog’s collar – a standard training technique – would have any connection to using a clicker to mark instants of good dog behavior and using food-treats to pay the dog for these desirable behaviors. But Karen explained clearly how the frequent use of punishment, even mild stuff that’s more irritating than cruel, erodes the trust that is the foundation of all great training. (Check out Karen’s brand new book here “Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What it Teaches Us About All Animals.”

Since then, I’ve spent 15 years learning everything I could about the amazing power of reward-based dog training. And I’ve never looked back. Once you experience the incredible “shivers down your spine” level of two-way communication you can develop with your dog (or cat or colt or kid) using positive reinforcement (e.g., food, toys, play, praise, butt-scritches, etc), you lose the excuses you had for “needing” to use punishment. And you discover potential in your trainee that you never imagined. Clicker-training is an infinitely creative process, in the truest sense of the word. It creates behavior – useful moves like coming when called, settling on a dog bed, and sitting at doorways or silly tricks like spinning, sneezing or waving. Punishment, which suppresses behavior, is a destructive process. Not much fun, for the animal or the trainer. Thank goodness all of us who train pet dogs, service and guide dogs, competition dogs, search & rescues dogs – all dogs – can choose a better way.

Next to my desk, I’ve hung a scrap of paper, on which is written this quote from the life-changing book Coercion & its Fallout by Dr. Murray Sidman (2001; available here): “An overworked and incorrect bit of folk wisdom pronounces the carrot to be of no avail unless backed up by the stick. But the carrot can do the job all by itself.”

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Find out more about Kathy Sdao on her website. You can also get videos of Kathy’s excellent seminars from Tawzer Dog Videos.

This was provided by Grisha Stewart of Ahisma Dog Training.

I’ve asked Dr. McConnell why she chooses to use reward-based training:

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I’m not sure if there was a specific moment in time when I became aware of how powerful and satisfying reward-based training is, but here are some highlights from the past that I remember:

~ When, in 1968, I took the first dog I owned to “dog training class” and the trainer hung a Basenji when he wouldn’t sit on command. The trainer explained that his dominance was being tested by the dog, and that he had to win the battle. He held the dog up in the air, on a choke collar, with all four paws off the ground, as the dog struggled and gasped and growled. As I stood, horrified and transfixed, my adolescent Saint Bernard had the sense to get up from his sit, turn around and face the other way. He lay down and… I’m serious here.. put one paw over his face. I took one look at him and left the class, never to return.

~When I heard Ian Dunbar say “There are a hundred things a dog could do wrong at any given moment, and if you correct one behavior, what is to stop him from doing something else you don’t want? Why not teach him what you DO want him to do? How else is he going to know?” I’ll never forget sitting in the audience and thinking about how clear and logical and sensible that was. It was as though the clouds had parted.

~ When I first used a treat to teach a puppy to sit, and discovered that in a couple of sessions my 8 week-old pup had learned to sit, lay down, and wait at the door on cue. It was easy, it was fun and it made using collar “pops” seem antiquated, ineffective and well . . . I don’t know any other way to say it: stupid.

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Dr. McConnell’s blog is http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com

For seminar and book information, http://www.patriciamcconnell.com

I can’t help but put in a quick plug for a 2010 seminar with Patricia McConnell in Seattle on dog aggression and play. Info is on the Ahimsa website http://ahimsadogtraining.com/workshop.php

Before you begin training, decide what verbal cue you will use. It’s very important that you not use a cue that your dog has already learned to ignore. I recommend that you use your dog’s name and a cue such as “here”. Now that you have decided on a verbal cue, let’s get started. Grab 10 very small dog treats and go to a quiet area with your dog. With Fluffy right in front of you, give your cue, “Fluffy, here!” immediately followed by a treat. Repeat until your treats are gone. What does Fluffy have to do to earn these treats? Nothing. Just by being with you, Fluffy gets her treats. Repeat this exercise several times each day for a week.

Your next training step will be to repeat the exercise with Fluffy loose in a room in your home. When Fluffy is distracted, give your cue, “Fluffy, here!” Don’t repeat your cue. Fluffy should turn and come to you. Immediately give Fluffy 10 very small treats, one at a time, before sending Fluffy to go off and play again. Repeat this exercise 5 to 10 times each day. Remember, Fluffy gets 10 very small treats each time!

Once Fluffy understands this game, begin practicing in different rooms of your home. Add distractions such as toys, bones, or playing with the children to the game. Vary the treats that you use. For more distractions that are more difficult to leave, use the very best treats.

When you are comfortable that Fluffy will come every time you call, take your training outside. Make sure that Fluffy is on lead when you take her outside. She’s not ready for off lead training yet. Begin working in a quiet area as free of distractions as possible. Remember this is a new location with many new distractions. Begin with the simple exercises and build on the difficulty each week.

Continue to practice with Fluffy in different locations. Add distance slowly. It’s not fair to expect her to leave her friends and come running to you from across the dog park after just a few weeks of training. If you are consistent with your training and you reward Fluffy lavishly when she comes to you, you will have a dependable Come When Called before you know it.

Beth Willingham, CPDT is the canine behavior specialist member of the Agile K9 Path team. She began training and competing in performance dog sports in 1982. She currently competes with her Golden Retriever, Frost. Beth offers a holistic approach to solving behavior or performance issues based on the individual needs of each dog. Contact Visit the Agile K9 website at www.agilek9path.com or contact Beth directly at beth@agilek9path.com.

Grisha and Peanut

Reward-based trainers focus on what the dog does correctly, and builds the ‘perfect’ dog from that foundation. So rather than a chunk of ice that we’re chipping off to make a statue, think of reward-based training as being made from clay. You can build it up exactly how you want to, without fear of making a wrong move and ruining the whole thing.

Dog trainers often fall into two camps: reward-based trainers or more traditional trainers that focus on punishment. There’s another camp that’s in between that calls themselves ‘balanced trainers’, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll lump those two together and say that anyone who punishes via force or fear falls into the more traditional camp. I’m a reward-based trainer, and I’d like to tell you what that means, why I do what I do, and what got me started in the first place.

When I got my first dog as an adult, I took a class at a big-box store. I already had a little aversion to prong collars, but after a couple of sessions with Spoon being too interested in the other dogs, the trainer convinced me it was a good way to get control. And it was, for about two weeks. At that point, I realized that I had put myself on the opposite team from my dog. Instead of working together to make progress, I felt like it was always me versus Spoon.

Here’s how I fell out of love with the prong collar…

I had heard a little about clicker training, but the teacher for my class told me that it was a silly gadget, that I’d be stuck using it forever. But the books I was reading said that wasn’t true, and they just raved about clicker training. One day, my curiosity got the best of me. I took a little lid to a juice bottle and used it as my first clicker.

The idea was to pair the click sound with a treat, so every time I made the juice lid pop, I fed Spoon a treat. I decided to click and treat every time she looked at my boyfriend. So when she’d glance at him, I would click and feed her a dog treat. She didn’t look at him because I asked her to, but because it was a small apartment and there wasn’t much else to do. Half a baggie of dog treats later, she would take the treat and snap her head back to him as soon as she could, to earn the next click.

Wow! I was hooked. I soon learned that to add a cue at this point, I just needed to say it right before she did the behavior, and only click/treat if I had asked for it. So I said, “Where’s Steve?” and she’d look at him (because she was going to anyway) and I clicked and treated. Five more times and then I didn’t say the cue. She looked anyway, but just like the Simon Says game, Simon didn’t say “Where’s Steve?” so no food for that. Then back to cuing and feeding for when she did it.

Once she got that down, we didn’t need the clicker – that was just to tell her what I wanted in the first place. For years, we’d play hide and seek in the woods and Spoon would always be able to find him.

After the little clicker experiment and the teamwork I felt, popping her with a prong collar made me a little sick to my stomach. I tossed it in the trash. From that point forward, I’ve been doing reward-based training with my dogs and loving it. I even started a business in 2003 called Ahimsa Dog Training, and we use reinforcement for regular training, but also for big problems, like aggression. I picked the name “Ahimsa” because it’s a Buddhist doctrine of non-violence toward all living things. Punishment is so seductive that I wanted to pick a name that would keep me on the reward-based path.

I’ve since learned that you can’t really combine rewards and punishments, or you end up with ‘poisoned cues’ – so my instincts to trash that collar were right!

Look for more stories from reward-based dog trainers from around the world!

Our website is http://ahimsadogtraining.com (or just DoggieZen.com if you’re typing it in). Our blog has a huge number of articles on dog training.

On Twitter, my name is @doggiezen.