Austin Dog Trainer Blog

The expansion to our training and boarding facility is almost complete!

We've been working hard over the last few weeks to complete the expansion of our Austin Dog Training and Dog Daycare/Boarding facility. The new kennel room, designed to help the dogs have a more relaxing stay, is now complete and the dogs moved into it today. The new Austin dog daycare playroom is almost painted, the floors are complete, and we're busy assembling the small play areas that will line the large play area in the middle. This new set up will let us break off small play groups tailored to each dog's needs and play style on a particular day, keeping play groups personalized and small.

A few more days and he change over to the new play area will be complete. We can't wait to show the new space off to all of our clients and their four-legged friends!

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer.

When do I need to check with a vet?

There are several behavior problems that may be connected to medical or physical causes. How do you know when to call your veterinarian for behavior issues? Here is a list of times when you absolutely want to consult with your veterinarian. You should also ask your dog trainer or behavior consultant if they see any red flags that they think indicate a trip to your veterinarian is in order.

• Any sudden changes in behavior should prompt a call to your vet. For example, if you have a dog that was previously housetrained but suddenly begins to have accidents in the house or urinate on an odd place (like your bed), make tha call!
• If your dog has issues with being handled physically, it may just be a matter of never having taught your dog that human hands are a good thing. It may; however, also be a sign that your dog has a physical issue that needs to be addressed. For example, if your dog is sensitive about being touched, they may have some pain that is either causing or exacerbating the problem. It's worth asking your veterinarian for their opinion the next time you're in.
• If you're working on an anxiety issue, you may want to ask your veterinarian if they think supplements, herbal treatments, or medication should be considered. Don't try any herbal or other supplements or medications without checking with your veterinarian! Even over the counter supplements or treatments can interact with any other medications your dog may be on and can have an effect on your dog's body and health. Always consult your veterinarian before use!
• If you have worked with a professional dog trainer or behavior consultant to tackle a behavior problem and, despite following the training protocol and making adjustments to troubleshoot the training protocol, you do not see effects, you may want to ask your veterinarian if there could be a medical problem contributing to the problem.  

Cara Shannon, Austin Dog Trainer

New puppy? Teach it to handle vet trips with ease

Puppies can be taught to handle vet trips with ease - follow these steps to help your pup ease into vet trips:

• Ask your veterinarian if you can bring your puppy by periodically for visits with the front staff without having to undergo any exam. Simply let the staff cuddle with your pup and feed treats for sitting politely. Put your puppy on the scale and feed treats and then head home. Just be sure that you don't let your pup say hello to any dogs waiting in the lobby - they may have a contageous illness! And, bring a towel or mat for your puppy to sit on when greeting the staff and sitting on the scale so that your puppy isn't sitting on surfaces where other dogs have been.
• When going to the vet for an actual examination, take extra special goodies. My favorite is a can of dog food and a small teaspoon. Keep your puppy lapping up the food while the vet examines her and while vaccinations and temperature taking happen.
• While at the vet, don't make a huge deal over any fear your puppy shows. Your puppy will pick up on your cues and become calmer when you remain calm and happy and become more worked up when you let yourself get upset.
• When waiting in the waiting room or examination room, play your puppy's favorite game of tug or with a squeaky toy.
• At home, teach your puppy to handle things like looking in the mouth or ears, rolling your puppy gently onto its back for a tummy exam (don't force this - just rub your puppy's tummy and ease her onto her side or back and do nice little massages for a reward!), and practice hugs, holds, and lifts so your puppy is not spooked by these things during a veterinary exam.

Cara, Austin Dog Training

Back from another trip to Sequim!

I'm just back from another trip to Sequim, Washington!  While no trip to beautiful Sequim is ever wasted, this trip was a particularly good one!  I spent a week chicken training with world-renowned animal trainer, Bob Bailey.  We spent the week training two chickens to discriminate between different shapes and colors.  One of my chicken, Sweetie, learned only to peck on a triangle shaped target to earn reinforcement.  The other, Chickie, learned only to peck a blue colored target for her reinforcement.  We work on this until our birds will only peck the hot target no matter what order they are in when placed down with other shapes and colors.  If the hot target is picked up and only "wrong answers" are shown, the chicken will wait for at least 20 seconds without offering the wrong answer.  They'll then immediately peck the hot target when it is placed down.

Then, on the last day, using only free-shaping (clicking and treating for successive approximations of our end goal), we teach the chickens to no longer peck their original shape or color, but to peck a new shape or color for reinforcement instead!  This challenges the trainer's skill in timing, setting and recognizing criteria, effective placement of reinforcement, observation, and much more!  It's an extremely effective and fun way to polish and maintain a dog trainer's skill!  I'll post video clips later in the week.  I'm working on the same discrimination exercises with some of our boarding dogs now, too!  They love the mental stimulation and interaction.
Cara Vacchiano, Buddy's Chance, Austin Dog Training and Behavior

How far would you travel for board and train for your dog?

I was going through some of the forms today for our Austin Dog Board and Train programs and it occurred to me that people come from some very long distances for our dog board and train services.  Although most of our board and train clients live right here in Austin, many come from Kyle, San Marcos, and Dallas.  I have a client who is currently looking for board and train services for her elderly mother's dog in Missouri so she and I were discussing the pros and cons of doing a board and train program for dogs on a distance basis.  There are several things to consider when deciding whether to do a long-distance board and train program for your dog.  First, will you be able to go to the trainer's location and work with them at least once or twice to help your dog transfer the learned behaviors to you?  My clients are all able to do this with me even though they live several hours away.  Are there any quality dog trainers where you live that offer similar services?  If so, what can the long distance trainer offer that they cannot?  Will the trainer provide telephone support free of charge to you after your dog goes home to help with the transition to your home?  Last, is the board and train program a highly specialized one that you cannot find elsewhere?  For example, perhaps it is a dog board and train program that addresses aggression or that trains your dog to be a hunting dog.  This may make travel more reasonable.

Whether you decide to do a long distance dog board and train program or one that is close to you, remember to ask a lot of questions about the type of training provided, the care your dog will receive, the private training that you will receive, and the level of generalizing and proofing of the behaviors that you can expect from the program!

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

What are the most important things to teach your new puppy?

Most puppy owners are eager to work on things like sit and stay.  I want the  focus to be on socializing that puppy (teaching the puppy about sights, smells, sounds, people, and other dogs), teaching the puppy not to jump up or nip at your heels, and teaching the puppy to pay attention to you when you say its name.  If I had a puppy, my puppy would:

1 - Never see the inside of a food bowl:  All food would come either from me for sitting, looking at me when I say its name, or coming when called.  Any food I wasn't using for training would go into interactive feeding toys for my puppy to figure out.

2 - Go with me to a new place every single day:  No matter how tired I was, my puppy would go to the vet's office to say hello, a Home Depot to see sights and sounds, a children's playground, or a shopping center every single day for the first few months of its life.  I want a puppy that is not afraid of new experiences.

3 - Get fed for sitting from as many people as I could possibly find.

4 - Be crate trained and trained to stay alone comfortably.

Sure, there are other things I would teach and we would do a lot of training, but these are the things I'd focus on for the first couple of months of that puppy's life! 

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

Smart Dog Blog!

One of my fellow board members on the Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers has this excellent blog on dog training: http://smartdog.typepad.com/  Check it out!

Cara Vacchiano, CPDT, Austin Dog Training and Behavior

Teach your dog to beg!

My dog begs for food at the table- what should I do?

Begging can be an extremely annoying habit, but it is actually quite fixable!  ll you need to do is decide HOW you want your dog to beg and then train that begging behavior.  For example, let's say my dog begs by standing with its head in my lap drooling on me.  I can simply decide that I'd like my dog to beg for food by laying on a bed across the room instead.  First, teach your dog to lay on the bed and then begin reinforcing your dog with food as long as he lays there quietly when you eat.  At first, you'll need to reinforce your dog with a piece of food throughout your meal - the reinforcement may need to be every few seconds at first.  Over time, your dog can learn to lay on its bed for a single reinforcer at the end of the meal.  Eventually, your dog will even learn to go to its bed without being told to whenever you sit down to eat because it knows this is the chance to earn some goodies! 

Alternatively, you could reinforce your dog for staying behind a certain line (such as a doorway threshold) while you eat.  Or, pay your dog for laying at your feet.  Just pick some nice way of begging and reinforce that new behavior heavily!

Cara, Buddy's Chance, Austin Dog Training

If doorways aren't the answer to leadership, what is?

So, if going through the door isn't the way to gain leadership over my dog, what is?  Should I eat first?  Do Alpha Rolls?  Maybe I should never let him stand above me when I'm laying on the floor. 

To be honest, I don't think there is any ONE thing you can do that makes your dog respect you or see you as a leader for them.  In general, I believe in requiring politeness and manners around the house and not allowing dogs to get things in life by being pushy or barking.  And, don't forget, not every dog is walking around trying to figure out how to take over the world or even just your house!  We probably think about leadership a lot more than most dogs do because it's been drilled into our heads in the popular media that we need to establish dominance over our dogs.  That said, there are some things that can contribute to a well-run house:

1. Hand feed your dog or puppy throughout the day.  Rather than putting food in a bowl and letting your dog scarf it down, hand feed your dog its meals throughout the day as reinforcers for looking at you when you say its name, coming when called, sitting politely instead of jumping up, or performing a trick like shake or roll over.  Remember, control the assets (food) and you'll control the behavior!
2. Never respond to demand barking or jumping up.  If your dog or puppy is jumping on you or barking at you to get something it wants, leave the room!  Rude manners make me leave!
3. Require pleases and thank yous!  Okay, this one isn't quite accurate because I rarely require a thank you from my dog.  I always require a please, though!  Dogs can say please for things they want (there are those all important assets again!) by sitting, doing a roll over, performing a down stay, or touching a target on cue.  Any trained behavior can serve as a "please" to earn an asset (going outside in the yard, coming up on your lap for petting, having a toy thrown, getting you to put a food bowl down).

Remember, you're the one with the opposable thumbs and big brain!  Use those to your advantage. 

Cara, Buddy's Chance, LLC Austin Dog Training, Dog Behavior, and Dog Daycare

Do I need to go through the door before my dog?

People often tell me that they're making their dog wait to go through the door after they've walked through.  Their intention is to establish themselves as leader with their dog.   Personally, I believe you can do just fine as the leader of your group even if you let your dog out the door ahead of you.  Both of my dogs frequently go out the door ahead of me and neither one has any issues with leadership.  The key is to control your dogs at the door.  My dogs have a wait at the door and a DOOR cue that tells them when to go through the door.  That way, if I want them to let me go first, I can have them wait and if I want them to go through the door ahead of me, I can say DOOR and they understand to move through the doorway. 

The DOOR cue is very easy to teach - start saying DOOR just before your dog moves through the door.  After several days, your dog will begin to pair that cue with the action of moving through the door. 

Your next step is to teach the Wait at the doors.  This one is really just as easy to teach, if you practice it.  Ask your dog for a Sit and, after they've sat, begin to open the door.  If their bottom comes off of the floor at all, close the door and wait for them to sit again (it may take several minutes for them to sit again - just wait).  When they've sat again, open the door again.  If they let you open the door without getting up from their sit, tell them DOOR and let them go through the door.  If they get up from their sit before you give the DOOR cue, close the door and wait for the Sit again.  Repeat the opening and shutting of the door over and over until they realize they have to keep their bottom on the floor to make the door open!

For an excellent demonstration of how to teach this and several other useful "politeness and manners" behaviors to your dog, check out Dr. Patricia McConnell's video, Feeling Outnumbered.

Cara, Buddy's Chance, LLC Austin Dog Training, Behavior, and Dog Daycare