Onyx Practices Her Skills

Onyx was working hard on her homework for puppy class this week. At puppy classes, we often give puppy raisers certain skills to work on with their puppy. This past week, the puppies and puppy raisers were given homework to work on visit, leave it with food, down and stay. You might remember from previous posts that Onyx really knows down. In fact, lately she has started to yawn when she goes into a down.

During puppy class, we were working on hand targeting, which means the puppies touch their nose to their puppy raiser's hand. Targeting is an important skill for the dogs to learn. It can be used to teach the dogs to turn light switches on and off and to press the button to open automatic doors, among other things. At puppy class, Onyx seemed more interested in the other dogs than in practicing targeting. Her puppy raisers tried moving her to the corner of the room, and eventually to the hallway, to eliminate distractions. Once one of the trainers came over and started working with her, though, she really focused and did great. She seemed to know that the trainers mean it's time to work.

Onyx does not seem to be afraid of other dogs, which is a good thing for a service dog-in-training. As Carol and Mark were leaving puppy class with her, SSD Stetson and his puppy raiser were coming in. Now, Stetson is our largest dog-in-training, weighing nearly 92 pounds. But his size didn't bother Onyx. She went running right up to him to say hello. When she got a little too enthusiastic, Stetson held her off with his head - a funny sight to see because his head is half as big as she is!

Onyx also got to see her brother Denim again! when these two pups saw each other, they reared up in excitement, ran toward each other and began playing.

Onyx is now practicing loose leash walking every day. While she was in Gettysburg with her puppy raisers, Carol took her for a walk, but Onyx did not do very well with loose leash walking. She didn't want to listen to any of Carol's cues. Carol had to cut the walk short. This particular time, Onyx was not wearing her service dog-in-training harness. Often, the dogs learn that when their harness is on, it's time to work. When the harness is off, they can relax and have down time. When they work on loose leash walking, Carol plans to dress Onyx in her purple harness and see if that makes a difference. Like all skills, loose leash walking is one that requires practice.

This past week, Onyx had some new experiences. The pier behind Mark and Carol's house flooded, and when the water receded, Onyx went down to investigate. There was a large piece of wood floating by the pier. Onyx probably thought the wood was part of the pier because she stepped on it - and stepped off real quick when it moved!

Later, she found some chestnuts floating in the water, and she tried to get one. Carol says she looked like she was bobbing for apples. Onyx seemed to know what she was doing, though, because when her nose was underwater, she blew bubbles. She did eventually get a chestnut, and she carried it around with her.

Read more about Onyx's progress next week.

Clicker Training Part 6: Generalizing Behaviors

One of the strongest benefits of clicker training is its ability to train dogs to generalize behaviors. It's extremely important for service dogs to be able to generalize behaviors so they can perform them in any environment. Service dogs are working dogs and they must be able to consistently perform behaviors regardless of environment or potential distractions. That means they must lie quietly under a table at a restaurant without barking, begging for food or scavenging from the floor. That means they must walk calmly on a loose leash next to their partner through a crowded mall or park. That means they must have excellent manners. The goal of training is to teach self control, which generalizes to any environment.

Why is generalizing a behavior important? Dogs, like humans, are creatures of habit. Once they learn where and when to perform a certain behavior, they will almost unfailingly continue giving that behavior in that same environment. This in itself is not a problem. You may want your dog to always give the same behavior in the same environment. The problem appears when you want your dog to perform that same behavior in a different environment. If he hasn't generalized the behavior, he may not be able to perform it as well, or maybe not at all, in the new environment. For example, let's say that you've always trained your dog to come when you're outside in the yard. Your dog is romping in the yard and having a great time, but it's time to come back into the house. While you're standing at your door, you call for your dog to come, clicking and treating when he comes. Soon your dog become super-trained to always come immediately as soon as you call him to come to the house. He now associates "come" with "come back inside the house" because that's how you always practiced this behavior. Now let's say you're standing in your living room and you call your dog (who is already in the house) to come. He'll probably look at you as if to say "Why are you saying 'come'? I'm already in the house." He may not respond by coming to you because in his mind, he has already performed the behavior just by being inside the house. So it's important to practice behaviors in many different environments so your dog learns to perform them regardless of where he is and what's happening around him.

To help your dog generalize a behavior, practice clicker training at different times of the day, in different rooms of the house. You should practice outside in your yard, or while you take a walk. Is a friend coming to visit? Take a few minutes to practice a behavior so your dog gets used to performing it no matter who is around.

Once your dog has generalized a behavior and can perform it in any environment, he is more likey to continue performing that behavior many years down the road.