When we left off last month, Luke and I were working on the “Relaxation Protocol” as a step to try to calm him down when strangers come to our house. There’s bad news and good news. The bad news: I made the huge mistake of bragging about how he made it all the way to Day 10 of the protocol. I definitely spoke too soon…because that’s as far as we made it. We never got past Day 10.
The only different thing Day 10 added to the routine was me knocking lightly on the wall when I left the room. The strange thing was, he didn’t react to the knocking….he stayed on his bed, and when I came back in, got his treat. But then he got up off the bed and didn’t want to go back to it. This happened several times over the course of trying for a few days and taking days off from trying too.
But it wasn’t just that he wouldn’t stay in the bed. It got to the point where he didn’t even want to go to his bed, and then even started to not want to come downstairs where we were doing his training (normally he got super excited when he knew we were headed down to train). That was the point when we stopped, and I decided it was time to try something else. He seemed to be going through a spell too…he wasn’t being as good about his “stay” and “here” at other times. He is approaching two years old and I wondered if he wasn’t just starting his “terrible twos” early.
We worked on things outside…reinforcing “here” and “stay”. I could get him in a “down stay” out in the yard, with his sisters out there as well, and walk all the way around the corner of the house without him breaking it until I called him! I don’t think it was a behavioral issues then, I think it was just something with the protocol. Maybe he was just bored with it? I don’t know, but it was time to move on to something else. We went back to doing fun things downstairs so that he would want to come down again, and he will go to his bed now as well.
The good news: I was left deciding where to go from there. One of our blog friends had suggested that obedience training is a good way for dogs to learn confidence, so I decided to go back to working on his basics, and back to the trick training that he loves. I found this fun Clik Stik (affiliate link – we may receive a small commission if you click on that photo and order through it) online, and wanted to use it as a tool for some new things….”spin” and maybe even turning lights on and off.
No, you don’t need this fancy tool to train these things, but I really like this because it’s extendable and it has a clicker built right in! It took no time at all to train Luke to touch the little ball on the end of the stick. Just click and treat when he touches it. He’s really cute too because sometimes he’ll slide his nose along the stick until he gets to the ball.
I’m sharing this short video of him doing his spin and the touch. At the very end of the video, you will see him do the spin for the first time without me using the target! I was excited about that!
In the photos below, you can see him learning to touch the light switch, and it didn’t take long also before I had him touching it just by saying “touch” and pointing at it. Now, I just need to figure out how to get him to hit the actual switch! I wish we had those flat light switches because I think that would make it easier. We’ll keep working on it, and I’ll let you know if we get there (or if anyone has done this and has any hints it would be appreciated).
The other good news: I wrote about other progress we were making in other areas in this post: “Small Breakthroughs = Big Deal with a Reactive Dog” At the end I mentioned that because of his progress, I was learning to look for strangers on our walks, instead of avoiding them. I talked to our immediate neighbors, and in the past I had asked them to just ignore us if we walked by, but now I was ready for them to speak to us so that Luke would see them, and we could work on his reactions. We saw more than one neighbor on one of our walks for #DogWalkingWeek, and not only did Luke only growl once, for the first time he actually looked to me for a treat instead of focusing only on the strangers! I really felt like that was another breakthrough, and that we are making good progress here.
Because we are trying to sell our house, we’ve also had more people coming to the house for various reasons (we don’t stay here for showings though). Right now we are keeping Luke outside when this happens, but where he can look in and see people but not really interact with them. He’s done pretty well with that too. One of the times I stayed outside playing with them, and the TV man was in and out of the house where Luke could see him. He would run and bark at him, but again, I was able to distract him with the ball and get him to not just focus on that. We’ll be keeping him separate from people for a while, until we think he’s ready to be in the house with them.
I have some ideas rolling around in my head for more tricks for him to learn. I want to keep building his confidence in whatever ways we can. My future ideas include nose work classes, but I don’t think we’re ready for that yet. There’s a place online where you can earn a “Trick Dog Title” and I am thinking about doing something fun like that, which we can do on our own at home. That might be something to do over the winter, along with continuing nose work at home too. I also just keep sucking in all the hints and information I can, by reading books and blogs. This hop itself is a great resource and I’ve already picked up some new hints this month!
We are joining the Positive Pet Reinforcement hop this week. It begins on the first Monday of every month and runs all week long. The hop is hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Tenacious Little Terrier, and Rubicon Days. Please visit them as well as other blogs through the links below for more positive pet training tips.
I love the clicker! It is so important that everyone have a good time when training. I almost gave up with agility for Charlie because he was having trouble with the basics, but Im glad I stuck with it! Way to go Luke!
Thanks! We have our ups and downs, but if something isn’t fun for him, we just move on to something else. When he really likes something, like with the “spin” now, he’s so enthusiastic about it!
Teaching Luke to switch the lights on and off is pretty cool!! And great exercise, all at once! I love his waistline, by the way 🙂
I know, having it be exercise too is a bonus! We’re still working on getting him to hit the actual switch…that part isn’t easy.
Thank you, we work hard to keep him slim and trim, and I just love all his muscles too. I love that lean look in a dog, and of course how healthy we know it is too. 🙂
I do, too…there’s nothing like a fit dog!!
I need one of those click sticks! Ruby is really good at targeting and it’s something I could do more with. We never finished the Relaxation Protocol but Ruby has much greater impulse control now (thanks in part to the RP, as well as just getting older) and I’d like to see if we could complete it.
I think you’d love it if you got one. I hope to go back to the RP someday too. Luke is, after all, not even 2 years old yet and sometimes I have to remind myself of that! We’ve been doing some other stuff lately, “paws up” and he picked that up SO quickly. He just gets distracted at times, and I’ve learned to just put training aside and come back to it later when I can’t get him to re-focus.
I think you are doing really well with Luke. I never seen a clicker stick and I think it is a great idea. keep up the good work.
I love the clicker stick! Leo has learned to lock us out of the house…I wish I could teach him to push the lock up instead of down!
Oh no! That’s kind of funny, except for when you’re locked out of the house, I’m sure! 🙂
When we trained Luke to close cabinets, we deliberately did not try to train him to open them as well. That might have had consequences that we did not want. If he ever gets the light switch figured out, we might have lights going on and off when we don’t want them to!
I think you were right to mix things up a bit when Luke seemed bored. It’s much easier to learn when it’s fun.
That is such a cool device! Holding a target stick, clicker, and trying to treat is not easy. I just might have to get that!
Whoa! Dogs are a lot of work. HAH! They can be trained to do your bidding. Were the cats laughing at him?
Ha ha, you’ve got that right!! Once in a while when we’re training, we’ll see Samantha just saunter by. I’m not sure but she might stick her tongue out at him. 🙂
WOW! Amazing photos. Luke is very talented. The only trick I know is when my human says the word “photo” I run to my spot and strike a pose. Not kidding. Great post!
That is a very good trick, Daisy! Luke seems to get excited when he sees me get the camera out (whereas the girls run the other way…LOL).
Thank you for the compliments!
I think you made the right call to stop the protocol and try something different. In my opinion, the best trainers can see a training method not working and do something different. I have to say that I am not a giant fan of feeding a dog endless treats to try to change a behavior. I think it actually slows down training as the dog figures out the best way to get a treat. Instead we try to reinforce confidence by requiring the dog to do what it already knows (for example walking at heel when passing people even if the people are speaking to us). Any treats come well after the fact, but usually they get quiet praise. The trick training sounds like fun. I would definitely consider nose work as a job for Luke. Again my opinion is that doing something challenging as work can go a long way to build confidence.
Thank you! I appreciate your opinion, and I think nose work might be the right job for Luke. We will hopefully get there eventually….and in the meantime will continue tricks and obedience to hopefully build his confidence.
I do try to reduce the handing out of treats, once I feel like Luke has a behavior or trick down. When we’re practicing things, he doesn’t always get a treat, sometimes he just gets praise.
Luke is a very clever boy, and my human mommy sure could use a Clik Stik. When she has to click with one hand and give the treat with the other, she realizes how totally uncoordunated she is!
Trust me, I need all the help I can get too! 🙂
Good job, I really love the idea of that clicker stick. I’ve been thinking it’s time to start teaching Delilah some tricks such as closing the refrigerator or shutting off the lights. Thanks for sharing that and kudos for doing such a great job with Luke, in helping him with tricks and getting over his fear of strangers.
It really is so much fun training Luke to do those tricks, I think you and Delilah might really enjoy it. Usually when I’m just thinking he’s not getting something…he gets it! He actually did turn the light off and on, though I don’t think he understands yet what he did right. But I was sure excited!
There are days I worry he’ll never get over his fear of strangers, but we’ll keep working at it!
You’re doing a great job with him too!
Clever boy Luke and great work Jan ..we had the same thing when we sold our house..i used to take the boys out as not everyone likes a dog around..boy we had some fun trips..yikes 🙂 keep up the great traingin Luke is such a good boy 🙂 Loves Bev xx
Ha ha, yes, our first trip away from the house while it was being showed was quite an adventure! LOL
Thank you, Bev. xxoo
Looks to me like Luke is coming along very well. Maybe the relaxation protocol just isn’t Luke’s “cup of tea”; and he’s trying to tell you that by being unresponsive to it. Just go back to doing what he enjoys. I haven’t really had a chance to read up on it, but I have a feeling Ducky would get bored it with it.
Well, I was kind of bored with the protocol too, so I can’t say I was totally disappointed when Luke got tired of it! But I would have stuck it out for his sake of course. 🙂
Hailey can be alert in the relaxation pose, it doesn’t relax her! Hope you can get over the bed issue. Love the other tricks!
Well, I still haven’t started the relaxation thing that I have saved so you got further than me! It does seem like maybe he decided it wasn’t such a fun thing anymore. Also, I meant to return my comment to tell you when I meant “with the cat” I didn’t mean to train her, but use it to train Shiner to ignore her lol! Luke is awesome! I love that clicker stick thing – what a neat tool! Sounds like Luke is doing very well with his endeavors!
LOL….well, that makes more sense anyway! We were having issues with Luke and Samantha too, but he seems to be doing better with her lately…though I’m not exactly sure how we accomplished that. 🙂
I think we also stopped at day seven. I keep meaning to go back to it. Nosework classes are really good for reactive dogs and set up for it so it might be taking another look at it. Thanks for joining the hop!
I think we’ll try the protocol again one day, maybe when Luke is just a bit older and a little more calm.
That is good to know about nose work classes, and that is something I can definitely ask about, if it’s set up so that I don’t have to worry about Luke interacting with too many other people and dogs, which is my concern.
Great post! We’ve used a stick before to teach Dante some flyball moves but it didn’t have a clicker built in, your stick would be much easier to use! It was hard to juggle treats, clicker, stick, and dog. LoL
Thank you! For those of us who are uncoordinated…me….anything that makes for one less thing to juggle is definitely a bonus!
You might be surprised about nose work. It is a huge sport for reactive dogs, and it is a major confidence builder. Looks like he is having fun learning his tricks.
I have heard that about nose work, I guess I’m just nervous about entering a room full of people and dogs and not knowing how Luke will react to all that. I am considering private training for it too, but of course, that’s quite a bit more expensive.
Don’t do private training. If it is a NACSW class, dogs will be crated unless it is their turn, many people even cover the crates. I would find a class and contact them about how dogs are handled as it is a big no contact dog sport.
Mom loves training us
Lily & Edward
I wasn’t able to see the video for some reason but WELL done you!!!! There will always be set backs, and I think it is all how we react to them, and the steps we take to keep moving forward. I think you do a fantastic job and remind me SO much of me with my boy Koda!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thank you, Jenna! I at least feel like it’s two steps forward and only one step back at times, so that’s not too bad, right? 🙂 But the important thing with dogs like Luke and Koda is to just keep trying and working with them.
Luke that’s pawsome… you can come efurry night to my crib to be the master of the light :o)
maybe then my momma wouldn’t run into the door while waddling back to my bed and my dad’s toe would be not as thick as a “pota-toe” :o)
Ha! I hadn’t even thought of that….now I can have Luke get up in the night before me and get the light. Usually I trip over Sheba who likes to lie on the floor right in the path to the bathroom. 🙂
I love the light trick! My boys aren’t tall enough, but it is so cool. Bentley has always looked forward to meeting people on our walks, but a couple of weeks ago a kid came running toward us acting goofy. It scared him and now he barks like crazy if he sees small humans. I am going to start bringing treats to divert his attention.
Poor Bentley! Kids can be so unpredictable sometimes, which makes it tough. I hope the treats help him…you’re wise to get after it right away and hopefully nip the fear in the bud.