Games & resources at home

Confirmation word — A signal, comparable to a click of a clicker, indicating your dog performed the correct behavior. Common words include good, yes, correct, and right, but you can use any word you choose.

Snifari — Walk focused on your dog’s exploration and mental stimulation. Let your dog lead the walk, following them as they follow scents, and letting them stop to sniff as long as they want. 20 minutes of this is equivalent to almost 90 minutes of walking, according to the AKC.

Pack Therapy — Spending time with well mannered and behaved dogs, learning and copying how they act on the leash, while playing, at the presence of a visitor, or other social situations. Dogs learn better from each other than they do from other species, like humans.

Let’s get your furry buddy comfortable at breaking concentration and responding to their name! Start in an area with little, to no stimulation. Wait until your dog has focused their attention away from you, then call their name once. If they do not look at you, wait 4-5 seconds then ask again. As soon as your dog looks at you, say your confirmation word or click (if using clicker training) and follow with a treat and praise. Wait until your dog directs her attention elsewhere and call her name again. If your dog continues to struggle with responding or breaking attention, you can whistle, cluck, or otherwise encourage their attention. As your dog gets better at this, try it in a slightly more busy area (perhaps the kitchen). Again, as you improve continuing to move to the yard and eventually to playing with other dogs. This will be a process, but it will last. Try to engage in the game for only 5-10 minutes at a time, increasing your chances of ending on success.

Let’s work on staying put when our fur parents ask us to! Have your dog sit and wait. Begin walking away, and if your pup begins moving say “No” rather than repeating the wait command. Repeating the command only encourages your dog to listen on the second or third command. If he doesn’t listen to the no, retreat back to him and ask for a sit and a wait again, decreasing distance between you before you call him over. Call him over after 5-seconds, increasing by intervals of 5-seconds as you succeed. Once your dog can sit and wait as you walk away, begin increasing distance, keeping yourself visible. As you get more comfortable, try working in different areas (the house, yard, park on a long lead or off leash if recall is good). After putting your pup in a wait, try running away, running in silly patterns, fake talk on the phone or out loud, engage in another task like washing a dish. Continue increasing the time spent waiting, always rewarding once you ask doggo to break the wait. It is understood your dog has mastered the name game prior to this exercise.

Let’s work on jumping up by keeping all four paws on the ground! You’ll need a willing assistant (friend or family member, or anyone in the household your dog tends to jump on). Find a doorway with a functioning door. If your dog tends to jump on people upon entry of the house, the front door is a great place to start. Have your friend enter through the door and immediately ask your dog to sit. Your dog should be facing the new visitor, so it’s easier for them to respond to a sit from the person they’re facing. Once your dog sits immediately give praise and a treat. It’s important that you administer the treat, so your dog doesn’t associate new visitors with treats, only encouraging their excitement. Your visitor can then give a couple pets after the dog has been rewarded, but no encouraging words that will only ignite more excitement. Repeat this 5-10 times, making sure you stop at the first signs of boredom, we want to always encourage ending on success. Continue, trying different assistants and different locations. If, or more realistically when, your dog doesn’t listen to the sit, have your assistant immediately turn around and exit the house. If we jump up on the new exciting thing, it will leave, if we sit, it will stay. If your dog still refuses to listen to the visitor, you may step in front of him and ask him to sit yourself, eventually progressing to the original goal of the visitor asking for a sit. It is implied your dog has mastered sit prior to this training.

Let’s get a little more advanced and learn some new enrichment techniques! Click HERE for a full introduction to scent training.