I don't want to give away all the Training Academy's secrets, but this concept has been huge for us, so I thought I'd share it here. I won't go into the minutiae of it, but the main thing that has helped Willow and Shadow especially is that we are starting to interact with everyday objects, and objects we find on walks, in a different way. A tree that I might normally walk straight past, I ask for them to stand up and put their feet on. A fallen branch, we practice "under", "over", "on", "feet up". A large rock, we practice "place" (boundary games). A post, we can target, or go around. I'm constantly looking at our environment and seeing what new things we can interact with. If they're a bit wobbly or might make a noise, all the better - now that W&S understand (and love) the game, they don't give two hoots about something that would have previously scared them. It is making the two of them so much more flexible in their ability to cope with new things. And they seriously love this game, even offering behaviours on obvious landmarks. It's a brilliant concept, and is making a world of difference to the confidence of my two adult dogs. The only limiting factor is my imagination
Do you think it helps them to recover from being stressed too? And then helps them to be more tolerent of stressful situations
I guess its broadening horizons ? I am currently doing this kind of exercise with Nell , introducing her to experiences previously unknown . Its great to see their reactions change, from being scared/anxious, to loving their new environments .
This is a great strategy and a reminder to make everything interesting vs. just the lures/toys that are brought along. My first Rottie and I used to walk in a local park that had a little lake. I'd walk us out to the end of the floating boat dock and practice down-stays while jumping up and down on the dock to make it move. Gentle at first of course, but we worked up to getting a real bounce going. I did the same with Brogan, and I think it had a lot to do with him getting on a vaporetto (water bus) for the first time and just kind of thinking "meh" when it started rocking and rolling underneath him. Of course, that didn't stop Brogan from being afraid of orange trees, but hey...nobody's perfect.
I think there's a combination of things going on. - I'm putting them into different situations, feeling different textures, putting them physically off-balance but they're learning that it doesn't matter - they're always safe. - Every time they do a behaviour on a different object, it has to subtly change; the height they do it at, or maybe their paws are at different levels, or maybe they need to keep adjusting their balance. So they're learning flexibility in their behaviours. - They have to think more; if I say "place", they need to look around and work out what it is I'm asking them to stand on. - They don't know when I'm going to ask them to do something.... and, importantly, nor do I, because it's governed by what we come across in our environment. That means it stays unpredictable; they are staying vastly more focussed on me (and that was already pretty good), as they never know when a fun game is going to start. I've always tried to mix it up, but it's very human to end up in a routine, even when you're trying to avoid it. Using the environment to dictate your games takes that away from you.
We do this too....and so does Obi's daycare. We look for stuff to jump on or over, sit on, balance on, walk along or weave through.
Like with the prime socialisation window when they are pups, is there a similar time where doing this is better or conversely, doesn't have much impact anymore or I have missed the period of importance?
Great idea. It wouldn't work with our pups of course, imagine their owners being offered such behaviours lol!
What a good idea. Why didn't I know about this before, is it a 'new' idea in training/socialising/confidence building of dogs? Molly does tend to bark and be suspicious of anything that seems out of place, for instance a field roller that has been in one position for months, then is moved. She will give it a good telling off.
I play these games with Lucky too - and they made a huge difference. He used to be very frantic and overexcited, and things like balancing on logs help him to focus on something and to calm him down. I think it helps improve his confidence. We also play this on the street - there's lots of things for a dog to put his paws up on, sit on etc. even on a lead walk in a city! A similar concept is the groundwork part of the Tellington ttouch training which is supposed to increase focus and balance, which then has benefits for other aspects of behaviour. Lucky's favourite is putting his paws up on a tree: V__7686 by Lucky Dog, on Flickr
I think it's always better to do things like this sooner rather than later - an ideal environment for puppies while they're still at the breeder would be where they have wobble boards, see-saws and the like. But, just because doing these things during those first few weeks would be wonderful, there's still benefit to be had once that has passed; I'm seeing big benefits in my three-year-olds. There's the added bonus of it helping muscle tone, especially in the back end, and core strength, as they have to engage their core to keep balanced. A strong core is key to avoiding lots of injuries, so that's a big deal in itself. No, I don't think it's new at all. I just think we (certainly talking for myself here) can get too bogged down in "what I have to train" in terms of traditional behaviours and behaviour patterns, without thinking a bit more holistically. The Training Academy games haven't taught me anything, per se, but they have given me lots of tricks for improving my dogs' reactions to things, and I've had a huge increase in focus from them.
Love the photo of Lucky To a degree I think we have inadvertently trained Charlie to do this. There are a couple of stiles that the gap is too small for Charlie to wriggle through so we have trained him to put his paws on the stile then to stand on it, them step over stand on the other side then jump down. Even for a very big lad he is rather dainty! x
Just catching up...love this thread Using the environment, tree trunks, benches, dwarf walls , fallen branches is great at increasing spatial awareness too. By weaves, paws on, off, walking up and down tree trunks enables a better "body awareness" for the dog as well as psychological and physical resilience. This is an approach I have encorporated in my walks with Bramble from day one, and wish I had done with Benson from puppyhood. Particularly useful with Bramble for numerous reasons. She is tall and leggy, so having a better awareness of her body is important not just flexibility and confidence, but also to help prevent injury to myself. Nothing like a labrador running full pelt to cause some serious damage to ones person! The advantages of good spatial awareness was demonstrated recently at gundog training. The handler was using a whipit stick to work on chase, and also stop cues. The chase got frenetic...but it was wonderful watching a large labrador weaving, stop, starts, fast turns and dashing at speed for the tuggy at the end of the whipit stick. Not once did he bump into his handler did they look at any point like having their legs taken out!
This is a great idea - I've just been trying it out on our lunchtime walk and it was really fun. I've never asked Jess to put her paws up on trees before but she got into the spirit of it immediately! Actually, Jess is always jumping up on benches/tables/running along tree trunks. I think she has a real natural inclination for agility-style obstacle work. It was fun to work with her on that instead of leaving her to do her own thing. We'll definitely be doing this from now on. Can I ask what kind of exercises people ask their dogs to do? I just tried paws up on a tree, circle round a tree and run along a tree trunk. What other types of activities do you ask for? Do you train them first or just treat it as play in the environment?
Most of the stuff I've been playing with is lured with a verbal cue from the start - completely against how I normally train! But, because I'm not after precision and it's all light-hearted, I don't care! They very quickly associate the verbal cue with the action. We have: "hup" (front paws on or against the object), "round" (go around the object), "under", "over", "place" (get all four feet on the object). I intersperse with interaction with me: leg weaves, middle, heel, close, front, touch, "get up" (standing up against me). All quick transitions from one to another. They love it! Shadow especially gets so excited, he starts to squeak
I also find that this works because it's fun, and as humans, we sometimes take things too seriously! Also, dogs like to explore their environments, and then you become a part of how they explore the environment. I use "walk on" for walking along something and "back" for walking backwards along something. I also find if there's a dog coming and I think Lucky will find it hard not to try to say hello, then asking him to jump up on something and stay on an object is easier for him than standing on the ground - I guess it acts like a boundary, even though we've never trained boundaries.
Isn't it just, I've always encouraged Cass to jump over things etc but not really look up trees etc or walk along things for reward. I did it yesterday and tonight -- she loved it!
