PAWTENTIAL DOG TRAINING
And Behaviour Consultation
(ABN: 14 965 042 976)
Lyn Witts
Cert IV Dog Behavioural Trainer
Cert IV Veterinary Nurse
TEACHING SAFETY RESPONSES
The following skills could very well keep you and your dog safe when faced with an unexpected
dangerous or emergency situation. These responses need to be taught then practiced, in a variety
of environments, on a regular basis if they are to work when the need arises.
GIVE and GET
Give: When your dog is holding an item in their mouth, offer a higher value item such as a food
reward in exchange for the item in their mouth. As your dog drops the item (either on the ground or
in your hand whichever you want to teach), immediately give the treat. Only when this game is
working consistently do you insert the word ‘Give’ as they drop the item.. Soon your dog starts
responding to the word ‘Give’. A very important part of this game is giving back the item they
dropped after giving the treat. Obviously, if the item is a cane toad you won’t be returning it but
giving a high value treat instead!
Get: When you are giving the dropped item back to your dog say “Get”. Putting ‘Give’ and ‘Get’ on
cue is the easiest way for teaching a reliable Retrieve game. First strengthen “Give” and “Get”.
When you are sure your dog understands, try dropping the item on the ground in front of your dog
and say “Get”. Gradually put some distance to the item you drop on the ground so your dog moves
away to 'get' it. Keep rewarding the 'Give'. We want a lot of focus on the 'Give'.
LEAVE and STOP
Stop: As your dog is moving towards you, say “Stop” holding up your hands in stop position.
Immediately throw a treat over the top of your dog behind them. Practice this game when your dog
is moving slowly and without any strong purpose. You'll start to see your dog responding to your
“Stop” anticipating the treat being thrown behind them. Gradually work towards increasing
distraction levels. And practice in different environments and contexts.
Leave: Have two treats of different value. Hold the higher value treat (hvt) in one hand and the
lower value treat (lvt) in the other hand. Offer the lvt to your dog but immediately give the hvt. Do
this several times and soon you will find your dog automatically looking for the hvt rather than
bother trying for the lvt. Once you see your dog hesitating or backing off from the lvt when offered,
introduce your ‘Leave’ word as you show the lvt. Always reward with a hvt for responding to your
request. The game of “Leave” needs to be practised with different items in different situations. Try
using a higher value toy with a lower value toy. Gradually work towards having the lvt or toy on the
ground and encouraging your dog to move away with you to receive the hvt or toy.
The end result is your dog happily moving away from items when you request “Leave”.
Continued
Pawtential Family Dog Training
Teaching Safety Responses
Page Two
FIND IT
Throw a treat away from you onto the ground saying ‘Find It’. Your dog will learn the connection
between you saying ‘Find It’ with searching for a treat in the grass. Set your dog up to succeed only
making the search more difficult as your dog is getting better at ‘finding it’. This is a great game for
use when distraction is needed. You may see something you would rather your dog not react to in
which case simply saying ‘Find It’ will trigger your dog to put nose to the ground hopefully for long
enough for whatever is worrying you to move away.
QUICK (Emergency Exit)
Practice making an urgent noise, such as ‘Quick’, and running away from your dog. Your urgent
noise, combined with your movement away, will trigger your dog to run after you. Spin around and
Click and Treat for your dog catching up to you. This is another way of avoiding danger should you
see something looming ahead you would rather your dog keep away from.
GRAB COLLAR
Usually the only time we grab our dogs collar is to put the lead on and restrain them. Dogs soon
learn to avoid the hand approaching their collar or to, at least, see it in a negative light. Develop a
game of grabbing your dogs collar and rewarding. You will be desensitizing your dog to being
grabbed quickly when needed by you or another person wanting to protect your dog.
Training Tips
- If everything you teach your dog is played as a game, your dog will enjoy responding and
you have more chance of success in maintaining the quality of the response.
- Practice a lot! These safety responses aren’t going to work when you most need them
unless you have ‘played’ them so often your dog goes into automatic mode and doesn’t
hesitate.
- If you are feeling overwhelmed with so many skills to teach your dog, you can simplify your
training by putting all your energy into developing a love in your dog for coming when
called! Calling your dog away from danger can replace “Leave”, “Quick”, “Find it”, “Stop”!!!
- Having said that, training is super beneficial to your relationship with your dog. Your dog
will get very good at responding to you. Take care to keep the training fun though. Playing
a variety of games also keeps training more interesting.
- If you are starting to feel frustrated in your training session, stop immediately and have a
game with your dog to lighten the mood. Then sit and ponder on what would be an easier
step to practise with your dog to get success. Our frustration usually comes from us being
impatient and wanting to get to the end goal too quickly.
- Consider booking a training session with me. We'll make much quicker progress working
together!
© Pawtential Family Dog Training 2008