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Angus the Mouthy Pup – Part 3/4 | Training Details and Demos
????So many of you have posted great training ideas this week! We now have an impressive list of exercises for the Puppy Biting case.
A quick shout out to @wagswithwarren @ashley @kayla @jcongdon who already provided helpful steps for teaching Hand Target, Name Game, Sit, Release, Watch Me, Crate, Leave It and Tug. @bmacwatt @rebeccah @jenwalker also contributed to the collaboration on this round. ☑Thank you all!
????NEXT UP: Let’s get into any additional details that can help Angus & his family. Don’t hesitate to jump in with your helpful ideas & suggestions!
What are some of the BASIC STEPS you would use to teach these exercises listed below?
????BONUS points if you share VIDEO demos of anything mentioned above or below. You’ll be making a contribution for all future community members that are looking for help with this common issue.
- Crate Games to play for getting Angus to LOVE ???? his Crate and to enter into it voluntarily.
- Leash walking exercises to keep Angus’ attention on his handler, without jumping, lunging, or redirecting on the handler if he gets frustrated from seeing something he wants to get to (like another dog). ????
- Games that the children CAN play with Angus that are safe and fun.
- How to use a Flirt Pole, since we identified that as something this little “cattlebug” will love!
- Relax on mat exercises.
You can also add anything we haven’t listed that comes to your mind. All exercises that work for excitable and “mouthy” young dogs will be a welcome contribution to our plan.
Share those teaching steps and/or video demos. It’s all “gold”! ???? ????????
Part 4 of 4 is now here.
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15 Replies
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Here’s a video demo where I…
✔Teach “auto drop” to a puppy✔Coach a kid to do it, with me handling the timing of the praise and treat
This is my pup Lido and the exercise was first trained by me, but then the way my daughter followed through on the steps was exactly the same:
- Engage the pup in a game of tug with a long toy
- Stop tugging and stand still
- Praise/mark and reward the instant the puppy drops the toy ????????
☑With a very mouthy pup like Angus, an experienced adult would have to teach this first, then remain as a presence in the game, standing alongside of the kid that tries it next.
☑Kids need to be coached to stay standing and NOT get down low during this game.
☑I would probably also incorporate breaks for Angus that involved searching for scattered treats on the floor. And also incorporate other cues he may learn like Sit, Down, and Hand Targeting. ????1:38
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What a cool video! ????
- Engage the pup in a game of tug with a long toy
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Love the video. Due to the fact that the dog has a herding instinct then a good way to channel the dogs jumping, mouthing ,etc is to teach “Treibal”. You teach the dog to push big inflated balls. If I have time I am going to teach my dog this and I will try to put some videos together. Here the the steps:
1. Teach your dog to hand target. Once the dog gets the targeting down then:
2. Start having the dog target a sticky note on your hand
3. Once the dog is routinely targeting the sticky not then transfer the note to a cabinet door. Mark when the dog touches the sticky note on cabinet door. Eventually you will want to only mark when the dog touches the note and pushes the door forward.
4. Transfer the note to large plastic ball and start at the beginning like you did with cabinet. You can put the behavior on cue and get more than one ball. Obviously these are abbreviated steps and I could go into a lot more detail. I did this with a border collie who had the same problem. This is all he wants to do. The family had several kids and they love playing this game.
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@david This is so much fun – first of all, seeing Lido and your daughter so little! And the set up here is lovely. Look at what a GOOD GIRL Hazel is being, waiting her turn. That’s a whole ‘nuther skill set.
I love how baby Lido is into the tug game but seems way more into the food… you must have been using some great treats. When he lets go the first time, he offers a nice sit too! Good pup.
The proximity of you to them is awesome. It was wonderful that they were able to be so close so that you could handle the mark & reward. This simplifies everything for the child.
For Angus, I would add to your recommendations that he be leashed and possibly tethered, just in case he gets too excited by the game or misses the mark and bites skin/clothing. Everyone can easily leave with the toy and use that “Taking my tug and going home” as the consequence for his poor choice.
The other thing that’s so great about this little training session is how short and successful everyone is. Lovely for your puppy; great experience for your daughter. Just wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing this clip!
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Thanks so much, and my pleasure!!!
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One game that I like to have families play is “call the pup”. Starting with everyone in the same room and armed with treats. Assuming Angus knows his name (has played the name game) the are going to call his name then use body language and sounds to get him to come to them. They say his name and when he turns and gives them attention they draw him in with smooch noises, thigh pats, ect and when he comes he gets rewarded. When he’s doing this consistently we add in the verbal “here, come, or whatever recall cue they want. When he is good with that we start to spread out more within the house then outside if possible.
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@k9ashley This is a great share and also one of my favorite games. It’s an easy way to get everyone involved in puppy training and for the parents to coach the kids on: sitting still around the pup & proper treat delivery. I usually have everyone sit in a tight circle at first, which helps puppy be successful. If the kids are worried about the puppy “biting” them when they deliver a treat, we can have a little dish in front of the child and the child can simply drop the treat into the dish when puppy comes.
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I love the bowl idea especially for young kids! That could help discourage the pup from jumping on them and the nipping/mouthing
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I really like the clarity of using a bowl. Sometimes dogs seem to get jumpy/grabby when they think there might be treats in people’s hands. Having the treats have their own station as it were, might well clear up that confusion and likely the behaviors connected to the confusion. As is the trick in so many other things, consistency would be the key!
Perhaps starting with a layer of protected contact might help?
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That’s another great additional detail: “Protective contact” could be set up where the child is actually on the other side of a gate from the pup and drops the treats into the bowl on the dog’s side; great idea!
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This game seems like tons of fun for the whole family as well as a great way to train your pup ????
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Making sure everyone is enjoying training is truly integral to success – and this game sure does just that! If the people aren’t having fun, they won’t make time to train and if the dogs aren’t having fun they won’t continue to engage.
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I love this. It’s simple to learn, effective, and everyone in the house can do it. Plus, it will help the pup burn some energy in a productive way and learn an interaction that does not involve his mouth!
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Here is an idea to help Angus stop grabbing for loose clothing. I learned this from the Kiko pup utube channel. This is a method of errorless learning and requires very small approximations over several sessions. Remember to keep the sessions short and successful. If your pup goes for the towel/item, just reset to the last level they were successful at and move from there. It makes sense to practice this game after your pup has already had some exercise. or is in a relaxed frame of mind.
Start with a lot of tasty small treats in a treat pouch or nearby container, sit on the floor with your pup on one side of you and a kitchen towel bunched up on the floor on the other. Kitchen towel is not moving.
Pup looks at towel, mark and reward. Repeat several times for no movement towards towel.
Handler touches the towel and immediately marks and rewards pup for staying in a sit or down or generally staying relaxed. Timing is important. We are telling the pup that stillness pays off. Repeat several times.
Handler touches towel and lifts it slightly off floor. Mark and reward pup for stillness. Remember, if your pup gets up you can lure them back into a sit or down and go back to the level where they were successful.
slowly in several approximations, the handler continues to animate the towel until they can wave it on one side of their body while rewarding their pup for stillness on the other.
When the game is finished, you can use a cue like “all done” with an accompanying hand signal. I like to end sessions like this with a treat scatter.
The whole game can be repeated with other cloth items that are off limits to puppy biting and play such as loose clothing.
Once you can animate the towel without the pup moving, you can move your position and start to generalize the behavior of stillness around moving items.
The advanced form of this has the handler standing with some loose clothing dangling. The handler approximates movement around the pup while continuing to mark and reward for stillness. The pup will build a reinforcement history for leaving those pant legs alone!
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Thank you for the reminder of the importance of going back to basics to help our learners succeed @abbie! In the past, I’ve often tried to jump right to your advanced level but using groups-ups at first to help the puppy learn, then moving on to involving the children who are generally the most likely targets. I’ll definitely put Towel Game into my tool box.
Have you found that the pups generalize well from the towel to items of clothing? Are you adding any cue other than the All Done at the end of the session?
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