Doggy
Zen, Teaching Self-Control to Dogs
Candi
Moon
Doggy
Zen is a fantastic exercise to teach any dog as it teaches dogs
self-control around food. For most dogs this is one of their most
exciting resources and self-control around food will translate into
self-control in other areas.
Many
problem behaviours, especially the impulsive behaviour of adolescent
dogs, stem from the dog’s lack of self-control, so teaching doggy
Zen can help improve overall behaviour.
Pick
a quiet spot to begin working with your dog at first. If you have
more than one dog, begin by training them one at a time, after they
have all learnt the exercise, then you can start training them
together. Collect several food treats and your clicker if you will be
using this.
Put
one treat in the palm of your hand, let you dog see you doing this,
and then close your fist around the treat. Let your dog sniff at, paw
at, nibble etc. your hand. Wait for your dog to back off by either
turning her head, looking at you or anything else other than your
hand, sitting, lying down or taking a step in another direction. It
doesn't matter how your dog backs off, just that she stops trying to
get the treat out of your hand. As soon as she does this click your
clicker or say 'good dog', open your hand and allow her to have the
treat.
At
first, when your dog is just learning, you want to give him the treat
as soon as he backs off so that he can be successful and learn what
you want.
Once
your dog is backing off immediately you put the treat in your fist,
no more nose bumping, pawing etc., then you can start adding in your
command e.g. 'leave it'. When you open your hand and allow the dog to
take the treat you can add a command to let the dog know they can now
have the treat e.g. 'take it'.
Little
by little increase the time your dog has to wait before you give her
the treat. Add just a few seconds at a time e.g. if she is doing
three seconds well, then you might go up to five or six seconds. If
at any stage your dog seems to lose interest, you may have increased
the time to much, make it easier again, asking for less time, and
build up more gradually.
Once
your dog can wait for 30 seconds to get the treat, you are ready for
the next level. Now hold the treat in your open hand and give the
command 'leave it'. If he tries to grab the treat close your fist
around it again and tell him 'uh uh'. Then try again.
Once
your dog has mastered this level for 30 seconds try putting the treat
on the floor. Put it a few hand lengths away from your dog's front
paws so she would have to reach to grab it, and tell her 'leave it'.
If she tries to grab the treat, cover it with your hand and try
again.
After
your dog can do this reliably then begin moving the treat closer and
closer to his paws until you can place it in between your dog's paws
and have him leave it.
The
final step is to drop the treat onto the ground between your dog's
paws. As the treat is moving, its really hard for your dog to resist
grabbing it, so be ready to cover it quickly with your hand if you
need to.
The
secret of this exercise is in building up a decent amount of time, 30
seconds to a minute, at each level. The longer your dog can resist
the treat, the better her self-control. While asking your dog to do
this for fifteen minutes or an hour would probably be a bit cruel,
(if you could get them to concentrate for that long!), a minute or so
is quite impressive control.
You
can also experiment with the value of the treats, e.g. dog food
pellets would probably be a lot easier for most dogs to resist than
liver treats or biltong. Start with the easy stuff and move up to the
high value rewards.
This
article may be freely distributed provided it is left intact and the source is credited.
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