I’ll save you right now from a trap I fell into with both my dogs by sharing what I learned in the Canine Good Citizen class I took with Logan. The topic as a whole is establishing a consistent sequence of communication to go with your consistent cues. The particular trap I’m going to save you from is teaching your dogs that they get a treat when they stop doing what you asked them to do.
The Canine Good Citizen class taught a specific order of communication for when you’re training your dog:
- Start: “Logan!” (You might have better luck if you use your dog’s name instead.)
- Ask for attention: “Ready!” (I think I will continue to skip this step. Calling the name gets the dog’s attention, right?)
- Cue a particular behavior: “sit,” “roll over,” or whatever
- Mark (click or “yes”) when you get the behavior. For behaviors that last a long time, such as walking on a loose lead, “stay,” or “heel,” the mark is occasional reinforcement during the behavior rather than a specific moment in time.
- Verbal praise: “Good boy, Logan! Aren’t you the bestest dog!” (It doesn’t matter what you say as long as you say it enthusiastically.)
- Treat
- After the treat:
I can see the value of practicing this order. The trap I fell into was releasing with the treat, so that for most behaviors, my dogs think the treat is the release. You’ll see me doing that in some of the older videos on this site. I’m working now to undo the bad habits I got my dogs and me into by using this handy sequence of command every time.
