This is Flo 3 months ago!
Since then she's grown a lot and I've grown with her.
She learned the commands from the book she came with and I've learned the patience to teach them to her.
(Click here to learn about Flo's arrival)
Because Flo is training to be a Guide dog for the blind, she has a set of commands and a method of training that I have to stick to so that when she leaves me to finish her training, she will already know the commands that her new trainers will be using.
Here's what she has to know!
- When she first arrived the first thing Flo had to learn was to sleep in her crate alone.
- The next thing to try was house training - which seems to be never-ending. Guide dogs have a little extra training in this division as they have to be trained to "GO" on command. The command for this is "busy busy"!
- Then came bath time! Something it's best to introduce any dog to early for those dreaded days when they take a liking to the smell of death on their fur.
- Travelling is an important one to introduce early as some pets hate the car. Guide dogs need to be trained to travel in cars, on trains and on buses.
Obedience Commands
I decided to use gifs instead of a video for this tutorial because I remembered that when I first started training Flo I didn't use my voice until she had moved into position. There's no point staring at your puppy blankly and just telling him/her to sit over and over again. At no point are they going to realise the meaning of the word and in fact they will more likely just associate the word with whatever it is they are doing instead of sitting.
Instead, what my supervisor taught me to do was manipulate the puppy into position before using the command. Watch the timing of the word on the gifs below.
Sit + Wait + Take
As you can see, I lift the treat above the puppy's head so that she has to look up to find the treat. Looking up causes her neck to flex which manipulates her into sitting down which makes looking up more comfortable. The moment she sits, I can say "sit" nice and calmly and then give her the treat.
It is possible that she won't react exactly as you want her to when you put the treat above her head. Puppies are playful. He/she might try to jump up and grab the treat. Patience is important here. Each time she does something other than sit, you simply remove your hand and wait until she is back in a position that you can work from.
When she is seated, I put the treat in front of her and tell her "wait". I do not open my hand to let her take the treat until she has stopped trying to force her nose into my hand.
Finally when I open my hand I say "take". After a few times doing this, I start to introduce a pause between opening my hand where she can get the treat and saying the command "take". I close my hand if she tries to take the treat before I use the command, and soon she learns not to take the treat from me until I say "take".
Stand
This is an alternative to sit which can be useful when waiting in an area where the puppy has been taking a rest and needs to stand up to get ready to move.
I simply put the treat in front of her nose and pull it slowly away from her. As she follows my hand and goes to stand up I say "stand".
Down + Stay + Come
Often we use the "down" command when the dog is jumping up on a person or chair. With Guide dogs though, we use the command "off" for that, which means it should not be confused with "down".
The puppy must be in a seated position to teach this trick. As you can see in the gif, I bring the treat under the puppy's nose and down her chest. This manipulates her into following me with her nose all the way down to the floor. Just as she lands her belly on the floor I use the command "down".
The first few times you try this your puppy might stand up instead of lie down. As always, this takes patience. Each time the puppy stands up again you simply remove the treat and wait for (or tell) him/her to get back into a seated position to try again. It is a good idea to have the puppy trained to sit before moving onto this command.
The "stay" command is a particularly difficult one for a very young puppy. This command is used to keep the puppy in one place until instructed otherwise. It should be introduced very slowly using very short periods of time in the beginning. For example, you could begin by telling your puppy who is lying down to "stay" as you walk to the doorway. Try not to leave the room at first as the puppy will want to follow you. After only a few seconds, use the command "come" to teach the puppy to come to you on command and get their treat.
Off + No + Leave
These three commands are all used to stop the puppy from misbehaving. For example when your puppy is going through teething, he/she is going to want to chew everything! It's a good idea to have some chew toys for this reason.
When they are jumping you should do your best to ignore them, giving them no attention whatsoever. In a more calm setting you can teach them what the command "off" means. Use a treat to entice them to jump up, then as they are getting down, tell them "off" and then give them the treat. After doing this a few times it should become easier to stop your dog from jumping up on people or chairs by saying "off".
Your puppy might bite you or even chew you and though this is cute when they are young, they need to be taught that only their toys are for chewing. There is no need to punish the puppy in order to discipline them. Simply remove them from the situation while saying "no". If it is something they are not allowed to have you can take it off them while saying "leave".
It is also useful to teach the puppy "leave" for when I go on walks. As a Guide dog, Flo needs to learn to walk straight ahead without sniffing the ground. I can use treats to correct the behaviour by giving her a treat for not sniffing the ground. As she has learned the command already at home, I can say "leave" whenever she does try to sniff around.
Quiet + Settle + Bed
Other behaviours that need to be under control include barking and getting over-excited. Again, it is important not to punish a dog for these behaviours but rather to teach them the language so they know when to be calm.
One way to teach a dog not to bark is to first teach them to bark. This should not be difficult if you have a dog that is always barking. When the dog is barking you simply say "speak" and after the dog barks you give them a treat. You repeat this until you think you have your dogs attention and they no longer feel like barking. This is when you calmly say "quiet". And then give the dog a treat if he/she does not bark. This one can take a while and you have to use your wit to predict the dogs behaviour before using the commands to get it right. Once your dog has learned how to bark on command, it should be easier to get them to stop, because you will have your dogs attention. They will no longer be barking for their own fun, but instead they'll be barking on your command, which means they will be waiting for any other commands, such as "quiet".
You also want to reward your dog for staying calm in exciting or stimulating circumstances, for examples when visitors are coming into your home. In the beginning, the best approach to this is to pre-warn your guests not to pay any attention to the puppy as they come in the door. The reason dogs get so excited to see visitors is often because they have been trained as a puppy to think that people coming in the door will give them lots of praise and attention. It is a good idea to try to avoid teaching your puppy that your guests come to play with them.
Whenever the puppy stays calm and does not try to jump on anybody or bark at anybody, he/she should be rewarded with some treats. If for some reason the dog is a little bit afraid or nervous of guests, it is a nice idea for the guests to carefully and calmly give the treats. Whenever you notice the puppy go from being excited to being calm, you should say "settle" as you give him/her the treat. After a while of doing this you can start saying "settle" a little bit earlier when you see that they are starting to calm down. Gradually then, over time this command can be used to calm your dog when they are very excited. This needs to be worked towards very slowly, starting with just ignoring the excited behaviours and treating the puppy when they have completely calmed down.
Often pet owners will send their dog to bed for misbehaving or getting over-exciting. With Guide dogs this is not allowed. We are never to signal the dog to go to their bed as punishment as this makes it harder for the dog to settle when they go to their bed. If a dog feels like they are being punished every time they are sent to their bed, it can cause a lot of anxiety for a dog, because they might think they are being punished even when they are not.
To teach Flo to go to her bed on command, I walk with her to her crate, and in the beginning I place the treat in her bed. When she walks on the bed to get the treats I say "bed". Gradually then I can start saying "bed" while holding the treats above the bed instead of placing them on it. I then move away from the bed and do the same again, treating her whenever she walks on the bed.
Walking
Other commands we use for Guide dogs are mostly for her walking training.
- "Let's go" is for letting the dog now that we are about to start walking.
- "Straight on" is used to encourage the dog to walk in a straight line ignoring distractions such as people passing by.
- We say "steady" when we want to walk slowly and "hup-up" when we want to increase speed.
- When approaching an obstacle (which a blind person could be unaware of) we use the command "over" to move the dog to the left and "in" to move him/her to the right.
- When approaching a stairs or a kerb or anything that somebody could trip on, we say "step" and have the dog put their front two feet up on the step and pause. This is a way of notifying the blind person that there is a step in front of them.
