So do y’all have treats on you basically 24/7?

[constantine1488]

@procakes223 She really is.

To expand on my previous comment, we have this 15 foot retractable leash. She’s 15 months and 85 pounds and hasn’t broken it yet. She doesn’t have a strong pull drive / responds exceptionally well to leash pressure. She did try to do on retractable leash zoomies once or twice. I put her halti head harness back on her and that was the end of that.

She normally walks on a flat martingale. Responds to leash pressure great usually. She does have a Halti head collar we used for a week around 7-8 months (got her at 4.5 months). But one week was all she needed.

We started with a low bar. Being near gets treats. Even now she knows, she’ll walk 10 feet away just to come back for the treat. We use freeze dried salmon as our outside treat.

But we practiced on the retractable for 3-4 months. Most people would recommend a long line. We live in the woods. I didn’t want to detangle from trees.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@klonopin48 doggie cheese whiz was the saving grace when muzzle training my dog

 

[jakemg]

@klonopin48 Low calorie treats (maybe called training treats?) are amazing. 3 cal per treat so you can give them all day. I like Charlie Bears and Etta Says Sit.

 

[firegreen3344]

@procakes223 Yes. Over time, as the desired behaviors become ingrained, you can reduce treat frequency to reinforce ie: reward every 3rd-5th time.

 

[calebzane15]

@procakes223 For the first month yeah your gonna be a constant stream of treats once the marker word clicks is not quite as important to carry 24/7. Also can use kibble in house for normal behaviors. high value outside and for new behaviors. Kibble also works outside once dog knows his stuff.

 

[theophilus2019]

@procakes223 Yes. I have a treat pouch that I wear literally all the time.

I work a hybrid structure so a majority of my week is work at home, but a few days i go into the office. I accidentally wore it to the office. Nothing like getting asked what's clipped to your belt to bring you out of dog training mode. Wasn't anything to do other than keep wearing it, otherwise I might have lost it!

 

[pieterdj]

@theophilus2019 Do you have a puppy? How do you marry working in the office a couple days a week with setting up a consistent routing for your dog?

 

[theophilus2019]

@pieterdj I do have a puppy. I live two miles away from my office. So in reality, for the pup it's not different a day than some others where were working on spending time in the crate. I go to the office in the morning, come home at lunch. Let pup out and romp, back in the crate and back to work, then come home. That's even if i have to go back in after lunch at all. I'm very lucky.

Additionally, if needed at any time my wife's family is within 10 minutes drive and they're able to come over and take some mid day items for me, it's really not frequent that is needed though. So again, I'm SUPER lucky.

 

[pieterdj]

@theophilus2019 Ah that makes sense. Is your wife home at all through the day.

Im thinking I will be setting up a similar schedule— go to the office during the morning then come back after lunch. Since my puppy is already 4 months, Im hoping the crate during the morning will be okay.

 

[theophilus2019]

@pieterdj My wife's work is about 30 or 40 minutes away, she's a teacher so she doesn't really get any breaks in her day, but she's back around 4pm-ish, but leaves the house at 6:30am. This is a stark contrast to me leaving at 7:50. We both wake up and get puppy going at about 5:30. The only downside is weekends means getting up at 5:30 too!

If you're near enough to work, coming home over lunch is awesome. At least for me, i prefer being able to prep my meals in my own kitchen with a real range and oven available. When we were full time in office I would come home over lunch for my older dogs to let them in the backyard, just because I could.

But my pup is 4 months as well, i think for the time period of 8 to noon they'll be ok, and providing your crate is properly sized i doubt you'll have issues. Just as long as you can immediately get them out to potty!

 

[skupi]

@pieterdj Not who you asked, but, I've done shift work since I brought my puppy home at 8 weeks, and she's been wonderful. She knows to settle in my room when it's time for me to leave regardless of what time it is, and she'll either get her breakfast or supper in some food toys when I leave for work. I think a lot of people assume you need a lot of structure, but honestly, if your life is scattered, don't play pretend for your pup, because at some point you're gonna go back to not having a routine and that would affect them more

 

[ishi]

@procakes223 We do not but we use praise as the reward. We do have treats/chews in public settings when we want to sit/lay down near us calmly (i.e. if we go out to eat and sit on the restaurant patio w/ him).

 

[davidmarks]

@procakes223 Yup, typically three types at different value intervals! Kibble being lowest

 

[abcdefg017]

@procakes223 Yes, we had treats within reach at all times the first few months with our pup. Less so now, but there’s definitely treats on every floor and at places we tend to need them (kitchen, etc).

If you’re feeding kibble, just weigh out the day’s food in the morning, and take from that as treats. Then you can give loads and not worry about diet.

Also build a clear marker (click, “good boy”, etc) which means he’ll get a treat. if you’re caught without them, mark, and make a big show of running through the house with him to get some treats. Dogs love it, it builds up the excitement!

 

[pazuzil]

@procakes223 Yes. It’s definitely decreased as he has gotten older, but there are treats still stashed around the house and in my pockets. Distractions on walks are the biggest use. I also have them for drop it/leave it because he tries to eat bees and giant lumps of grass after it’s been mowed. Occasionally I’ll give him one if he doesn’t react to things at night since he’s kind of reactive. I break them into really small pieces so it’s not the reward it once was. More like the essence of reward.

 

[truthinapologetics]

@procakes223 When I’m out with my dog yes. In the house I have treat stations all over

 

[interestingusername]

@procakes223 Treat jars throughout the house, toy baskets throughout the house for easy access, sometimes kibble in my pockets, and the ability to praise/be exciting while I hurry into a room with treats when I inevitably find myself without any on hand AGAIN (not losing connection with the dog & making it one "party"/reward event takes practice!).

 

[gdssldier]

@procakes223 I always have something available to me that I can use to reinforce behaviour, yes. Whether that's directly on my body, or in the nearby environment that is immediately accessible.

If I don't know an animal very well yet, my only option is probably going to be known desirable food treats. Which means constantly having food on me. But as I get to know an animal better, their likes and dislikes, and even teaching them new things they may not have realised they liked before, I will soon have more options become available to me - various kinds of play, various kinds of activities in terms of interacting with me and interacting with the environment, which can all be used as a reinforcer instead of food if I'm aware of them. I'll also be able to use my new knowledge to more accurately target my reinforcers, too - I'll know the animal's daily rhythms and which situations they'll be willing to work in for only a bit of kibble or a toy instead of needing to have the really good stuff with me.

Finally, as part of this process I'll also be building a relationship with the animal, which means that my own value to the animal will increase from the baseline of zero when they didn't know me - and that means, in some circumstances, the animal will like being around me and doing things with me enough that the interaction itself will be more valuable than food. It's much easier to get to that point if you start the relationship by being very liberal in sharing food with them, though.

 

[kylie26]

@procakes223 I set up treat stations around the house. This just looks like old tupperware, mugs or in my case the Stewart's freeze dried liver containers. I place them around the house strategically and keep them filled. Like for settling behaviors I keep one on top of her kennel and her mat is just outside of it. For ringing her bell to go out. I keep one on a table next to the door. For redirecting barking I keep one on my partners desk next to the window because I know she will run to the window if she ends up in a barking fit. I keep one by the front door cause treat scatter when you get home brings jumping behavior down. Just, wherever you think good behavior is likely to occur. And the more you promote it the easier it gets to predict where it will happen.

 

[jewels77]

@kylie26 Can you tell me more how you’re training/redirecting barking? My younger dog is quite reactive, and barking at random sounds outside is something we’re struggling with. We’ve sorted a solution so she can no longer SEE outside and bark, but we definitely need to do some work on barking at sounds, without accidentally rewarding the barking!