Training, Day 1

What has prompted my return to the blogger world is the training I'm going to be doing on my dog Scout. He learned the behavior from another dog of chasing down the driveway to greet a car pulling in and then chase it back up the driveway all the while barking. Although I would like the barking to also stop, safety first!

Scout is a 4 (in Nov) year old yellow lab. We have lived in most places where this behavior wasn't really all that much of an issue because we rarely had visitors and the road wasn't visible from our home. Since we have moved to our new house the road is more exposed and my fear is that Scout will chase down the driveway to a car that has pulled over or is driving slowly by and find himself in the road and in danger.

Here is the very general overview!  I am going to train Scout, that when he hears the word "Car" he will run to a designated spot on our lawn and lay down and wait for the car to come to a stop in front of our house at which time on the cue "free dog" may he leave the designated area. This is going to be a slow process and I am probably going to take it slower than is necessary but this is a behavior I want to be solid.

So yesterday was actually my first training day with him. We spent only about 10 minutes working on it. I used a blanket as Scout's target so he has something specific to work towards as opposed to a vast green lawn. I put the blanket down at the corner of our "parking lot" at the end of the driveway where Scout can be safely out of the way. I didn't say a word or point or give any kind of gesture to Scout to indicate I wanted him on the blanket. I shaped the behavior. Shaping is a training technique where you let the dog figure out what it is that is going to get him the reward. We have played the game before so this part did move along quickly. But to break it down, I'm a clicker trainer. I use a clicker to mark the behavior that Scout has done right. So in shaping, I would click him for just turning his head towards the blanket. Once he was reliably looking at the blanket, I upped the expectation and waited for movement towards the blanket and then would click. Once Scout targeted the blanket he quickly caught on that he should lay down on it. Jackpot! Then I started taking 2 steps back so he would have to get up and then I'd wait for him to lay down on the blanket again! Click! He gets his treat. We walked 5 feet away and repeated. Each time I would not point or speak but let him figure out he needs to lay down. We did many repetitions in interval distances of one foot to 10 feet away. We walked about a ten foot loop away from the blanket and as we approached I said "Car"  and Scout downed on the blanket. Now at this point he has no idea that "Car" meant to lay down but with slow steps and repetition he will start to link "Car" with laying on that blanket. We quit while we were ahead and called it a day on the training.