FF125: The Adolescent Dog: Making a Terrific Teenager!

For any skill where precision matters- whether that is cavaletti, weaving, heeling, or some sort of complicated series of tricks- brains learn best when we break the task into small pieces and break our sessions into alternating micro-intervals of train, rest, train repetitions. 

During those tiny rest breaks that are sandwiched between training intervals, our brains will consolidate the skills that were just rehearsed, and prep for the next rotation. This helps with the learning process because the expectation of what to do next reduces the chance of errors. And, with adolescent dogs, we want to avoid rehearsing undesired movement patterns whenever possible. Clean learning loops work best! 

We want to take full advantage of this effect. It is important that when we are using these pause-button ‘rest breaks’ of interval brain training, the dog is not doing anything else- being stationary is ideal. But that is a skill in itself! 

So the first thing we are going to work on is a rest-interval behavior, and then we can incorporate this into any future skills training. 

Options:

You can choose from a number of options for your rest station. 

1. Front paws on a target
2. Sitting/standing on a platform
3. sitting/laying/standing on a mat

Having a designated location for this rest behavior to occur helps because it makes it clear what we need our dog to do- hang out and wait for a little bit- before we carry on to the next interval. For dogs who are easily frustrated, extra bouncy/jump, or who are not naturally good at standing still, I suggest using a prop that will allow your dog to step up onto it with their two front feet. This could be as simple as a heavy book, a perch pot, or? Make sure it is stable and won’t tip- but you can be creative!  

Note- if you already have built a calm behaviour ‘chill mat’ with some duration, you may want to train something different for this pause button behavior, since we’ll be using it mostly for short duration pauses- ie 10 seconds.  They won't really get a chance to fully chill out! 

When we are first teaching the rest station, we are going to be reinforcing our dogs regularly for the desired behavior. We want it to pay well and become an easy, and expected behavior to do when training pauses, so it has to be worth it. 

While we are training this rest station behavior, we can think of it as a “Pause Button”. We aren’t ending the training, we don’t want our dogs to get out of the training mindset- we just need them to take a quick break. But we also clearly want our dogs to know we are not expecting or wanting them to offer any other behaviors during that rest. 

You may already have a prop that has some learning history that could work for this skill. I suggest that you do NOT try to recycle a ‘chill mat’ or other calm behavior prop, but you can certainly pick one your dog has already been introduced to if you like. 

Step 1- Build value for interaction with the prop. My usual tactic is just to lure the dog up, provide a quick series of rewards, and then release them off (with a cookie toss or some other strategy- you want to cue it, not just let it happen) and you can start again. *** Make sure the prop doesn’t go flying when you release your dog - use your foot to brace it if needed for now. Skip this step if your dog is using an object they already are familiar with. 

https:// youtu.be/cVQujk_zbYY

Step 2 - Build up to 10 seconds of duration with periodic rewards. Release

*** make sure you are rewarding general stillness, and not waiting so long that your dog is offering extra behaviors between rewards. 

Process success- rapid rewards, gradually tapering, releasing before it gets to be too long: 

https:// youtu.be/QcOZGmFBRbw 

Process Issues- First, accidentally rewarding immediately after movement, then.... waiting too long and getting SO MANY BEHAVIORS! :)

 https:// youtu.be/VyS_nMqOB8o

Tip: If you are getting unwanted extra behavior on your rest station, toss a cookie and start fresh, rewarding more often and releasing before your dog gets a chance to guess at things! 

Step 3- Gradually phase out the periodic rewards- but only as long as you can be successful with your dog staying on the pause station without self-releasing or offering other behaviors. 

---->>> I'd like you to start to work on this series of progressions on it's own BUT as soon as your dog is comfortably at level 2, start putting it into use (at whatever level your dog is successful) in other training sessions. (ie the lessons that follow)

Example: 

Here is Leroy learning a Pause Button behavior on a mat- at a Step 2 level. Just prior to this, we were working on retrieves.. now the break,  before starting another round of retrieves. 

 https:// youtu.be/IKGsfxCa2q0