When to start training a service dog
First 10 Steps When Training a Service Dog. Episode 1
hey guys Nate shomer here and I have
this amazing German Shepherd puppy named
Harley we're gonna be training her to be
a service dog this is gonna be
approximately a six to nine month
program so one of the first things you
want to keep in mind is having the
proper training equipment the basics
that you want to have is a collar you
can have a flat nylon collar like this
one that she has on or you can also use
a martingale collar those are very good
tools to use for training as well and
then a basic leash I like to use a
simple nylon thin leash it's light easy
to use very effective you don't need one
of those big heavy chains or something
like that just something very light and
very simple and then also some sort of
training vest or maybe one of those
training pouches that you can wear on
your waist to use to hold your training
treats when working with your young pup
so the first thing that I like to do
when I start the training with a puppy
is what is known as marker training or
loading the dog to the marker also known
as engagement training what this is
we're gonna teach her that a certain
sound means she's going to get a reward
there's gonna be two sounds that I'm
gonna be using one is going to be yes
and the other one is going to be free so
when I say yes that means she's correct
and she's gonna get a reward but I have
to bring it to her in place this is
what's known as a continuation marker
then we also have what to no one has a
terminal marker the word I'm gonna be
using is the word free now don't get
confused by the dictionary definition of
the word three when I tell her free it
doesn't mean free go do whatever you
want it means you're correct come get
your reward the technical terminology
for this is known as a conditioned
reinforcer so primary reinforcer is food
toy or affection a conditioned
reinforcer predicts the primary this
comes from the studies that were
conducted by Yvonne Pavlov the Russian
psychologist basically he had a sound
that would go off prior to the food
being delivered to the dogs and after a
certain amount of repetitions when the
dogs heard the click they would begin to
salivate and that's what he called
classical conditioning but if you think
about it all you really did was he
renamed a work
and the word that he renamed was
predictability because he did further
studies if the sound went off wow the
food was being delivered or the sound
went off while the dogs were eating they
never became classically conditioned to
the sound the sound had to precede the
delivery of the reward by a split-second
so you're gonna see all I'm gonna do in
this exercise is I'm going to get her
attention when she looks at me I'm going
to use my marker the yes or the free and
I'm gonna deliver the reward so she can
become conditioned to the sound so let's
go ahead and jump right into it I'm
gonna set her down and i'ma let her know
I had the food right now I don't need
the leash I'm just gonna be using the
food and I'm gonna get her look up yes
then I reward notice there is a slight
pause between yes and the delivery of
the reward same thing with the other
word free then I move back encouraging
her to come and get the treat when she
looks at me again yes I reward I don't
have to wait for her to look at me for a
long free for a long period of time I
want her to look up at me yes boom and
get the reward
this should be fun and it should be
engaging free then I move back again
notice how I'm saying yes before I move
and I'm saying free before I move so
this is how it looks
yes if I'm training a young puppy free
without explaining what I'm doing so I'm
just gonna start training her good girl
yes
nice free one yes good girl free very
nice right there she wasn't looking I
messed up but it's okay
she didn't mess up I did yes good girl
free very nice good job yes excellent
free also notice I'm switching hands
good girl
yes free very nice and I will continue
to do this exercise until she becomes
conditioned to the sound now it's very
simple to find out if the dog is
conditioned to the sound meaning they
know that the sound is going to predict
a reward the way that I test this off is
I get the dog in front of me I say the
marker sound in this case the yes or the
free and I wait to see if there's a
change of behavior if the dog gives me a
blank stare then they're not conditioned
but if the dog looks at me and does one
of four things licking their lips
salivating opening their mouth or moving
their paws that shows me that they know
they're about to get a reward and
they're conditioned to that sound and we
can now use this sound within our
training to help communicate more
clearly what it is that what we want and
what we expect from our dogs and this
would be the same as clicker training so
if you want to use a clicker you could
use a clicker all it is is simply a
sound that you're going to use to
pinpoint a moment in time when your dog
is correct and it's that simple
today I'm gonna introduce you guys to my
second step of dog training but I'm
gonna start with simple behaviors we're
gonna teach the puppy how to war so
we're gonna teach her how to follow the
food in my hand then we're gonna use
that to start showing her the sick
command
the down command come when called even
our stand command may be heel position
but what we're gonna do is we're gonna
use the food to manipulate her into the
positions we want her to perform once
she performs the behavior we're going to
mark that behavior with our yes or our
free and then we're going to give her a
piece of food encouraging her to repeat
this behavior when I'm doing this step
in the training I'm not saying the name
of the command I'm simply giving her a
physical cue that's going to get her to
perform the behavior once she performs
the behavior I'm going to mark and
reward so it should look something like
this alright so what I want to do is I
want to get her to understand the
concept of glory and that's getting her
to follow the food that's in my hand in
order to get access to the reward so yes
when she pushes into my hand I'm saying
yes and then I'm rewarding her yes and
then I release the food the girl
yes very nice good job sweetie I can
switch hands yes excellent
yes yes and then as they get better at
it you can make them work a little bit
harder in order to get the reward and
again this is what I like to call power
steering because we can daddy the
daughter into any position that we want
simply by using this concept of Lori I
can lure her into the down position I
can lure her up into the sit position I
can get her to come towards me and sit
down
my legs and walk there and all I'm doing
is I'm giving her this book you by using
Lorene getting her get into the
positions I want her to perform and when
she's in the position I mark and reward
now I'm gonna go over each position in a
little bit more detail but this is the
basic concept of Loreen get them to
understand that pushing into the hand
and moving forward is going to give them
access to the reward build up their
confidence so then when they are trying
to do behaviors that are a little bit
more complicated and ends up being easy
for them because they're willing to work
in order to get access to that reward
all right guys so what I want to go over
in this video is how I'm gonna be
teaching her the sick command using the
luring and we're gonna use both markers
so I want you to see how I use the
continuation marker during this step and
how I use the terminal marker the
terminal marker adds a lot of value when
we're doing this because it teaches our
puppy or a dog the faster they do the
behavior the faster they're going to be
released and they're going to get the
reward when we're working with a dog
speed is based on motivation the more
motivated the dog is the faster they
moved if you think about a dog playing
fetch they always run to get the ball
because they're motivated and they're
excited so we want to make sure the
training is fun and you're gonna see
that the terminal marker is really going
to help speed up the command and it's
going to make the training enjoyable so
let me show you how we're gonna do that
good girl Harvey so I'm going to take
the food and I'm gonna live it up yes
the moment our budgets the ground I'm
gonna give her the food yes
good girl and I'm not worried about her
staying in the position yes very nice
so you see when I say yes I bring it to
her
let's see how it looks when I use a
terminal worker free very good free
excellent very nice free good girl
so watch her butt hits the ground that's
what I'm saying my marker
good girl again making sure you switch
hands you don't always want to use three
the same hand because in your dog will
focus just on that warning him free and
even though she's hit the reward when
she gets up into the active free city
that is given access to that and we can
even mix it up we can go yes we can do
yes bad handling with
[Music]
yes yes
yes good girl and that's going to be
step two when I'm teaching my dog we're
teaching her the Superman I'm simply
lifting up my hand her nose goes up her
butt goes down when her butt hits the
ground I say yes then I give her the
food and that's going to be how we're
going to shape the sit command again
using Laurie today I'm going to be
showing you guys how we're going to
teach the down command using Laurie it's
gonna be very similar to how we started
teaching the sit command but one of the
things you want to be aware of is how
you bring your hand to the ground one of
the common mistakes that people make is
they'll bring their hand down to the
ground the dog is trying to get the food
and they move their hand away as the dog
is trying to get the food you wanted to
move it straight down and what else I do
is I create a little cave with my hand
by how I hold the food so I bring it
down to see how I'm creating a cave by
turning my hand the dog's nose has to go
underneath the palm of my hand in order
to get to the food
which makes him lay down just like she's
doing so again we go straight down yes
once she gets into position we mark and
we reward and right now since she's
coming back up into the set I could
reward that as well yes good girl so
let's see how it looks I get her moving
around and I like to bring my hand
straight down just good you
excellent good and I can also say for
this one I prefer to use yes yes because
you could jump right up anyways if he
wants to yes or I can remember getting
back up into the yes the sit position
and go right back into the down yes when
I'm working with a puppy yes I like to
use mealtime yes as an opportunity to
Train the key things you want to keep in
mind is once you get to the position yes
that's what we mark the behavior I'm
watching her elbows touch the ground if
for some reason the dog is back end goes
up I'm gonna wait till that butt goes
down yes mark and reward now as I was
saying before in the previous video some
dogs will go down like this yes but the
butt won't go down right away so what
I'll do is I will reward them for
attempting until that leg goes down then
I'll give them whatever is left in my
hand so I'm showing them I really wanted
to lay all the way down if you haven't
gone with a lower level of perseverance
you don't want them to quit because
they're not getting that
yes and she's figuring this out very
very quickly she's a smart dog yes you
know what you're gonna see though the
way that you handle the food is going to
make a really big difference on how easy
or difficult it is for your dog to
figure out but this is going to be using
our luring tube to get our dog to go
into the down command without using the
verbal command down we're simply doing a
physical cue once she performs a
behavior market alright today we're
gonna be going over three commands that
I'm gonna be showing her they're really
simple so that's why we're gonna put all
three in one video one's gonna be the
climb command it's a place that we want
our dog to go I call it climb some
people call it place some people call it
up really doesn't matter what you call
it but it's just going to be an elevated
position where we want our dog to go and
we want them to maintain that position
but I'm going to teach her spin so it's
a simple command they spin in a circle
some of you may have seen my dog re
perform this it's a fun command that
usually enjoy it and then the last one
is going to be Center where she goes
between my legs and maintains that
position so let me show you how it's
done again we're still in the early
stages so we're marking every behavior
we're rewarding every behavior and we're
not worried about the command just yet
we want her to have fun and make it a
good time all right here we go all right
come here honey how do you could get
also for the climb we're gonna got her
on yes mark and reward and we can also
use this as an opportunity to teach the
off command so we got her off yes we
give her a reward now we're gonna throw
on the spin we bring their head around
making a full rotation now some of you
guys if you have a dog that doesn't have
as much perseverance meaning they give
up quickly you may have to reward them
when they're partially through the
exercise so you might have to go yes and
reward there you might have to go a
little farther yes and reward there
because you build on
and then she goes all the way around yes
and then we reward her again we want to
build on success if you're trying if you
do this and the dog gives up then you
need to give them those wins so they
know that if they continue to persevere
they'll be able to get access to the
reward so again these are all very
simple I'm cupping the food in my hand
I'm guided her to the position that I
want her to be in once she's in that
position we mark and we reward at the
completion of the behavior and then for
the center command this one I want you
to know what I'm doing with my hands I
have food in each hand but she's not
gonna get the food that's in the right
hand I'm simply gonna use that to guide
her around into position I'm gonna
transfer her over to the left hand so
here we go
I show her the food yummy you right here
she's distracted she's got something in
her mouth what you've got your mouth oh
she dropped it piece of grass or
something okay so she's going for this
food come on ATD puppy all right I got
her around boom transfer her over the
food still in this hand and I got her in
the center where I want her giving her
those rewards so now let's see what it
looks like if I were to just be training
and not I'm not gonna be explaining what
I'm doing right now I'm just gonna train
her so you can see what it looks like
each time she doesn't get access to the
reward until after I say the marker
sound so here we go
yes excellent way to go yes good girl
yes good girl maybe make her walk a
little bit very nice that's a good girl
get her to come back we'll do another
little here we go I'm right here I got
the food there we go do another spin yes
good girl good girl
that's very nice yes excellent and it's
something that I can incorporate later
when we start doing the heel position we
can throw in that little spin they're
really cute dogs like it it's a good
release from you know an obedience
routine that might be more strict and
not as engaging if you're training or
you're working with a puppy really young
like she is ten and a half weeks
somewhere around there you want to make
it as fun as possible you want them to
have a good time
and you want to end the session when
they're still having fun you don't want
to end the session when they're getting
bored you want them when the sessions
over you want them excited about it you
want them motivated the next time you
bring them out so when you bring them
out to Train they're ready to rock and
roll they're ready to have a good time
and they're gonna learn much faster
because all right I'll talk to you guys
later
[Music]
okay guys today I'm gonna be introducing
the place command and for me the place
command is a bowl you can see in the
back a bowl that I place upside down and
my goal or my intentions are to get her
to place her front paws on the bowl and
what I'm gonna do it after that when she
understands it a little bit more she's
never done it so we'll see how she
responds and I'm gonna guide her and do
the best I can to lure her with the food
to get her on to the position some dogs
this may be a little bit more difficult
some it's easier we'll see how she is
and then once she understands that
concept some of the future goals is to
get her to pivot her back end while
maintaining her paws on the bowl this
helps a dog with that rear-end awareness
so they know that their back end is
something that they can manipulate
without moving the front end and this
will help when were teaching her to flip
into heel position and really again have
that awareness of her own body so let's
go ahead and do that we can also use
this as a target for different exercises
later on so I'm gonna bring it over and
let's see we can get her to put her paws
on the front of the bowl yes good girl
very nice yes so she's an easy one
that's good and I'm gonna keep rewarding
her for keeping her paws on there very
good that's good good girl
very good smart girl aren't you
now I'm gonna have her come off because
I want her to get those paws back on so
we can repeat the exercise yes very nice
so she's a very easy dog to teach this
to I've had some other dogs where they
do everything in their power to avoid
the bull and that could be a little bit
of a struggle but she just places her
paws right on it which is very cool
let's go back this way sweetie
back this way let's get those paws on
there yes good girl yes see if I can get
her to maintain it yes by spacing out
the markers yes very good yes excellent
and if the bowl is too small that's
gonna make it more difficult so I like
to use a bowl like this one this is a
basic metal bowl made by Kong so it has
the rubber on the top and that makes it
easier for the dogs to have a little bit
of traction with their paws the full
metal bowls are a little bit more
difficult for them
I know trainers that will also use horse
bowls big horse bowls to start out again
a bigger target willing to be a little
bit easier in the horse bowls are made
out of rubber as well so it's easier for
the dogs to maintain that position with
their palm so let's bring her around and
get her put her paws back on it since
she's doing so well I'm gonna see if I
can get her to pivot that back in so I'm
gonna get her paws on there good girl
very nice cupping the food in my hand
I'm gonna turn yes good girl so she's
turning her back in already very nice
yes good you see that that is awesome
that's exactly what I want good girl
let's see if we can get that back in a
pivot yes good girl and we're gonna take
her back the other way all right here we
go you ready hardly let's see if we can
go the other way don't get too port come
on here we go here we go come on you can
do it yes good girl
very good
yes excellent so that's exactly what I
want that's a good session for there and
you can see how this is going to advance
later on to where she understands that
when she's in a sit front position I can
say he'll and she'll be able to flip her
back end right in the heel position with
very nice beautiful precision even
though I'm training her to be a service
dog that precision is still really nice
and it will help with the training and
lastly a lot of the stuff that I'm gonna
be teaching her it's for instructional
purposes only I want you guys to know
how to teach it so for example we're
gonna be teaching her scent detection as
well she's not gonna be a diabetic alert
dog but it is something that you would
need to know how to do if you were to
train a diabetic alert dog so we're
gonna be throwing in some really cool
things to help teach you guys a little
bit more how to train your own surface
dogs or how to train a service dog for
somebody that you know alright guys I'll
talk to you later see you in the next
video hey guys nation we're here in
today's video we're gonna be going over
the hand touch it's a very simple
exercise all I want her to do is to
understand that when I tell her to touch
that she's going to touch my hand with
her muzzle the way that I'm gonna start
this is I'm gonna take a piece of food
and I'm gonna put it between my two
middle fingers on my hand that's where
I'm going to hold it I'm gonna give her
the picture let her see it and then let
her gain access to the food once she
understands that concept then I'm going
to add the command the command is going
to be touch I know you're excited so
when we start adding the command when
we're trying to let a dog know that
they're doing the behavior correctly we
have to give them a reward within a
second of them doing that behavior at
least when we're teaching
so we have the primary reinforcers and
we have the condition reinforces the
primary is the food toward the infection
the conditioned reinforcer is going to
be our markers since she is getting
access to the food right away I don't
have to use the marker for this step but
once I remove the boot and I want her to
touch my hand without the food being
there then I will be using the marker so
you're gonna see each step it's pretty
simple alright so let's get started
she's pretty excited to be out here so
we're gonna take a piece of food place
it between the two middle fingers up in
my hand and then let her get access to
it so I'm gonna do it again show her the
picture boom very easy ever come back
the other way and excellent and then
back the other way good girl
very nice very good so like I said it's
a very simple concept so now that she's
taking the food from the hand I'm gonna
start naming it so I'm going to say
touch then I'm going to present and she
gets the food put it in my other hand
touch then I present making sure we say
the verbal before the physical touch you
good girl touch then the cute very nice
excellent so this is what I was talking
about before touch where she's getting
instant access to the reward for doing
the behavior so I don't have to use the
marker during this step hardly touch
good girl very nice and I can add verbal
praise touch so now that she's going
back and forth and she's doing this
pretty easily I can now remove the food
from the hand and then reward her from
the opposite hand after I marked the
behavior so I'm trying to get her to
understand the picture of touching my
hand whether or not there's food there
so let's get started touch yes good and
then I reward her right away with my
other hand touch yes good very nice
excellent touch yes good girl so you see
now she's touching my hand with her
muzzle touch
yes and then I give her the food so now
again there is no there's no food in my
hand touch yes very good excellent touch
yes good girl
touch yes very good so there's going to
be a few applications that we're gonna
use this in future training it's fun for
the dog I like to use it as a release
this is also known as a powerup but it's
something that we can use to help teach
other behaviors such as turning on and
off the light switch so you guys will
see in future videos how we're going to
do that but again very simple concept
start with the physical cue have the
food in your hand get your dog to get
access to it have them understand that
behavior name the behavior and then last
get them to do it without the food in
your hand again very simple technique
but it adds a lot of value later on in
our training all right I hope you guys
enjoyed this video make sure you click
that like button leave a comment okay
guys today I'm gonna be introducing the
stand command it's really simple we're
still gonna be using Lorene I'm gonna
take the food and I'm gonna tuck it
underneath towards her chest hoping that
we'll get her to spring her back end up
when she gets in position I'm gonna mark
and reward again during the step I'm not
worried about naming the command I just
want to be able to present a physical
cue that's gonna get her to perform the
behavior every single time if she
doesn't pop up the back end then I'm
simply gonna help with my hand to show
her that I want her back in a pop-up and
you'll see exactly what I mean it's
pretty simple so I'm gonna get the food
very good so she's sitting right now
oops I dropped the food no big deal and
now I'm gonna take the food
again tucking it towards her chest
hoping to get her back in the pop-up yes
just like that very good very good
yes and I'll reward her for the Citiz
will it's still early in her training
yes
so I'm rewarding every single behavior
yeah well yes well throw it down in
there as well and we'll see if we can
get her to pop back up using the food
the Laureen well there was a noise no
big deal yes good girl it's not gonna be
perfect in the beginning but we're not
worried about perfection just yet yes
good girl come on baby
you can do it yes good very nice so I'm
not having to help her which is really
good but if I was to help her if she was
having a hard time and the back end
wasn't popping up I would just use my
hand and just provide that little extra
bit of assistance to give her more of a
clearer path of what I want her to do
and she's very food motivated which
helps a lot yes good girl
so again you see how I'm marking the
behavior once the back end pops up and
if you see my other two videos for the
sit what we're doing is we're lifting up
to get the dog to sit remember where the
nose goes the butt does the opposite and
for the down we're simply bringing our
hands straight down creating a little
cave but the dog's nose to go underneath
what Jim turn we'll bring the back end
down since they have to stick their nose
underneath the little cave that you're
making with your hand so now since we
have the stand added into the dog's
repertoire we can start using all three
so while I'm training here I could throw
in the sit yes
I could throw in the stand
just throwing it down yes
good girl and that's gonna be something
that I'm gonna add what I'm doing the
training when I'm training a dog I don't
just do one session and do one simple
command over and over again I try to
teach them everything in the very
beginning especially this is her
imprinting stage where what she learns
during this time she will hold for the
rest of her life so I want to make sure
she enjoys a training we're having a lot
of fun it's very engaging so when she's
older and she enjoys the training it's
gonna make it much easier to teach her
new behaviors and more complex behaviors
so again one more time bring it to her
chest
kind of guide or move her around a
little bit till we get that back in the
pop-up yes whoa went back down no big
deal yes once it gets back up we mark
big reward we give her a treat and when
it's really good and she knows that this
is a cue to pop that back end up then
we'll go ahead and we'll name the
command but this is all we're gonna do
for now
all right so I hope you guys liked the
video make sure you leave a comment
below and I'll see you on the next one
[Music]
all right in this video I want to start
introducing her to the heel position I'm
just gonna guide her over to the heel
position as well as introducing her to
the sit front position I want to get
some precision it doesn't have to be
perfect
but I want to get it in the general area
if you're doing competition obedience a
perfect sit friend is going to be
directly in front of you Center the dog
as close to you as possible without
touching you and then heel position
depending on what sport you would be
doing for example a Casey they want the
dog as close to you as possible and they
want the paws aligned with the balls of
your feet and again some sports might
vary a little bit I don't need it to be
perfect with her but we're gonna get it
pretty close and I'm gonna show you
body language that I'm gonna be using
and how I'm going to be luring her to
each position to get this in front and
then the heel position all right so
let's get started sure that I have the
food so for the sit front all I'm doing
is bringing my hand down directly Center
to my body
that's not in word and then reward her
now having her dog circle their head
inward is very important for this
exercise because if you circle their
head outwards then that's going to
become a default movement that they do
and you're not gonna have that really
free rotation of the back end coming
into healed position like that because
we want when they fully understand the
heel position we want them to flip their
body it's called a flip finish into the
heel position so again their head comes
inward I step back giving her some room
and I can even reinforce the position a
little bit more by walking forward and
rewarding her now for the sit front when
she's in heel position I'm stepping
forward now with the left leg guiding
her around my leg and back into the sit
front position there she was a little
bit too crooked that's a little better
all right let's guide her again stepping
back with that left leg circling her
around in a position yes mark and reward
dagger let's walk a little bit forward
yes good girl a little bit more yes very
nice I said that marker a little early
and she's way crooked there but that's
okay if you make one mistake it's not
gonna ruin the dog I've had people
stress out because they reward the dog
when the dog wasn't doing it correctly
and their concern that they're gonna
mess up the training one mistake is not
gonna mess it up so don't stress out too
much have fun with it yes like there
she's a little crooked again
I'm not too concerned stepping back with
that left leg circling her around back
forward into heel position marking and
rewarding and now since we taught her a
lot of those other behaviors we can
incorporate those as well in with this
exercise so we could throw that spin in
there we can throw the sit we can bring
her into the down we can pop her back up
into the stand position bring her to the
sit front over here a little cricket
why don't reward here's another detail
when you are doing the sit front
position I like to keep my hand really
close to my body and then I drop my hand
down to reward him reward placement is
something you want to keep in mind if I
have my dog sit and I'm trying to do a
sit front I reward her this far away
then there's no reason for her to come
nice and close into position so I want
to bring my hand up closer to my body
same thing with the heel position I like
to reward them when their head is upward
so they get used to keeping their head
up looking up at me if I wanted to start
working on a focused heel to where she
walks and she looks at me the whole time
it maintains that high contact that's
gonna be something you'll see in a lot
of competition obedience again not
really necessary for a service dog I
enjoy teaching it though so we're gonna
work on a focus here with her it may not
be perfect but we're gonna have some fun
with it
alright I hope you guys like this video
make sure you leave a comment make sure
you share the video and thanks again
[Music]
hey guys Nate shomer here in today's
video we're gonna start teaching our
puppies how to walk backwards so it's a
very simple concept what I do is when I
want the dog to come towards me I open
my hand encouraging them to come to me
to get the reward when I want them to
walk backwards I close my hand into a
fist and I walk towards a dog when we're
first starting this we don't expect the
dog to just completely walk backwards
all we want to do is we want to be able
to get one step and then as the dog gets
better we're gonna add more steps to the
backwards walk this helps them with
their rear-end awareness but it's also
gonna help her as far as understanding
how to use her body when we start doing
more complicated service dog tasks so
let's go ahead and jump right in so I'm
gonna grab the food get her attention
I'll go ahead and reward her and so now
all I'm gonna do I'm gonna close my hand
I will walk towards her yes and when I
see her take those steps backwards
yes I'm mark and I reward yes good girl
so I can get her to come back to me and
then let's go ahead and get her to walk
backwards again yes very nice good job
Harley
yes yes a common issue that people run
into when they're trying to do this
exercise is the dog may try to sit down
yes what she is not doing it's making it
much easier but if your dog does sit
down just be patient with it and try to
move your hand manipulate your hand to
get the dog to do the behavior remember
this is our power steering we get the
dog to really understand the concept of
following our hand we can use that to
manipulate the position wherever we want
the dog to be it's no different for this
so if I'm trying to get just like the
stand command I'm bringing the food down
I'm trying to get her to pop her back
end up at first if she doesn't do it
right away we just really have to work
it to get the dog to understand
and then we mark and reward so again we
close our hands we walk towards our dog
we get those backward steps yes we
reward good girl
get those backward steps yes reward
yes you weren't very nice yes good girl
so once we get the dog doing it every
single time and you get them presenting
the picture or they're doing it exactly
the way you would like them to do it
then you go ahead and you name the
command just like every other command we
make sure that we save the verbal
command before the physical cue so if I
wanted to tell her back up or walk
backwards whatever we want the command
to be I can say back up then I did a
cute so there's she's sitting yes reward
good girl
back up then the cue yes reward
excellent very nice back up yes
try one more
back up we had sirens in the background
but so now she's really walking a nice
distance backwards and we'll continue to
say the name of the command before the
physical queue up into the point where
our dog beats us to the behavior so you
say back up boom my dog's walking
backwards now without the help of the
physical cue
this is definitely an exercise I
recommend teaching your dogs even if
your dog is not a service dog it's still
a good exercise it's really fun and
you'll definitely be able to impress
your friends when you tell your dog to
back up and your dog walks backwards
alright I hope you guys enjoy this video
I hope the background noise isn't too
distracting and I'll see you all in the
next one okay today's video we're gonna
be introducing the verbal command so up
until this point we've taught our dog
the markers known as loading the markers
I call it engagement training where we
get them conditioned to the sound that
predicts the reward the conditioned
reinforcer then we start showing our dog
what behaviors we want them to perform
by using the luring technique so
teaching her how to sit by lifting up
the down by luring her to the ground the
place command all these different
exercises that we want our dogs to
perform once we know we can get them to
do the behavior every single time on the
physical cue then we go to my step
number three where we name the command
so when we name the command the name of
the command must precede the physical
cue it has to come before it must be
predictable to the dog this is an
analogy I tell everybody and should help
you remember this imagine you have a
blindfold on and I have a stick and I
take that stick and I say I'm gonna
swing the stick at your head but before
I do I'm going to say duck so I say duck
then I swing the stick giving you just
enough time to duck before I hit you
with the stick but what if I did this
duck you get in every single time and
you would never be able to learn so it's
the same when we're teaching on dog
basic behaviors or any command really we
want to say the verbal
then we want to get me safe for the
camera so we want to say the verbal
command and then we're gonna show our
dog at the physical cue so it becomes a
pattern that they can learn they can
predict and then we do that until our
dog beats us into the behavior so for
example I say down and then I lure my
dog into the down position I'm mark and
reward I say down look the dog went to
the down position before I lured them
into that position not we know we have
it on the verbal command another thing
you want to keep in mind is when we
start naming the command we want to use
the terminal marker so when I teach
today I don't say stay if I place a dog
into a commanded position so for example
I tell the dog to sit and that dog sits
down and I use my continuation marker so
for her it's yes then she will be in a
sit stay if you're not ready to enforce
the stay use the terminal marker this
way we can pinpoint the completion of
the behavior we can reward the dog and
we can release them at the same time so
during this exercise I'm going to be
using my terminal marker which is free
letting her know that she's done with
the exercise and we're gonna move on to
the next one again this is because we're
not ready to enforce the stay command so
here we go we're gonna be doing all the
different commands that we've worked on
so far remember it goes command motivate
mark reward and each one has to be
separated by a split second on the
timeline they can't be together so we
say down then we cue our dog free and
then we reward
climb then the Q free then the reward
off then the cube three three one spin
then the cube free reward center then
the Q free reward he'll then the Q free
little early on the free there then
reward down then the Q free reward stand
on the cute free reward
sit then the Q free reward
sit Q free reward you see how it's
separated if you had a time line you'd
see the command down then you'd see the
physical Q would be next then the marker
free and then the reward so each one is
separated what most people do the most
common mistake is people paired their
physical with their verbal they pair the
command and motivate they go down right
and then they say free and they reward
at the exact same time we want to make
sure that we separated because if we do
it incorrectly it still almost looks
like we're doing it correct so for
example this is incorrect climb free
off free and that's what most people do
be all right so I'm gonna go back to
doing it correctly down q33 more sit
cute free room or spin Q free reward
sit cute heel - free rewarding climb
cute and remember I'm not worried about
perfect precision since it's a service
dog training not competition of being
all cute free reward center Q free
rewarding down Q free rewarding sit cute
3 reward good girl
spin cute free
come on cue free break and that's how I
do a basic obedience training exercise
with my dog once I get it to the point
where they know the markers they know
the behaviors we want them to perform
off of the physical cue and then we're
ready to name the command and again
command motivate mark reward I can't
stress that enough a has to go in that
order
all right so that's gonna be what you
guys want to do and again you want to
continue doing this until it gets to the
point where we say the command climb
look the dog went to the climb command
without having to guide them to that
position then we know we have that
behavior on the verbal command that's
very important if you want you to get
your dogs if you wanna get your dogs to
perform the behavior on the verbal
command alone so I hope you guys liked
the video make sure you leave a comment
and I'll see you guys
[Music]
