History and Services Offered:

Text by: David Harris

Video and Training by: Cindy Jacobs

Featured puppy: Gus von Prufenpuden

In Day Six of Cindy's homespun puppy training Vlog she discusses two new behaviors - the roll over and the finish. Most people know what the roll over behavior looks like, but don't understand the precursors to teaching it or the steps involved. So, I will discuss what Cindy shows on her video and add some detail. Additionally, she works on the behavior called "The Finish". Cindy simple calls it working on the heel, but the actual exercise is called the Finish. There are two different ways the dog can come back to the finish position. One (as Cindy demonstrates) is to come around behind you and back to the basic position. The basic position is the puppy/dog sitting beside you, on your left, their front feet in line with your feet, body parallel to you. The other way to teach the puppy to come to the finish position is called the Flip or Swing Finish depending the trainer you're working with. Either way the puppy will come past you on your left side, turn around 180 degrees and line up on your left side. We will demonstrate that exercise in later videos. Both types of finish exercises have merit and can/will be used in future exercises. The Heel command is loosely used in many places, but for clarity sake just remember that it intends to communicate to the dog that they should stay or get on your left side next to your heels :) If the dog is sitting beside you and you say heel as you move forward, the dog is expected to match paces with you and stay in the position beside your heels. If the puppy/dog is in front of you and you say heel, the animal is expected to move itself into the heel position without you being required to move.

When you first teach the puppy, as with all new behaviors, you will move and use large hand signals to guide the puppy into the correct position. But, as the behavior becomes more developed, you will expect the dog to move to the heel position on a verbal or hand signal without any body movement from you. Watch any of the Novice A Obedience routines for an example of this behavior. At the end of the Novice A routine you will see the dog handler leave the dog on a sit stay, go about forty feet away, turn and call the dog. The dog comes straight to the handler and sits in front. On the command "Heel" the dog moves from the front position back to the heel position in one fluid movement. Teaching such a complex behavior to a baby puppy can be a challenge, but a rewarding one. The benefits in communication between you and your puppy are enormous. Also the stimulus and brain exercise your puppy receives during this training will cause the brain to grow and develop. The brain of a puppy is still growing and forming new neural pathways. The more stimulus the puppy receives the more developed the brain will become as your puppy matures. Things to consider when teaching the Roll Over behavior are whether the puppy is relaxed enough to do this behavior. A hyper-excited puppy will be too tense to physically be able to do this behavior. So, sometimes it is best to work on this behavior late in your training sessions, once the puppy has calmed a bit and is more relaxed. Another important issue with the roll over is whether the puppy is targeting your hand properly. If the puppy is targeting well then the roll over is easy. If not, then getting the puppy to roll over is short of impossible. In the video you will see that Cindy is able to get Gus to roll over easily once he is relaxed. She moves her hand low to the ground and back over his shoulders. He targets her hand nicely and because the head bone is connected to the body bone he has to roll over or his head would pop off :) But, if the puppy is hyper-excited it will just jump up when you try to work on this behavior. Using your shaping techniques, I recommend cutting this behavior into very small, easily learned steps. Step one is simply to lay down. Next I require the puppy to stay down for several seconds before allowing them to get up. So, I have changed my criteria from laying down to staying down. If the puppy keeps popping up I simply lay them back down, no reward, and repeat until they lay for several seconds without attempting to get up. Then I click and reward staying down as opposed to laying down. I then build up how long they will stay down in-between treats until I have the puppy laying calmly for up to fifteen or twenty seconds. I will not move forward with the roll over until the puppy can do this step. Once this step is accomplished my next goal is to get the puppy to shift from an upright position to a relaxed position. I focus on them shifting their weight off their hip. So, I watch the hip, take my hand and move it low and slightly to one side. If the puppy gets up I take the food away, repeat the lay down, no treat or click, and then repeat the hip shifting movement until they will calmly shift their weight off their hip. I then click and treat that step. Repeat. I will not move forward until they will calmly shift their weight on a slight hand gesture from me that is low, close to the pup's body and slightly to its side. Next I proceed to get the puppy to lay on its side. Click and treat this step, repeat several times. Now I am ready to take the puppy all the way over. If the puppy is relaxed and targeting your hand it will roll easily; click and reward once the puppy comes over following your hand over its back and shoulder. Keep your hand low and move it reasonably slow. Move it too fast and the puppy will just whip its head around to meet you on the other side. Ok, I know that sound complicated. But, it isn't. This is just a good place to describe to you how to break a complex behavior into small, easily learned steps. Many people fail to teach this relatively simple behavior because they want the puppy to roll over in their first lesson. Once the puppy does not quickly learn the behavior then both the owner and the puppy both become frustrated and quit. By breaking this behavior into very small steps, rewarding each step as the puppy learns them and then moving to the next step both you and the puppy will have much more fun and ultimately more success in learning new behaviors.

As always please feel free to ask questions or make comments.

David Harris