In this video we're talking more about clicker training, shaping in particular, and why shaping is one of the best things you can do for your service dog's training. You can get our free clicker training ebook here: myservicedogan...
WarriorWolfeh 12 weeks is a perfect age to learn this though! We work with adult dogs who have never learned to offer behavior, and even they catch up :)
Very interesting. I love your videos! Thank You for explaining shaping. It's a VERY good concept. I've trained my pet dog for SAR in the past. But never with a clicker. I do like that you have broken the learning into nice steps that set your dog up to succeed. This is great work. I've sent a request to your FB. I hope to hear from you soon.
This was very helpful thanks. I’m trying to get as much information on training my new puppy to be service. I’m trying to decide if clicker training is good for her.
Clicker training is good for all dogs. But only if the trainer is accurate. Learn HOW to train before you expect to train a service dog. It’s very possible to train your own dog but ONLY if YOU do your homework. Most people blame the dog for failing but it’s almost always the human who can’t communicate with the dog. Any emotionally and physically healthy dog can learn to work but the trainer has to be halfway competent. It’s a lot of work. But so rewarding.
In this example throwing the treat helps set him up to try again by moving him away from me. If I throw the treat, then once he's done eating he can offer the behavior a second time and earn another treat. We also throw treats specifically so that our dogs can offer attention again, as you asked :)
Not at all. All you have to do is get the dog to learn the click means treat. Once he learns to associate the click with a treat, he will be ready to go.
I have a clicker and have been wanting to train my pet dog with it as well as my service dog, when i can afford to get him, thanks for this video!! Also do you or anyone out there have a good video or something on how to evaluate a puppy to see if it will make a good service dog? If breed is needed i'm planning on a German Shepherd.
The best way to evaluate a puppy is over a period of time. And remember that somewhere around the 8th and 11th week all puppies will have a two to three week fear period so if you intend to choose your own service dog, you need to research. If you try to evaluate a puppy during its fear period, you won’t get good results. If you contact the AKC or CKC, you can send an email to breeders and ask to communicate with ones who have raised service dogs in the past. In order to really assess a puppy, you have to do it over time as puppies are changing SO fast! If you just do “puppy testing”, the results can be different each day! So it’s better to work with a great breeder who will be spending hours with the puppies. For a guide or service dog, you want a breeder who is already enriching the puppies from about five weeks of age. You also want to know how the mother is nursing the pups etc. The puppy learns a lot from the mom so she is extremely important. If the mom is great, your life will be much easier! She can start teaching bite control and especially self control and patience. Any physically and emotionally healthy dog can learn service work if they have a competent trainer but give yourself the best shot by working with an awesome breeder. DONT BUY A PUP ONLINE!!!!! Go to an experienced SERVICE DOG breeder. You will have to wait longer but it will be worth it in ease of training
my older dog lola she is 9 and in great health shes very active but very stubborn and smart at our house she listens so well but when we go to petsmart or on an outing she wont listen without force and i don't want to force her because shes so smart and i want her to learn please help me
Your dog is not STUBBORN!!!!! This is not a trait of dogs! Your dog is being stressed and is unable to offer compliance! You need to back up!! You have moved ahead into stressful conditions too early! This can cause trauma that is harder to fix. STOP!! If your dog can’t perform tasks it knows in an environment, then it is just not ready to be there. Instead of going into the store, practice in a less challenging place like a park or even the petsmart yard or parking lot. Experiment to see where you dog can work comforatably and work there for a week or so until once the dog is successful and happy, then increase the distractions, move into a more challenging area and work your way up to being in a store or mall. NEVER skip this step! Once you’ve made your dog afraid or stressed in a place, you will have to use counter conditioning to start to fix it then move thru operant or behavioral conditioning. This puts your training backwards so don’t DO IT!!
No! All dogs can do this. It’s people who don’t understand how to communicate with their dogs. People expect a non verbal species to just understand verbal commands instead of teaching them in a way they can understand. Shaping is a very BASIC technique! I don’t know why people think they can train their own service dog if they haven’t bothered to learn training techniques. It’s not fair to the dog to just get a puppy and have huge expectations without doing the work on your own skills. Everyone blames the dog, as if the dog fails, isn’t smart enough etc etc but ANY reasonably emotionally and physically, stable dog can be a service dog. But the trainer has to know more than the dog does. aND BE ABLE TO CONMUNICATE IT TO THE DOG!. If you haven’t learned how to use luring, shaping, clicker training, capturing, back chaining and LEARNED HOW TO UNDERSTAND DOG BODY LANGUAGE!!!etc. etc then you have work to do. Learn BEFORE you get a puppy!!!!! Go and volunteer to work under an experienced trainer and watch their timing. You can’t train what you can’t visualize. Take online courses in dog communication. There are lots available. Don’t get a puppy and just ruin it.
Definitely not! You can start shaping at any time, it sometimes just takes the older dogs a little longer to get the hang of if they've never done it before :)
Yes, we train and place fully trained psychiatric service dogs as well as help owners train their own dogs. You can find information on our website: www.myservicedogandme.com
