Originally posted on DDR

Do you walk your dog or does your deaf dog walk you? Most people enjoy taking their dogs for walks. However if you have a dog who pulls, lunges, or otherwise drags you along, the walk might be a less than pleasant experience.

Teaching your deaf dog to walk nicely on a leash requires patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement training. Training behaviors using positive reinforcement means looking for behaviors that you like, marking them with a visual signal, and then reinforcing them with something your dog is willing to work for.

To start teaching a loose leash walk behavior you will need the following tools:

• a well fitted harness (recommended)

• a 6-8 foot leash

• a visual or tactile marker signal

• a pouch or pocket of high value reinforcers

When training any new behavior you always want to begin in the least distracting environment possible. This might mean starting your loose-lease walking training inside of your house.

If you have not yet taught your deaf dog a marker signal you’ll want to do this first. The marker will be the communication tool which lets your dog know exactly what they have done to earn access to something that they like.

Some people use a thumbs up sign or a five finger “flash.” Every time that you give your dog this signal you are letting them know that you liked the thing that they just did and that they now will get access to something that they enjoy.

To begin I recommend using  small, high value treats. You want the treats that you have available to be small, soft, very exciting for your dog (try cheese, chicken, or hotdogs), and plentiful.

Now that you are prepared with your marker (hand signal) and reinforcers (the treats) we are ready to begin.

STEP ONE: EYE CONTACT The first step is to teach your deaf dog that it is very reinforcing to look at you. Each time that your dog looks at you, mark with your signal, and reinforce with a tiny bit of treat.

STEP TWO: HARNESS Part of loose leash walking is being able to put on the harness while the dog is calm. As you begin to put on your harness, go slowly. Mark and reinforce your dog looking at you and/or remaining calm. If your dog begins to jump up or move around, calmly stop, remove the harness (even if you have almost gotten it on), and wait a moment for your dog to calm down.

Once they are calm, mark and reinforce the calm behavior and try again. You might have to repeat this process several times at the beginning. However, this way your dog will learn that in order to put their harness on (which equals fun/walking), they must remain relaxed.

STEP THREE: WALKING The next phase is to literally take one step and wait. Because you have stopped, your dog will-at some point-likely look in your direction. Mark and reinforce this behavior.

You want to deliver the reinforcer (tiny bit of something yummy) very close by your side (think: the side seam of your pants) so that your dog comes close to you. Then, the leash should be loose (think “J” shaped) and you can mark and reinforce this also!

During the process, any time that your dog checks in with you, mark and reinforce this behavior!

If at any time the leash becomes taught, stop. You also want to teach your dog that pulling does not get him to move forward. In other words don’t allow his pulling to be reinforced with forward movement.

Instead,  stop. If your dog glances back at you, mark and reinforce! If not, begin taking steps backward with your eyes on your dog. Eventually he will turn to look at you. Immediately, mark and reinforce this checkin behavior.

Again, be sure to deliver the reinforcer close to you so you can set your dog up for success by having a loose leash which you can then also mark and reinforce.

Keep in mind that in these early stages,  your walks will likely be much shorter. However, they will also be much more focused on training the behavior that you want to see continue. Too, as your dog catches on to this “game” he will be using his brain to figure out how he might earn reinforcers, which provides mental stimulation and is thus tiring as well.

Set everyone up for success by having short, successful sessions. Mini focused walks in low distraction environments will eventually translate to longer laps in busier areas.

As a re-cap, some final TIPS include:

1. Train & reinforce “checking in with you” behavior.
2. Begin in a low distraction environment.
3. Take it one (literally) step at a time.
4. Mark & reinforce the “j” shaped loose leash.
5.  If the leash is taught, walk backwards & wait for your dog to orient to you-then mark and reinforce that “checkin.”
6. Reinforce close to you so that your dog is close to you.
7. Mark & reinforce behaviors that you like as often as you see them!

Soon with lots of consistent repetition, you and your dog will be strolling comfortably down the road!

Does your deaf dog greet people by jumping up on them and would you like to change this behavior?

Step one is to always avoid rehearsing the unwanted behavior.  This may mean using a baby gate or a leash so that your dog doesn’t have the chance to practice the unwanted behavior–thus getting better at it.

The next step is to reinforce behaivors that you like which your pup already offers–such as four paws on the floor!

The final step is to separately teach an incompatible or an alternative behavior. This other behavior will ultimately become your dog’s default response to greeting people. This means that instead of meeting people and jumping up on them your dog will automatically resort to offering the new behavior (that you do like) for greetings.

To begin you will choose an incompatible or alternative behavior to teach your dog. This could be sit, lay down, or stand by your side.

The teaching process will be the same for whichever behavior you decide to teach. 

1. 1. First you will set up the environment to “encourage” your dog to perform the behavior that you want. This can be done by A. watching and waiting for the behavior or B. luring your dog into a position using a bit of food (we’ll eliminate the food lure quickly). 
   2. Next, you will “label” the behavior as it is occurring so that your dog begins to associate the (visual) cue with the behavior 
   3. Be sure to mark and reinforce the behavior that you want to see repeated
   4. Eventually move to working in environments with higher distractions (building this slowly over time to set everyone up for success), with longer durations, and with closer proximities (more difficult level of distance) to people.

For a concrete example of an alternative behavior that you might decide to each, take a look at the following plan. Let’s say you decide to teach your deaf dogs to sit on cue. You will start in a quiet room inside the house with nothing else going on (no other dogs, etc. to distract her). Then watch for her to offer a sit and as she’s sitting give the visual cue for “sit.” Be sure to do the visual cue as the behavior is occurring. Then, you want to mark—using your visual marker)—the second her bottom hits the floor. Finally, reinforce the behavior by tossing a treat. Tossing the treat will re-set her for another repetition/opportunity to practice the behavior.

Once she’s quite good as responding to the sit cue and you have begun to practice it in more distracting environments (such as outside or with another dog present) you can cue the behavior when she greets a person.

At this beginning stage you will still want to use management (leash or baby gate) to avoid the possibility of her practicing the unwanted jumping up behavior. Be sure to mark and reinforce the sitting behavior as it occurs. At this point you will deliver the reinforcer to her mouth (vs. tossing it as above) as you don’t want her to move away, but want to reinforce her remaining in the sit position.

Be sure to use high value (chicken, cheese, meatballs) reinforcers as you want your dog to be interested in “working” for the “payout!”

Finally, after many, many, many repetitions, instead of cueing the sit, have the person come close and wait. If your dog offers the sit behavior mark and reinforce multiple times—first for the sit and then for remaining in the seated position. 

Your goal is to teach your dog that this alternative behavior is much more reinforcing than the previous unwanted (jumping) behavior was. You will do this by building a strong reinforcement history (sitting pays off!) so that your dog learns that it’s much more worthwhile to sit than to jump when greeting people!

For more help with your dog, contact us today! https://positiveanimalwellness.com/online-dog-training/

Blanca often will sit relaxing with her paws crossed so I thought it would be a fun behavior to teach. Also, I like to work on paw handling and choices around foot movements so that she is more comfortable with husbandry behaviors involving paws such as nail trims!

Teaching your deaf dog new behaviors can be useful as you shape a collection of handy cues. Building a repertoire of behaviors you want to see repeated can help if you need to substitute a behavior for a less desirable one.

To start, Blanca already knew a “hand me your paw” behavior.

This is similar to a “shake” however is not a behavior that I like to teach first as the first behaviors taught will have the longest reinforcement history and also often be the “go to” default behaviors for the dog. As such, I’d prefer the defaults be options like eye contact, offered sit, offered down, or 4 paws on the floor.

Blanca also previously knew how to target with her paw. This means she knew how to touch an object with her paw when cued.

Too, Blanca was very familiar with the concept of a marker and reinforcer.

My shaping plan for her “paws crossed” behavior was as follows:

1. cue her to target my hand with her right paw
2. gradually move (via several sessions, marking and reinforcing this behavior) my hand as target towards her left paw-mark and reinforce her targeting my hand with her right paw
3. gradually move my hand as target on her left paw-mark and reinforce her targeting my hand with her right paw
4. gradually move my hand as target across her left paw-mark and reinforce her targeting my hand with her right paw
5. gradually fade my hand as target and mark and reinforce her offering the behavior in response to my visual hand movement cue

If I were using TAG-teaching with acoustical guidance- I’d provide the following TAG points!

• CT (click/treat) for touching her paw
• CT for paw movement
• cue target with right paw
• move target towards left paw
• move target onto left paw
• move target across left paw
• fade hand target 

Try watching for a behavior that your dog already performs and then think about putting it on cue!