Hi everyone! This video is on the topic of separation training for young puppies
and adult dogs. Now the way that I like to approach separation training is
teaching the dog what I do want him to do when being left alone and leave very
little room for error or variation of their behavior. So the way that I'm going
to approach it is to teach the dog to think to go and settle and take a nap in
his bed. You can also along with this training
teach your dog to play with toys on his own and chew on bones on his own and
then in the pen that you leave your dog you can leave bones and chews so they
can have a choice of whether they want to take a nap or play with their toys
but with the initial training I like to focus on teaching the dog that when he's
having time separated from you it's time to relax and take a nap. This training
plan of teaching the dog exactly what you do want him to do leaves little room
for error and will make the dog less likely to vocalize, use his bed as a chew
toy, learn to put his feet up or try to dig and bite at the enclosure. All of
these are natural behaviors a dog might offer without any training when being
put behind a barrier. Oftentimes trainers will simply put a dog in a pen and
suggest ignoring the behaviors you dislike, however this can cause an
extinction burst where the dog can become frustrated, the behaviors can
become more intense and the dog's behavior and emotions can begin to vary.
This is not the best plan to teach a dog to be calm and enjoy being left alone. The
best plan is reinforcing the behaviors you do want your dog to do. Step 1
Reinforce a settle and calmness around food. By reinforcing a settle and calmness
around food first it will make it easier for the dog to be calm and
relaxed during the separation training. It will make it easier to add duration
as well as your movement away from the dog. Without prior training the dog might
be excited, confused or frustrated by receiving a piece of food from someone
who then walks off with the food while he is behind a barrier.
To train the settle and calmness around food, wear your treat bag around the
house or have treats in jars in different rooms and when you see your
dog relax and settle on the floor, not thinking about the food, calmly walk over
and drop a treat between your dog's paws or use a calm marker like 'Good' and then
deliver the treat slowly to the dog. It might take a couple of days before your
dog can truly relax around the food on the counters and the food in your bait
bag but if your dog is having trouble with this you can use low value treats
at first to do this training. You want to get to the point where you can drop a
treat for your dog between his paws and move away and your dog doesn't think to
pop up and follow you. You also want to make sure that your dog looks relaxed,
that his muscles are relaxed and that he has a soft expression on his face. Step 2
Teach the dog to go to his bed and go in his crate. By teaching and reinforcing
your dog for going to his bed this will make the bed a visual cue for the dog to
move toward and relax on one left alone in the future. You can work on teaching
the dog to go to his bed and go in his crate as you work on Step 1 by
practicing them at different times during the day. Check out the written
description below for full tutorials on how to teach your dog to go to his bed
as well as how to teach your dog to go in his crate.
I suggest first working on teaching your dog to go to his bed and then putting
the bed inside the crate. To create clarity I suggest having a cue to tell
your dog to go into the crate as well as a cue to tell your dog when it's time to
come out of the crate. "All done. Good boy" Step 3 Add duration while next to the
pen or crate. Now you can practice the settle in the bed while inside the pen
or crate. If you have a pen like this one you can sit in the pen with your dog if
you have a dog that you think might whine if you're on the outside of
the pen and work on the duration of the settle in the bed while in the pen. Now
you can use a book or a phone to entertain yourself and when you see your
dog looking relaxed and all sleepy you can mark by saying "Good" and then
reinforce with the treat or simply calmly move and feed your dog a treat
and the slower you move your hand the calmer he's going to be rather than if I
say "GOOD!! Here you go boy!!! yeah good job! Nice settle!"
"Sorry Halo..." You can practice this exercise while in the living room
watching TV or working on your computer. If you have a puppy that whines or barks
or panics when you walk away from them while they're in a pen I suggest setting
up the pen and sitting next to the pen just out of reach so they can't bite you
or mouth at your clothing through the pen and then when you see your puppy
settle you can reinforce your puppy by either slowly dropping a treat between
their paws or dropping it from above. But it's a lot calmer if you go very slowly
like that. Step 4 Add movement away from the enclosure By reinforcing the dog for
relaxing behind the barrier when you move around the room it will help teach
him the concept of relaxing when something stimulating is going on that
he can't reach. This is a great exercise for all dogs especially those that can
get easily aroused or frustrated when they cannot reach what they want to
interact with. This step will also help teach a dog to relax when you walk out a
door and he cannot come with you. At first move slowly and calmly while near
the pen or crate and mark and reinforce your dog for relaxing on his bed. You can
use a clicker for this exercise if your dog remains calm when hearing the
clicker but if it excites your dog I suggest using a calm marker word like
"Good" before then moving slowly to drop a treat between your dog's paws. You can
practice moving around the room sitting on different pieces of furniture,
talking to family members, interacting with different objects in the room and
then returning to reinforce your dog. Every once in a while you can go and
stand next to the crate and release your dog calmly from the crate. I don't
suggest releasing your dog from the crates when you're at a distance and
that you always release your dog from the crate when you're standing right
next to it in a very neutral boring manner. What to do if your dog gets up or
starts to do a behavior that you don't want him to. I suggest that if you're
doing a training session and your dog gets up and puts his paws up on the
barrier or starts whining and barking I don't suggest that you should assume
that if you ignore the dog that they'll stop doing it and think to relax and be
calm in their pen. Instead I would quickly interrupt that behavior and then
lower criteria so that it's easier for the dog and that the dog doesn't start
to think to start offering those behaviors when he doesn't know what to
do. Another problem with ignoring unwanted
behavior and then reinforcing the behavior you do want is that you can
sometimes create a behavior chain where the dog first offers the behavior you
don't like before they offer the behavior that you do want. If your dog
gets up to follow you and he doesn't yet know to offer the behavior of going back
in the crate, you can lure your dog into the down position and then drastically
reduce criteria. So if you took 20 steps away from your dog and that made him get
up just take a couple of steps away from your dog and reinforce your dog to get
him back to the point where he's feeling comfortable and relaxed being in the
crate while you move away. Another technique you can use if the dog gets
out of the crate to follow you is to stand or sit next to the crate and see
if the dog offers going back inside the crate to begin the training game again.
Once your dog is successful with the door open you can practice with the door
closed. If at any point the dog gets up or looks worried and wants to come out
of the crate or pen you can either open the door calmly or open the door and go
and sit in the pen with the dog so that he can calm down and realize
that he's not trapped inside the pen. To make it easier for the dog when you're
first working on the noises of the door opening and closing you can be in the
pen with your dog or have your dog on the outside of the pen so the dog
doesn't suddenly feel trapped when he's seeing the door open and close for the
first few times. Every time the door makes a noise you can say "Good" and then
go to feed your dog a treat. "Good" Step 5 Alone time. When you start leaving your
dog unattended it's important to use a safe setup for your dog. The setup I have
here could be extremely unsafe for some dogs that might think that they could
climb over the top or push the pen around the room and perhaps chew on
power cords or pull your curtains down. So you want to make sure it's a safe pen
and for some dogs it might need to be much taller or that it has a lid and a
base so that the dog can't get out and that perhaps you have an extra security
where you you lock it with a carabiner or a clip. Also you might want to choose
a floor like getting some linoleum from a hardware store to put down underneath
the pen in case the dog goes to the bathroom and your floor could easily be
ruined by that. If you just got a new puppy or dog who is already comfortable
with being left alone you can immediately start leaving your dog for
short periods even when you are still working on the different steps in this
tutorial. Anytime you see your dog settle down for a nap you can encourage your
dog to go in his pen then you can sit with him until he falls asleep. Then when
you hear your dog wake up and start to move around you can calmly let the dog
out of the pen. If you have a dog with separation anxiety or you're not sure
whether he will panic when he wakes up you can leave the door to the pen open.
To transition to leaving your dog in the whole house first leave the dog in a pen
and when he has stopped chewing on inappropriate things and doing
undesirable behaviors when you're home watching him you can then transition to
a room and then to the whole house. When you change the picture go back to
leaving the dog for short periods at first and be home
to monitor his behavior. Some dogs will do better with being left
in one room rather than in the whole house if for example there is a place in
the house where the dog might sit and bark it noises or sights outside. I like
to create a leaving ritual with my own dogs. I send them all to their beds I
give everyone a treat and then I wave and say "See you later guys" and then I
walk through the door and close it. Now the great thing about doing this during
the training sessions and when I have to leave my dogs when I have to leave the
house is that it teaches the dogs that when I do this behavior it means to
relax and take a nap so if I need to use it in other situations like I need to
leave them in the car briefly or I'm staying at someone else's house and I
need to leave them there briefly that it's the same behavior that is at home.
When leaving your dog for the first few times I suggest using a video camera or
putting music on and being home so that if the dog starts to worry you can
return and then go back a step in the training plan. When raising criteria you
want to make sure that you're not predictably making things harder and
harder for the dog. So if you've left your dog for longer than you've ever
left him before then the next time that you leave your dog I suggest leaving
your dog for an extremely short period of time. If you have a dog that gets
overexcited by greeting you when you return you can change the picture by
making your homecoming about going out to the bathroom or receiving a treat
instead of a greeting. Then 10 minutes later after your dog has had a chance to
calm down, you can then greet your dog as you would have when you got home. "You
guys need to go to the toilet? Halo, this way." To set your dog up for success
provide enough physical and mental stimulation before leaving such as
walking and playing a training game. A small pen or crate is not a long-term
solution for leaving a dog for extended periods of time. The end goal is having
the dog loose in a room or loose in the house where he can move
around and make choices throughout the day. You might need to hire a dog sitter
to come and interact with your dog if you need to work long hours. Dogs are
social animals and spending too much time alone or in a small confined area
can cause behavior problems.