Welcome to Kikopup’s dog training tip of the day for today! How to build your dog’s confidence around objects and walking over different surfaces. This goes over tips and tricks for getting the ball rolling! Great for dogs who can be shy or sensitive about learning new behaviors or working with different props, as well as building confidence in general. This tip is for both adult dogs and puppies 🙂
Here is a video to teach your dog to go to a mat – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-kvwI_DmHU
Happy Training!
– Emily Larlham AKA Kikopup
#dogtraining #professionaldogtraining #shydog
Hello everyone and welcome to kikopop’s Dog training tip of the day for today Today i’m going to be doing another tip On confidence building with objects so Epic here is very confident with certain Objects but if i uh introduce a new Balance work equipment object she can be Fearful at first of wanting to get onto It she does have luxating patellas like My little boy cloud and so that could be An issue a fear of being Unbalanced but i’ve chosen safe Equipment that’s not going to uh make Her wobble too much so you want to make Sure That your equipment isn’t too wobbly Because the more wobbly like if you have Something inflatable you want to make Sure it’s inflated all the way and i Suggest playing this game first with Objects that are not non-slip and solid So not even hollow um so maybe just a Pla like a a board or something like That okay So The first tip that i’m going to give you Guys is teaching uh go to the mat and I’m not going to show you how to train That you can look in the description Below for how to do that but what you do Is you build the mat To be a secondary reinforcer to the dog And she’s shivering because it’s a Little cold here
Inside the house It’s like 70. go get it But the great thing about a mat is if You have a dog that’s a little nervous Around your clumbering huge giant body If you have a small dog or a dog that You’ve recently adopted and doesn’t Quite trust your movements you can free Teach your dog to go to the mat Good and then when you introduce the Balance equipment they can Go and target it while you’re not Looming right over them and that can Help some dogs increase their confidence Now if you have a dog that if they don’t Mind you particularly this isn’t so Useful teaching them to work at a Distance but using the mat As a secondary force or somewhere they Love to go and putting it on the Equipment now you might see kiko Wandering around in my videos In the next few videos because she’s now 17 so she’ll be wandering around in the Video so try not to get distracted by Her But This is what happens if you get to be 17 You get to do what you want as a dog Hey kiko and she loves ear scratches Okay I’ve actually worked on this a little Bit But as you’ll see if i tell epic to go
Pause up go pause up Oh she’s going to do it go pause up go Pause up She doesn’t want to You know she will initially but it’s she Doesn’t particularly like it So What i’m going to do free is put her mat I can’t get her off the mat onto this at First like this Good and you can see that she’s very Comfortable now with the feeling of Sitting on the wobble disc On her mat so i can mark and reinforce Good free if you had a dog that was Worried about being near you You can say go to your mat Good And if they’re worried about you leaning In to feed them you could then release Them free to get their treat so you can Practice having the dog walk over the Object from different directions and Really start to get very comfortable With it before Removing the mat and seeing if the dog Can go onto the object without the mat So you can do it in small approximations Too So i could just move the mat a little Bit like that And she probably is going to target the Mat and not the purple part Good
She jumped over it Good job and if your dog is comfortable You can sprinkle treats on the object To eat off the object like that now i Don’t suggest Um Sitting next to your dog And if they’re really worried about Something putting a treat there on the Object and trying to encourage them to Go eat it if they’re really worried one Thing you can do instead is leave the Object and put Medium value treats around the object And sprinkle them on the object and then The dog can take their time on their own To build the confidence to go and get Those treats off the object and if they Want to back away or try again later They’re welcome but if you’re sitting There trying to pressure them into Getting the treat And if the treat is really high value They can be conflicted so i would use Low value treats or medium value treats For an exercise like that You know you don’t really want to put The dog into A conflict of oh i really want that Treat but i’m really scared of that hey Pupsy okay so you can see she’s got her Feet on the Feet on it i’m just gonna put the mat Half on it
And see if she might um Target the actual purple part yeah Awesome I’ll do that from the Side so you can see that Good girl Awesome She’s like i prefer this this is my Black matte You’ve trained me to be on here Okay epic free Now i’m going to move the mat away Completely so she can’t see it And then say go to your mat Or go platform Which is going to be the final cue Just like what about if i just have two Feet on it For epic here i can also try having the Object near me to see if that makes her More likely to want to get onto it than At a distance so i’m going to feed her Away from it and then see if she might Go on now if your dog is going onto a Mat or a dog bed that they’re very Comfortable with what i like to say is You reinforce You mark when the dog gets onto the mat And you feed the dog for being on the Mat so that um being on the mat is where They receive reinforcement however if They’re really nervous to be on the mat They can be worried about eating the Treat while they’re on the object and
They don’t really you know they’re you Know conflicted they want to enjoy that Treat but they’re like ooh I have to balance while i’m eating it What if i slip while i’m eating the Treat so you mark and then say go get it And then they can enjoy the treat Further away And then when they really get confident With the object you can feed them while They’re on the object Okay Three She’s jumping over it There we go Good job Now i’m just putting the treat around The corner so it’s the Most convenient pathway to get the treat So she’s if she starts going around like This it tells me she doesn’t really like Going on to the object I left some crumbs on there Good job Good There she jumped over it So if she’s comfortable getting the Treats on the object i can sprinkle them To prevent her jumping and make her less Likely to I sprinkled quite a lot of treats there Good job I’m gonna turn it Do you see that oh i guess you can’t
Really see but she’s leaving her about Like back legs behind and she was kind Of lifting her paw instead of putting it On the object she was reaching without Touching it with their paw so we still Need to work on this this is the um Second training session we had with this I tried it i tried using this I guess it was two months ago and we did A little bit of training and then it sat In the corner gathering dust and i’ve Been using the platform she likes to do Other behaviors but i thought it would Be fun to show you um What to do if your dog lacks confidence With a certain Prop or object that you want to use for Training or physical fitness or physical Therapy thank you so much for watching If you’d like to support my work don’t Forget to leave a comment and like this Video as it’s highly reinforcing for me As well as subscribe to this channel you Can also become a kiko pup member by Clicking the join button and that means You access to one extra video tutorial a Month that you can find in the community Section of my youtube channel see you Later guys