3 Useful Basic Training Exercises

Believe it or not, there are some things that I have taught my dogs that aren’t exactly useful in our day-to-day life, even though they have been a lot of fun to learn. Going through an agility tunnel? Great fun and a good confidence builder, but we aren’t big fans of sewers, so we don’t use this skill often outside of the agility ring. Putting their front paws on elevated surfaces? Both dogs think this is a skill they need to use every day, but they actually don’t need to inspect what is on my desk or on the dining room table, and I generally prefer they wouldn’t do that. Although it’s very cute for photos and fun to do when we practice Barkour on walks. Along with the not so practical skills we know, there are a number of things we have learned that have been very useful and that help to improve our daily life. Keep reading to see if these training exercises might be helpful to you too! 

1-2-3 Game 

It may sound similar to a parent counting down when their human child is doing something they shouldn’t be, but this game has a different intention for our dogs. It does still involve counting, but when we get to 3, our dog will receive a food reward. This pattern game, created by Leslie McDevitt, in my opinion, has so many real world uses. From getting my dogs to recall to the back deck, to helping Quincy - my quirky dog - bring his focus back to me when we encounter a trigger on our walks. Both dogs know that once I start the familiar pattern of counting, I have a treat available when I get to three. My favorite part of this is that it gives them more time to think about what I’m asking from them. This is something that I use when there isn’t an urgent need for them to give me their attention, so it allows for a couple extra seconds to sniff around or determine where a noise is coming from.  

This game is also something that you can play for an extended period of time which can be really helpful for duration behaviors like walking. In the past, when we would encounter triggers on Quincy’s walks, he would pull on his leash until we were home, no matter how far away that was. Now, we play the 1-2-3 Game and the predictable pattern of reinforcement helps to calm Quincy and shift his attention from looking for more scary things to me and his treats. I like to think those are his two favorite things, but I will admit food is probably above me in that competition. This game has helped change our walks from an anxiety ridden task to something that is fun and makes us both happy. 

It’s Yer Choice 

It’s Yer Choice, an impulse control game designed by Susan Garrett, helps teach your dog to make choices and encourages impulse control. It also helps us humans get the behaviors we would like our dogs to do, by identifying and rewarding what choices we consider good or bad. In the early stages of this game, the dog's choices are pretty black and white. They need to not try to steal the food from your hand in order to get access to the food. If they go for the food, their access to the food is denied and they learn that their choice didn’t work. Though the early stages are pretty objective, it is one of the harder games to play because it’s subject to your judgement once you start to increase the difficulty. You can start to be more selective about the behaviors that you reward, like eye contact or a specific position. Not only does this game work with food, but your dog can also learn that certain choices they make result in certain consequences and potential access to the things they want.   

If Zima wants me to throw the ball for the 100th time, she can make the choice to bark at me or sit nicely. Her sitting nicely (the behavior I want) results in her getting the ball (the result she wants), but if I start to throw the ball before she is sitting fully on the ground, she may think that the behavior is optional to get the result. If Quincy wants to go smell every telephone pole, he can either tug on the leash and drag me over there or walk nicely next to me until we are next to the pole, and I’ll release him to smell it. Quincy tugging me forwards always results in zero pole sniffs, because of that consistency he knows that pulling does not work, so he chooses to walk nicely to get access to those stinky poles. 

Place/Mat Work 

The advantages of this skill aren’t always as obvious as the other two. When a dog is laying down, it looks like they aren’t actually doing anything at all. Ok, I guess technically, they aren’t really doing anything, but for most dogs that’s not as easy as it sounds. When they are lying in place or on their mat, there are usually a lot of things they would rather be doing. Whether it’s playing with toys, greeting humans or other dogs, or barking at the mailman; Fighting the urge to do anything else is hard and requires quite a lot of self-control. Teaching a dog that it’s ok to just lay down and relax when there are distractions in the environment is important. Mat work can help them to learn disengage from the environment and be a passive bystander, cool, calm and collected, instead of reacting to the current situation. For a reactive dog, this is an extremely important skill. Their mat sort of becomes their safety blanket. When they are on their mat they know they are safe and will likely get lots of reinforcement.  

Without mat work, Quincy would likely never have been able to attend new classes or go to public events, and we would likely not be able to have new people over. I trust that when he is on his mat he is going to stay there until he is released (unless there is a large box of Gravy Milk Bones that has been tempting him the whole afternoon, but that’s an entire story in itself). In exchange, he knows that I will do my best to make sure that his personal space is respected when he’s on his mat so that he can let his guard down and relax. 

These three skills have been so helpful in our daily life and have helped my dogs be more successful in our household as well as out in the community. You can work on these skills right at home or join a Family Dog Basics class to learn them with the assistance and feedback from a positive reinforcement trainer.