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TRAINING RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Targeting a Post-It or yoghurt lid
• Crate

Why Teach Targeting?

Teaching your dog to touch a portable target is useful for many things. one thing, you can teach a dog to touch a target and then put that target into a crate. A target can be placed inside of a muzzle, box, bowl, tunnel, or anything else that you want to help the puppy learn to go into or onto. You can use it to teach your puppy to move away from you for dog sports or to encourage self-confidence.

You can use a target to exercise your puppy, indoors or out, by having him run to it and back to you. This is a great way to tire your dog out before a walk to reduce the chance of pulling on leash.

Targets can build confidence, too. A target can be placed gradually closer to an object that the dog is concerned about, giving him a specific task to do in that situation (but be careful not set something up that feels like a trap)!

Targeting can be used as a “keep going” signal from your dog to you for grooming or vet care. We will talk about that in Lesson 14. By targeting various objects to create sound or movement, your dog can become more comfortable with his environment. You can use targeting to teach other cues.

And finally, once you have two targets, like your hand and the portable target we are teaching this time, you can extend to many other kinds of targets more easily. I taught Peanut to find morel mushrooms and my keys by basically just teaching him to target them.

How to Teach Targeting

To teach the Target cue, simply hold out the target near your puppy and mark any interest in it whatsoever. Treat. I like to feed a bit away from the target so that I can mark again when the dog heads back toward it. Otherwise, hide the target while you are treating and then bring it back out when the puppy is ready. Repeat, gradually getting more and more picky about what you mark. Once it’s clearly not just random motions, start to mark if your puppy’s response is better than average.

So if you want your puppy to target a specific location on the target, for example, mark if it’s closer than average. Do this about 10 click/treats at a time and then reassess. Make sure the game is not too hard for your dog. He should be getting it right most of the time. Focus on one aspect of the behavior and don’t worry if you lose some sharpness in your other criteria. Possible things to work on:

• Touching longer than average
• Pushing harder than average
• Taking more steps to get to the target
• Jumping up to get the target

Once the behavior looks good, then start to cue Target before you present the Post-It note or other target. The verbal cue, the word “Target” becomes a way for your dog to know that this time it might get reinforced. Without that cue, you are no longer reinforcing.

About one time out of 5 that you show the target, hold it slightly out of her reach and don’t give the Target cue. If she doesn’t go after it, praise her and then lower the target and give the cue. Over time, have the target in a more and more obvious location for the times when you are not cueing it, so the only difference between the times when the target is “live” or not is that you have said the cue. This exercise helps her learn to pay attention to your words.

At some point, you will probably put out the target and your dog will probably still touch it. Ignore that and wait for a pause. Reinforce that pause by saying “Target” and then marking/treating.

If she ever doesn’t touch it when cued, just wait for a second and then remove the target. Try again. If she doesn’t touch it a few times in a row, go back to shaping her to touch it.

Why Should I Crate Train My Dog?

Dogs and puppies should all be taught to be comfortable in a crate or kennel. The crate is a great hang-out place for dogs that are stressed, it’s excellent for safely taking dogs in the car, and crate since they’ll probably end up being in a crate or kennel at the veterinarian’s office at some point or other, it’s helpful if they’re already used to the crate. If you compete in agility, having a crate-trained dog is a must!

Crates are also excellent for housetraining puppies. Dogs are much less likely to “go potty” in a small area like a crate, but you should not have a tiny crate that only lets him turn around. Puppies can’t stay in the kennel forever, but it’s a great accident-prevention tool. That said, you should try not to leave a puppy in a crate for very long, if it’s at all avoidable, and a bigger crate is better. The puppy should be able to stretch out fully and move around. That may require using an exercise pen instead of a crate or attaching two crates together. Consider using a bathroom or other space if you are leaving your puppy long enough that he will need to pee.

Here’s a video of me shaping my puppy to go into his crate:

What Kind of Crate is Right for My Puppy?

If your dog is not used to a kennel yet, you’ll need a sturdy crate, not the crates that are made of canvas and mesh. Those kind of portable dog crates are good to have, but just aren’t for newbies. The two main kinds of portable kennels are airline crates, like the “Vari-Kennel”, which are plastic and have a metal front. The other kind of crate is all metal and looks a little scarier, but aren’t any harder on the dog. There are also fancy crates to match your decor.

Pick a crate that your dog can stand up and turn around easily in. The crate need not be much bigger for the car, but should be bigger for your home, so your puppy can really stretch out and even walk around a bit. If you are looking for a crate, you can also post on Craigslist or put up a flyer at a dog school. Your crate should have a nice soft crate pad in it. Some dogs will chew up their crate pads, so you might just want to use a towel or blanket. If all else fails, leave out the padding.

If you are a member, look for the Building Blocks video called “How (and Why) to Crate Train Your Puppy.”

Crate Training Option 1: Shaping

So now that you have the crate, you have to convince your dog that it’s the best place on earth. You can do this with a combination of shaping — training by reinforcing approximations of the behavior you want and gradually getting more selective — and “luring” which uses a treat or target to encourage the behavior. Use the same marker word or clicker that you used for the autowatch and Target. Put a tasty treat in the crate. That is a the “lure” that brings the puppy into or near the crate. If your puppy goes into the crate, click as he heads in and toss another treat inside. As long as he stays inside of the crate, keep clicking and treating. If he leaves the crate or if he doesn’t go into the crate in the first place, follow the steps below. This is what I was doing in the video above.

• Click for any attention toward the crate at all – even little eye motions. If your dog will go into the crate, put the treat in the crate and repeat the above steps. If not, just toss the treat a bit (not into the crate) to get the puppy moving.
• Click several times for head turns toward the crate.
• Click several times for moving a paw toward the crate.
• Click several times for taking two steps toward the crate.
• Continue raising your criteria (not paying for little steps, waiting for more).
• Gradually start to extend the time between treats, so your puppy patiently stays in longer.
• Briefly shut the door, click and treat through an opening in the crate. Then open the door and say “okay” to tell the puppy he can leave the crate. Encourage him out, but don’t feed him outside. If he goes back in, reinforce that!
• Gradually extend the amount of time the puppy is in the crate with the door shut.

During this training, let the puppy out whenever he wants. The goal is to reinforce frequently enough that your puppy thinks “Why would I leave? This is the best deal on earth!”

You can wait to add the cue until your dog is totally trained, or you can add it just whenever the behavior is happening. So when she begins to enter the crate, start to say “Kennel” just before she goes in. Say this every time she’s headed in and she’ll be crate trained in no time.

Don’t do all of the crate training steps above at once. Train any activity, especially something that might be stressful, like crate training, for 2-5 minutes max at a time. Stop to play with the puppy in between sessions, or take a nap, or go potty, etc. If the dog or puppy begins to look nervous or stops wanting to go into the crate, pause to reassess your training plan. Relax your criteria and expect less from the puppy. Don’t push so fast next time. The puppy should be easily successful at every step.

Once you can put the puppy in and close the crate door for a few seconds, give her bigger treats, instead of little tidbits. Kongs with some Peanut Butter or wet dog food are great for this. Or Bully Sticks or Nylabones are also great. Basically, something edible that takes a bit of time to chew on is perfect. Let the puppy out of her crate any time she wants out, preferably before she starts screaming. If your puppy does throw a fit, you can let her out immediately. That’s contrary to “common knowledge” but if you can teach her to love her crate, then she won’t need to throw a fit anyway, right?

Leave your puppy’s crate open to her during the day, and hide treats or toys in there, so when she happens to head into the crate, she gets rewarded. If you spot her heading into the crate at any time, say “kennel” (not so loudly as to disturb her progress) and either give her a treat or let her get the one inside the kennel. If your dog is afraid of going in or has had a bad experience, crate training is a slow process, but it’s worth it!

You’re working on training her to love her crate, but in the meantime, you may need to use the crate, because she’s destructive and/or not housetrained. If you can at all avoid having the puppy stay in the crate before you’ve worked slowly up to leaving her in the crate for 15-30 minutes at a time, do so. That means that if your puppy neither housetrained nor crate trained, you might want to tether the puppy to you with a leash around your waist or put her in a front pack.

You can leave the puppy in the bathroom or an exercise pen with some newspaper for a few days while you train her to love her crate. Or, worst case, you can use one type of kennel for leaving her in the daytime and train her to love the other one. At night, you can have her sleep in the bed for a few days while you train her to like her crate. For young puppies, it shouldn’t take very long to get her to go willingly into the crate and stay there. Every time you put her into the crate, give her a treat that takes time to consume, like the aforementioned Kong.

Crate Training Option 2: Go to Your Rug

Another option is to target train your dog, and then transfer that to crate training. For example, you can train her to go to a rug, and then gradually move that rug inside the crate. One way to do this is to follow the steps above for shaping your dog to enter the crate, but use it for the rug. Here’s another way to train a Magnetic Rug:

Toss the rug (crate pad) onto the floor in front of your puppy with a flourish.

She’ll go over to sniff it. If your puppy ends up on the rug, continue to the next step. If not, lure her onto the rug.

Give her several Click/treats for being a great puppy.

Say ‘okay’ and gently take the rug out from under her. The stolen rug is now worth a Million Dog Dollars.

Wait a few seconds and repeat.

Once your puppy is predictably heading to the rug or crate pad, say “rug” or “bed” or “go to your bed” or (my personal favorite), “disappear.” You want to say the cue about a second before the dog does the behavior. Eventually, you can say “Disappear” and she’ll go to the rug on her own. Work on adding different variables, like training from further away or with more distractions. To transfer this to crate training, put the rug closer and closer to the crate, until it’s all the way inside. You can use the same cue, or you can create a new one. Just say, “Kennel” and then pause for a second, then say “disappear” (which your puppy already now knows) and click/treat when she goes into the kennel and onto the rug. Eventually, train without the crate pad inside, if you want to make sure she’s really getting the crate idea.

Crate Training Option 3: Targeting

With targeting, you first teach the dog to touch a target and then eventually put that target into the crate. Then you can put “getting into the crate” on cue.

First, teach your dog or puppy to touch a post-it, yoghurt lid, or a target stick.

Now that the dog or puppy will touch the target, you’ll start to get her closer and closer to the crate. Have the crate out and open. Work at a distance that the dog notices the crate, but isn’t fleeing the scene.

For the steps below, every time you cue Target, and the dog does, click and treat. If they don’t, put the target behind your back and put it back out again, saying “Target.” After a few times, if the dog still isn’t touching, the crate is probably to blame. Cut back on the difficulty by changing the location of the target.

• Have the dog turn toward the crate to touch the target – just put the target between the dog and the crate (just a few inches) and cue your puppy to Target.
• Present the target a step away from the dog, still between the dog and the crate entrance.
• Two steps…
• Three steps… Continue this until the dog begins to enter the crate.
• Put the target further and further into the crate (you may have to put it through the side of the crate.)
• Eventually, the target is at the far back of the crate, so the dog has to enter all the way in.

Once the dog is regularly going all the way into the crate to touch the target, start to say “Kennel,” a second before you cue the touch. Gradually fade the target, making it more and more invisible. If it’s a target stick, start to telescope it shorter or “choke up” on it. If it’s a paper target, cut it smaller and smaller. If you ever say “Kennel” and the dog goes in before you can say touch, skip the Target cue and just click and treat.

Work up to shutting the door longer and longer, as above.

Warning: Crated Dogs/Puppies Should be Naked in their Crates

One final word of caution – make sure your puppy is not wearing a collar or harness when left alone in her crate or pen. He may get caught on the crate and strangle. If you must leave a collar on the puppy, use something like the KeepSafe Breakaway dog collar, which comes off of the dog if they get caught.

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