This page is a summary of my book entitled “Engaging the Mind Dog Training”. The page has links to each chapter in the book. It also has links to videos of puppies learning the methods taught in the book. These videos are demonstrations of each step along the way starting with puppies that have just turned 6 weeks old. It has day by day instructions of us training our puppies until they are about 9 weeks of age. At this point, puppies have almost completed the foundation program.
If you don’t read anything else, read the Engaging the Mind Dog Training: Introduction and watch a few of the videos of puppies that have completed the program in the next section.
Video Examples of Puppies that are Almost Done with the Engaging the Mind Foundation Program
Heeling
Another litter at 8 weeks 6 days learning to heel
The Down/Stay
Below is a litter of 9 weeks 1 day old puppies learning the down/stay and to ignore the food until released to take it. The exercises you’ll work with your puppy on for the down/stay will teach your puppy to remain in a down. In addition and more importantly, learning these exercises teaches a puppy self-control, a skill that will last a lifetime for a multitude of behaviors.
Information to Read Before Watching the Videos
The videos assume a knowledge of the content in the following linked book chapters. The information on these pages is not covered in the videos and is necessary for full understanding of what I’m discussing in the videos.
The chapter links below cover the science behind the method as well as detailed steps for how to train the skills demonstrated in the videos.
Click on the links below to read the chapters. Start with the Introduction. Then read the science chapters. Finally, move on to the skill chapters and watch the videos. Read the chapters and watch the videos in the order listed for maximum benefit from the material.
The Book Chapters
(Ignore the extra space after every apostrophe throughout the book. It’s a format issue between the book writing software and the website software.)
Engaging the Mind Dog Training: Introduction
The Science Behind the Method
Section 1: The Science Behind the Method
Chapter 1: Operant Conditioning
Chapter 2: Classical Conditioning
Chapter 3: Marker Training Introduction
Chapter 4: Verbal Marker or Clicker?
Chapter 5: Marker Training for Clear Communication
Chapter 6: Types of Verbal Markers
Chapter 9: Training Both Body and Mind
Chapter 12: The Problem With Silence in Shaping the AKC Obedience Exercises
Chapter 14: Conflicting Behaviors
Chapter 15: Adding Verbal Cues
Chapter 16: Generalizing Behaviors
Chapter 18: Raising the Bar While Remaining Under Threshold
Chapter 19: Increasing Difficulty
Chapter 20: Increasing Accuracy
Chapter 21: Decreasing Rate of Reinforcement
Chapter 22: Moving Forward or Standing Still
The Skills
This section is a list of links to written instructions for training the skills. Read at least through skill 7 before starting the videos.
Skills Introduction: Tips for a Successful Training Session
Tips for Maximizing the Primary Reinforcer
Skill 3: The Down/stay Why and When
Skill 4: The Down/stay Introduction to How to Train It
Skill 5: Fading the Lure for the Down
Skill 6: Increasing Criteria and Moving Forward in the Down/stay
Skill 7: The Importance of Position
Skill 8: Finding Stationary Heel Position
Skill 9: Moving One Step at Heel on a Fence
Skill 10: Combining the Stay and Moving Exercises into One Training Session
Skill 12: Stationary Heeling Exercises off the Fence
Skill 13: Moving at Heel Off the Fence
Skill 14: Left, Right, and About Turns
Skill 15: Real Life Application – The Down/stay
Skill 16: Real Life Application – Heeling
The Sessions & Videos
Each video is a days worth of training for an exceptional puppy with an experienced trainer. However, few if any puppies can keep up this pace with only one session a day even with an experienced trainer.
There is no need to move quickly through this program. If it takes you a week or a month to do what we’ve labeled as a day, you will still be making forward progress as long as your puppy is learning and enjoying the work.
The skills discussed on the written pages above are demonstrated on the videos. The videos assume the viewer is already familiar with the skills discussed on these pages. In addition to the new skills, the videos include review, practice, and skill development in the skills introduced on previous days. They also include the training of some additional skills not mentioned in the written material that are fully discussed in the videos.
It is important that you teach your puppy the video material in the order presented. The Meal Time Manners needs to be taught first followed by the Sit/Down/Stay exercises, and then the heeling.
The Sessions Tips Chapters
Tips for a Successful Training Session
Tips for Maximizing the Primary Reinforcer
Learning to Sit, Down, and Stay
Session 1
After reading the skill pages #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7, watch the YouTube video here that demonstrates Day 1 of training on the floor. The puppy in this video was fairly easy to train. The next video features a puppy that doesn’t catch on as quickly.
Here is the video of the puppy that didn’t catch on to the work as quickly.
Session 2
Though Miss Green had a harder time than most on her first day of training on the floor, she’s doing really well on her second day at only 6 weeks 2 days of age.
Miss Purple in the following video had a hard time learning to stay in the down position. Therefore, we used our “Rapid Rewards” process to get her started. This process is discussed in detail on the Down/Stay page linked above and is demonstrated in the video below.
Session 3
In the video below, Miss Orange is learning to get into the down position without a lure and without targeting the finger.
Session 4
In this video, I am totally shaping the down with Miss Orange. I have faded the lure and the target. She is thinking about what I’m cueing her to do. The only cue she gets at this stage is my pointing to the ground without bending over.
Session 5
On day 5, Miss Orange has a fairly high degree of understanding of the down/stay exercise without luring or any other hints.
Learning to Heel
Session 1
We started working with Miss Orange on finding heel position and moving one step at heel in this video. We start this work with the puppy between a fence and the trainer. She turned 7 weeks of age the day we made this video.
Session 2
The video below is Miss Orange’s second day to work on heeling. The first half of the video is on the fence. Then we move her off the fence and begin teaching her our stationary exercises off the fence.
Session 3
In this next video, we’re gonna watch Mr. Yellow on his first day off the fence. Mr. Yellow is from another litter and he had already learned a few skills that Mr. Orange (above) had not learned while still on the fence.
Session 4
On Mr. Yellow’s second day of learning the stationary heeling exercises off the fence, fourth day of working on the heeling exercises both on and off the fence, he’s working outside. I like to introduce distractions into the work fairly early once the puppy is invested in and enjoying the work and I feel like the puppy can stay focused even amongst distractions.
As we progress through this training session, I expect more and more of the puppy in terms of finding heel position without my help. I gradually decrease my physical cues and expect the puppy to do more and more with increasingly less reward placement help.
Day 4 training session for this puppy actually took place on the same day as the day 3 session videoed above. He turned 8 weeks on the day these videos were filmed.
Sorry for the lighting towards the end of the video. It was the end of the day and the sun was just setting.
Session 5
During session 5 of learning to heel, Stone (formally Mr. Yellow) gradually begins to learn to find heel position while in a stationary position without the help of big gestures and cues and with little to no help from reward placement.
Session 6
During session 6 of heel training, Yellow Stone is finally starting to move at heel. After heavy reinforcement for finding and staying in heel position while remaining in a stationary position, he has a good understanding of where heel position is. Because we built a strong foundation in a stationary position, learning to stay in heel position while moving comes quickly.
