This page along with the links it takes you to is an in depth deep dive into how to train the foundational skills for the AKC obedience exercises. It can be used on puppies as young as 6 weeks and creates a solid foundation for a well-behaved puppy or a competitive obedience dog. The method taught here is heavily is rooted in the very powerful positive reinforcement training tool called shaping.
By devoting 10 minutes per day to a training session, you will be building tremendous amounts of focus, self-control, and confidence, along with a love of working with a person. As a bonus, you’ll be teaching your puppy or dog to have a strong down/stay, a recall, the ability to heel off leash, and the ability to wait on a release before taking any food.
This page has links to many pages that will eventually become chapters in a book that give detailed information on the science behind the method and how to use it. It also has links to videos of puppies learning the methods taught on this page. 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.
Video Examples of Puppies that are Almost Done with the 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.
The Program is Still Being Written and Edited, but It is Still Usable and Very Helpful
The written instructions linked to on this page along with the linked videos are a rough draft . For now, the course is usable and helpful. However, it is not complete or fully edited.
There are chapters that still need writing. In addition, the writing that is presented here needs editing for structure and grammar.
The videos also need organizing and editing. I am also just learning to use the video software so it isn’t very professional looking.
I have hundreds of videos of individual puppies working at various ages between 6 and 9 weeks. I am posting videos as I get them organized and as I add the most important instructional details.
I’m posting the videos before they are in the format that I eventually hope for. Currently the videos are what I originally created as notes to myself and as general instructions for those who worked with our own puppies. I have added written notes on unclear parts to further clarify what I’m doing.
Later, I will put them in a format with a more structured discussion of what is being taught. There are also a few sections that are a bit long and boring that need to be condensed. I plan on eventually updating the videos so that the audio discussion is better organized, clearer, and more interesting.
In addition to editing the material currently posted, I also will be adding content as I get it in a usable (though not perfect) format. I also plan to merge the written content better with the videos.
Though this course’s presentation needs improvement and some details added, the content presented here is very usable and the method can’t be beat. It creates a better trained puppy than any method I know of (and I think I’ve read every dog training book out there!). Additionally, for now while still in a rough draft form, the material on these pages and videos is free!
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 Written Instructions
Shaping the AKC Obedience Exercises: Introduction
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: Raising the Bar While Remaining Under Threshold
Chapter 13: The Primary Reinforcer
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
Skill 5: Down/stay Introduction
Skill 6: Fading the Lure for the Down
Skill 8: Finding Stationary Heel Position
Skill 9: Increasing Criteria for the Down/stay
Skill 10: Moving One Step at Heel on a Fence
Skill 11: Stationary Heeling Exercises off the Fence
Skill 12: Moving at Heel Off the Fence
The 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.
Meal Time Manners: An Introduction to Focus
The first thing we teach our puppies is to give eye contact. This is the foundation for good focus. We’ve found that eye contact is easiest taught at meal times.
Make sure you’ve read all of the science chapters along with the introduction to the skills and the Skill 1 page before watching the soon coming video below.
This video far more than the others is long and repetitive and needs more editing to skip certain parts and double time others. This first step in training a puppy to give eye contact requires a lot of waiting which can be boring to watch as the video currently stands.
In order to try to keep the video from being so long and boring, I sped up the video to put it at double time during some of the more drawn out spots. I’m still learning the technical parts of video editing and therefore when speeding up the visuals, I also sped up the audio which makes it hard to understand. I’ll repost once I learn how to better edit it! For now, reading the skills chapter above on mealtime manners will hopefully be sufficient for you to teach your puppy these skills without the video.
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.
