We teach our puppies to work on a raised cot for several reasons.
1. It teaches puppies not to creep forward during a down/stay.
2. It makes the teaching of a down/stay easier because our puppies are never asked to do anything other than to stay in a down while on the cot. Working on a cot takes away some of the confusion of whether we are working on sitting, downing, or moving at heel. When the position is clear for the puppy and he doesn’t have to think about his position, the puppy can concentrate more fully on building self-control.
2. Cot work builds value in a particular spot that we can later use to train our puppies to choose as their place. This place is particularly helpful when training puppies to stay put while we welcome guests into our home.
3. Cot work is good practice for learning to shape behaviors.
4. Cot work is a good foundational behavior that enables us to easily train a puppy to stay on a portable bed when out in public.
Creeping Forward on the Down/stay
Almost all puppies, at some point, will try to creep forward on the down/stay when you start backing up a certain distance from them. That distance varies from puppy to puppy or from dog to dog. They don’t get up. Instead, they crawl forward while remaining in a down.
What do you do in this situation? If you make them go back and repeat the exercise, the puppy will get confused and will no longer understand that you want them in the down position. After all, the puppy is remaining in a down position.
We need to communicate to the dog that he was correct by remaining in the down, but he was incorrect by creeping forward. In order to accomplish this, we must separate the behavior we do want (staying down) from the behavior we don’t want (creeping forward). Isolating good behaviors from bad ones is an important part of maintaining clear communication with your dog. The dog must understand what behavior is being reinforced.
In order to accomplish our goal here of reinforcing the staying down without reinforcing the creeping at the same time, we need to stop the creeping. We do this by setting up a barrier that keeps the puppy from creeping.
This is following the same principle that we followed when teaching our puppy to heel on a fence. The fence kept the dog straight so that we could concentrate on only one aspect of heeling: eye contact. With the fence, we no longer needed to worry about the puppy creating his own habit of heeling in a crooked position.
We stop the creeping during the down/stay by getting the puppy on a raised cot. When the puppy is on the cot, it is impossible to crawl forward without falling off. When the puppy falls off the cot, he will no longer be in a down position. We will be able to set clear criteria so that the puppy understands what it is we want and what will bring him his reward. He must do what it takes to stay in the down position. Creeping causes him to come out of the down position when he’s on a raised surface. Therefore, the puppy will begin to associate creeping with coming out of the down position.
We get the puppy on the cot either by shaping or by initial luring followed by a shift to shaping.
To shape the behavior, simply stand close to the cot and wait for him to look at it. When he looks at it, mark and use reward placement to get the puppy up on the cot. Give the puppy his food. Some softer tempered puppies might initially be unsure of jumping up on the cot. If your puppy doesn’t get on the cot quickly after you’ve said “yes”, give the puppy his food anyway and use luring to get him on the cot the next time.
To lure a puppy onto the cot, simply offer the food to the puppy while you hold it over the cot. Mark and reward the instant one foot touches the cot. Use reward placement to fully get the puppy on the cot if you can. If you can’t, give the food anyway.
Say “okay” after the puppy has taken his food and back away from the cot encouraging the puppy to get off the cot. Wait for the puppy to look at the cot again. Mark and use reward placement to get the puppy fully on the cot. Repeat this a few times.
“Yes” means that the puppy has performed a behavior correctly and that his reward is coming. “Okay” means the dog is released and free to do what he wants. There is no food reward for “okay”. His reward is his freedom to do what he wants. Reinforcement only comes on the cot. Therefore, we use “okay” to let the puppy know that he’s free to get off the cot. We encourage him to get off the cot by our movement away from the cot. Don’t give food for getting off the cot. Getting off the cot is never the dog’s work.
Now wait for your puppy to get himself totally on the cot. Chat your puppy up encouraging him if he’s just sitting. Most puppies will get themselves totally on the cot with just a few repetitions of shaping. Mark and reward when your puppy gets totally on the cot.. Say “okay”. Encourage the puppy to get off the cot and repeat the process several times having your puppy get on and off the cot.
Once your puppy understands how to get himself on and off the cot, it’s time to name the behavior. I’ll say “place” to tell the puppy to get on a cot.
The next step is to teach the puppy to run to the cot when you are not standing right next to it pointing at it. Quit pointing at the cot. Use the cue “place” and gradually add distance between you and the cot. The puppy should run (or at least move quickly and confidently) to the cot and jump on it. If the puppy seems hesitant, you are raising criteria too quickly and backing too far away from the cot. Make it easy enough to keep your puppy successful and confident. He should enjoy this game of running to the cot and being reinforced for it.
Once your puppy is enjoying this game of getting on and off the cot, you can cue your puppy to “down”. If he goes down, mark and reward. At this point, don’t worry if the puppy is hanging off the front end of the cot. Most puppies will get as close to the edge as possible. Reinforce the down on the cot several times.
If the puppy stays down, mark and reward repeatedly. If he jumps off, tell him “place” again and reward him for getting on. Wait a second and mark and reward for staying still. If he jumps off again, tell him “place” again and mark and reward the down. If he continues to jump off more than 3 or 4 times, quit reinforcing the getting back on. Wait for a second or two before reinforcing. He must learn that reinforcement comes from staying in the down and not for jumping off and back on. The game has now changed forever. No more rewards for getting off and on the cot. The new game is staying on the cot.
Once the puppy is remaining in a down on the cot while you stand still, it’s time to begin stepping away from the puppy.
As long as the puppy is on the cot, we will continue backing away from him, returning, and then marking and rewarding his success in remaining in the down while on the cot.
After a few repetitions on the cot, many puppy will creep forward as far as they can go without falling off. This will often put them right on the edge with a foot or two hanging over the side. Most puppies are unaware that their feet are hanging off the cot and this does not affect their down/stay. I will continue marking and rewarding until a foot touches the ground.
I do not mark when a foot touches the ground and in order to get the mark and reward, the puppy must get their foot back on the cot. I simply wait for the desired behavior and mark the instant the puppy’s foot leaves the ground. If the puppy doesn’t get his foot back on with waiting, try chatting to encourage the puppy to try something different. If that doesn’t work, get the puppy off the cot and then get him back on again.
