Manami from Kuma's 2023 litter earned both her Novice Trick Dog Title and Canine Good Citizen Title at 4.5 months old using this training method.
Originally published in the Heart of Dixie Shiba Inu Fanciers March 2024 Newsletter
As a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, one of the first questions people ask me is, “How do I teach my dog to ___________.” I like to break that question down into its most basic principle: “How do I teach my dog?” I’m going to share with you the basic strategies that I use to begin training many of my canine students, but these methods work especially well with Shibas, who tend to be intelligent, clever, problem solvers.
There are 3 parts to training any behavior: getting the dog to do the behavior, letting him know that the behavior was correct, then teaching him a cue so that he knows when the behavior is rewardable. My dog might sit several times a day, but that behavior is only rewardable if she sits when I ask her to. Then her reward might be a treat, or it might be a release from her crate, or permission to walk through a doorway to go outside, or permission to go sniff a mailbox on a walk.
I use a sound to mark my dog’s correct behavior, either a clicker or a word (a short, sharp, yes--not a long, drawn-out yeeesssss). Think of it like taking a snapshot of a moment in time when your dog was doing exactly the thing that you wanted him to do. A sound is used to mark that moment, and that sound is called a “marker.”
How is the dog supposed to know what that sound means? Classical conditioning is defined as “the process in which an automatic, conditioned response is paired with specific stimuli.” Activate a marker by making the sound, then immediately (within 2 seconds) give a treat. Repeat this 10 times in a row, for a couple of different training sessions. Then make the sound at a different time, and if your dog immediately looks for the treat, you know that you have completed step one of the training process. (Remember that making the particular noise you use for a marker ALWAYS means that you are going to give a treat. After cues are learned, you will fade out the marker and you may use verbal praise, attention, or other rewards.)
The next step is teaching your dog how to learn. Operant Conditioning is the process by which humans or animals learn that operating on their environment (doing something) can result in a reward. To open up the world of learning to your dog, you can encourage him to experiment with behaviors in a game where there are no wrong answers. This game is called “The Box Game,” and I play it with all of my new dog students, which helps me see where they are at in terms of creativity, problem-solving, and eagerness to learn. Some are quick to explore the box; others sit and look at me.
To play the box game, you need some treats, whatever sound you used as a marker, and a big, flat box. First get ready to make your sound. (I’m going to use “click” from now on, but you may use whatever sound you have trained your dog to know.) Next, set the box down on the floor near the dog. Click and treat no matter what your dog does with the box, except run away from it. Any movement toward the box is rewardable. If he looks at the box, click and treat. If he takes a step toward it, click and treat. If he sniffs it, bites it, steps in it, pulls it, walks into it, walks around it, or sits in it, click and treat. This rewards your dog for trying new behaviors and “learning to learn.”
Play this game during three different training sessions. If he was fearful around the box, repeat the lesson using the same box to see if he is more comfortable the second time. If he was enthusiastic about the box, try it with something else, such as a vacuum cleaner, a grooming table folded down and lying on the floor, or an open suitcase. To see a video of “The Box Game,” feel free to head over to my website. (www.k9levelup.com) I have posted several training videos there.
Rewarding your dog for curiosity will help build his confidence. It will also reinforce that trying new behaviors is rewardable. This will open the floodgates to a lifetime of learning how to do anything.