#puppy development

CRATE TRAINING

These are excellent for housebreaking pups and young dogs, as all dogs are natural clean denners. It will go faster and easier if the breeder has already started crate training the pup; however, even without the pre-training by a breeder, crate training is very easy and manageable within days.

Equally, a crate provides a safe space that mimics the safety and security of dens that wolves and feral dogs are known to create for their young. This will later translate to a stress-free, decompression zone for the pup when it is mature.

Furthermore, Ellis suggested that teaching “negative or punishment markers” through crate training works FAR better and is much kinder/fairer than any other way.

Negative Marker, How To Guide: have the pup conditioned to the crate and already inside, when you go to let the pup out make sure they are calm and sitting, prevent them from busting out by closing the door in their face with a calm, firm “no”, wait for the pup to calm down and sit, open the door again, prevent them from rushing out again with a calm “no”, wait for them to calm, rinse and repeat until the pup is able to sit in the crate and be released with their release marker (yes, it will be important to have already taught this, however, you can also lure them out with some food after releasing them)

HOW-TO:

1. Ellis is NOT a believer in the “cry-it-out” method of puppy-crate training. He did say there was a massive difference to minor “grizzling” that resolved itself within an hour to a pup that has whipped itself up into a frenzy. If your pup is in a crying-frenzy and you don’t want to let them out because “what if they learn that crying gets them attention”, Ellis says that he would want people to reconsider and think about toddlers and kids having meltdowns: in that situation, there is no learning happening. Let the pup out, soothe them, give them something to occupy themselves, and sit with them until they sleep. Self-regulation is a skill that requires teaching.

2. Early on in the training, Ellis said he prefers to keep the pup beside his bed in a crate over-night. A) he can hear them wake/get to them quickly for night-time potty-breaks, b) is able to poke his fingers through the bars if they wake and grizzle, letting them know he is there and they’re not alone, and c) he finds the process a lot faster in conditioning the pup to the crate and a lot less (potentially) traumatic for the pup.

3. Any and ALL bedding is initially supervised. You have no idea if you have a chewer or not on your hands until you observe the pup in action. Equally, providing self-entertainment chew toys is important, especially when the pup hits 11+ weeks and start teething. Pups who chew their bedding are given flat pads that have a thick vinyl-cover, that while won’t deter an adult dog, are usually impervious to puppy teeth; and by the time that pup is an adult, they’ve usually learned to redirect their chewing onto dog-appropriate alternatives.

4. Pups have their food and water given to them in the crate, helping them associate the crate with good/positive things. Overall, makes the conditioning process much faster.

EXPEN/PLAY-PEN

You will often see these in videos of breeders, who have a designated space for pups to live and play without interference from the greater household (kids, other dogs, other animals, etc) and while most people have one for INside the house, it is not often considered to have a designated area for puppies when they are outside:

Having a designated outside space on grass or AstroTurf is a good way to introduce a pup to the outdoors and alone time without having to fear about them potentially slipping out of the fence or being harassed by older dogs.

Equally, strapping or zip-tying solid walls to the play-pen when it is outside will help prevent the pup from seeing too-much of the outside world and potentially develop behaviours such as fence chasing, barking at strangers, etc; which is particularly important when you have a high drive breed.

TRAMPOLINE BED

these provide a very clear boundary between what is "the bed" and what is the "not-bed" areas, this makes place-stay training much easier.

Additionally, the metal legs make a good place to loop a back-tie, to help keep bored* pups in place, allowing you to move away from the pup, mark, and return to them, once the pup is at the point where you can start increasing distance and duration during the place-stay.

FOOD

It is very important to know if you have a “food hound” or a “food indifferent” dog, as both will present unique and different ways in training your pup.

With food hounds, food motivation will not be an issue (think your Labradors, beagles, and shepherds, etc – these are not dogs who tend to need encouragement in eating their food) which means that you might instigate from an early age the idea of the 80/20 rule, where 80% of their food is for training purposes and 20% is for free. Or maybe you only do 50/50 free/training rules for food. Whatever your choice, it is important to capitalise on your pup’s motivation, especially when they are constantly hungry while growing.

Food indifference is fairly rare in pups, as they ARE growing constantly and this then tends to translate to being reasonably food motivated from a young age. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and you may find yourself with a food indifferent pup, where cultivating that work-for-food mentality will be harder. In this, you may have to instigate rules of “no free food, ever” and only ever let them eat to work. Especially as food, while being a primary motivator, is one with a short shelf-life. The more you pay, the less they want it.

Equally, working with meals will help prevent you from over-feeding your pup, or at the very least, be less likely.

Also, don’t always use a “bait-pouch” or treat-bag; yes, they have their place, but they are also unintentional Pavlovian conditioning and can cause issues later on. Tuck food randomly on your person, in pockets, up your sleeve, in your socks, and introduce the pup early to the idea that they never know where their reward is coming from (specifically relates to marker/toilet training).

TOYS

Developing play, according to Ellis and a number of dog trainers I’ve worked with over the years, is vital in not just training dogs but also in building a solid relationship with your dog. Dogs are the Peter Pan’s of the animal kingdom, there is a lot they will do for a good time, and introducing play as not just a fun time, but also something valuable to the dog to get from you, as their handler, is imperative.

Whether you want to teach your dog to fetch or to tug, it is important to build that drive from day one.

Equally, it is important to acknowledge what kind of dog you have – every dog plays differently and are motivated to different play-styles via both genetics and instinct. Your stereotypical Border Collie will be very aware of spatial pressure and be more motivated to chase a moving object than to latch straight onto a tug toy; while a Spaniel will be most inclined to chase and retrieve an item to their hander; and a Shepherd or a Terrier to indulge in biting, chewing, and shaking a toy.

What your dog is motivated by and to-do during play, will inform what toys will suit them and you best later on in training. Not to say you cannot teach a BC to tug, but you will have to do so in a way that encourages them to move into your space, by you conceding that space to them, then you would have to do with a German Shepherd.

FETCH:

Get your pup, a puppy-appropriately sized ball or soft rope, keep the pup close to you, roll the ball or gently toss the rope, and when the pup runs to the toy and picks it up, you start running backwards calling “pup-pup-pup” in a high-pitched voice.

You want the pup to bring the toy to you, if they drop the item, double back around, still running backwards and calling “pup-pup” till you reach the toy, nudge it to them, wait for them to interact with it (hopefully picking it up), and do the run-back-and-call again.

If, for whatever reason, they still do not pick up the toy, then reset things and start by giving them the toy, and doing a trade for the toy with food. Once the pup is willingly spitting the toy to you for the food, then you can go back to the original step and try again.

At no time are you to snatch the toy.

At no time should you pressure the pup to play, this is obligation free, especially if the pup is young. Equally, if you have an adult dog you are trying to teach to do this with, you will have to teach them how-to play first.

Encouragement over expectation, keep it light, keep it fun.

Note: If you are still having trouble with fetch, consider teaching a little bit of TUG first, before transitioning.

TUG:

Get your pup, tie a rag to a bit of string or a rope, and much as you entice a cat to play with a feather-teaser, so you do with the pup. Encourage them to chase the toy, to pounce, and bite.

Once you have the pup reliably chasing the toy, start introducing the toy without the string/rope, and again, keep your body moving. You should not be static or stationary while playing with your pup. Movement is fun, you being stationary is the death of fun.

Again, once the pup is reliably chasing the toy in your hands, then start introducing very small tosses into the mix, away from you. Much as in fetch-play, you run backwards once you have done this and call the pup, let them run up-to/in-to you, you can start introducing your release-reward marker here (i.e, “yes”) to capture the pup re-instigating the game With You. You want you to be the source of fun, because then your value will increase.

Timing is important at the marking stage: you want the dog to be looking up at you, toy offered to you, and even as you accept  you want to continuing stepping backwards, as this will keep momentum of your movement (remember: movement is fun!) and also encourage those dogs who are spatially-sensitive (BCs, etc), to keep coming back to you.

Stepping forwards, leaning forwards, to some dogs can be confronting. You need to be aware of your body-language and how you present yourself to your dog. Stiff, still dogs are not happy dogs. If you go from moving to flatly-stopped, you will alert the dog to you “being unhappy” or worse.

So, always keep moving, keep the encouragement high and fluent, make the game the most important thing to the dog.

INTRODUCING BASIC OBEDIENCE/FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING

Where and when you start teaching foundations to pups is… not always the easiest thing to decide. Ellis’ noted that he started foundations only once his markers were in place and that he did not start with “sit” or “drop/down” as most people do.

Instead, Ellis’ stated that he started with “touch” training. Namely, getting a rubber bucket, turning it upside down, and teaching the pup to stand on it with its front paws.

Equally, Ellis does not teach behaviours as strictly luring nor strictly free-shaping. While you can use both effectively, there is a point where both methods of training start to unravel in usefulness.

Luring, obviously, is the use of food or toys to induce a dog into performing a behaviour. However, everything about that lure, from the movement, to the position of the handler, to sequence of events means that fading out the various prompts is very hard, not impossible, but hard to do. Equally, luring has a tendency to prevent the dog from thinking for themselves, instead, they wait or their handler to prompt their behaviours through movement-based cue or (hopefully) spoken-cue.

Free-Shaping, by contrast, is the use of a marker and incremental adjustments of naturally offered behaviours by the dog to the handler in order to achieve the desired result. The draw-back with free-shaping is that it tends to create impatience within dogs, because it’s a very quick mark-and-reward sequence that makes adding duration and distance very difficult. Additionally, if you shape touch on a rubber bucket and then change to a plastic disk, you have to start right back at the beginning again. Making it a much slower development of behaviours.

Ellis’ solution to have the best of both worlds without as many of the drawbacks, is to lure a behaviour – say touching the front paws to an up-turned bucket and standing until released – several times until the dog is showing a level of fluidity in the behaviour, and then switching tacks entirely to shaping the remainder. Because the pup has just been shown how-to do the behaviour, up to 10 to 15 times via lure, previously, the wait time in the pup offering the behaviour without the lure is considerably less and prevents the pitfalls of waiting for a dog to offer the behaviour on their own (and hoping you get what you want, not the dog biting the bucket or whatever).

This blend of luring and shaping gives you the benefits of a dog actively-engaged in their learning, while also not having to necessarily worry about fading prompts or cues later on.

This principle is then applied all behaviours that Ellis teaches his dogs. Also, he takes every behaviour and breaks it down into its base components. Heeling for example, is actually 3 or 4 behaviours in one. The dog has to learn: 1. Position, 2. To move in position, 3. To remain in contact with Ellis’ leg, and 4. To look up and not around. Each of those behaviours must first be taught separately before you can tie them all together.

MARKERS:

Ellis noted that he has several markers, a phenomenon that increasingly used within the sport-dog world, that indicate different things, namely what rewards to expect and where, to his dogs. However, from the very beginning, Ellis said that he introduces two reward markers to his dogs and a single non-reward or punishment marker.

RELEASE-REWARD: Ellis uses “yes”, and the release-reward marker means that the dog, upon receiving it, is allowed to get up and come to him for the reward.

REMAIN-REWARD: “good” (Ellis); the remain-reward means that the dog is to remain in position and Ellis will go to them and reward them there. In the case of toys and the remain-reward marker, Ellis says he has the dog in the controlled position until the toy is at their nose, and then if they have not broken position, and only then does he give the release-reward marker and allow the dog to take it.

NON-REWARD: “no” (Ellis); built up through negative-reinforcement (application and release of pressure, i.e., closing the crate door in the face of a pup who is trying to bust out) and through redirection (marking “no” if the pup is interacting with something they shouldn’t and redirecting them onto something appropriate with a “yes” or “good”, i.e., pup is chewing on Ellis’ shoe, he marks “no”, takes the show away, and instead supplies a puppy-safe chew like a kong or a nylabone with an appropriate reward marker)

INCLUSION/EXCLUSION ZONE(S)

The idea of inclusion and exclusion zones ties into the idea of managing puppy-behaviours but in a specific way that deserves its own space.

The underpinning of the whole concept is “arousal capping”, wherein (high drive and/or high energy) dogs learn how to act appropriately within certain spaces through the patterning and conditioning of arousal levels.

For Ellis, who is a self-confessed working-line Malinois Shepherd guy, this is the structure that allows him to not just work and breed multiple Malinois’ in one household, but also have a house-hold to come home to; and considering he apparently started his whole training journey in a 100ft NYC apartment with Mals, it works too.

To pattern/condition the dogs’ arousal levels, it is very important to have guidelines in place. Namely:

1. No play inside the house – all play, with other dogs or people, happens outside. Put on your best parent voice and tell them to “take it outside”.

2. If you are inside, you are calm. Inside is a low arousal zone.

Equally, Ellis utilises what he calls “inclusion and exclusion” zones. These are zones that help pattern behaviour through expectation. With puppies, Ellis uses a lot of back-ties, crates, and redirection of behaviours. You cannot punish a dog for what they do not know and puppies, that rule becomes a hard-line law.  You cannot punish a puppy for “misbehaving” if you have not taught them the alternative-correct behaviour.

INCLUSION ZONE: an inclusion zone is where the pup is placed in a position within the household, that includes them in what is going on, but also patterns the expectations of behaviour once they are grown. Dogs most often learn best by mimicking other dogs – which can be dangerous, if the other dog is not well trained or is reactive – and by placing a pup in a crate between older dogs’ beds, they will learn that when they are on their beds, they are to be calm. It will also teach them that they are not missing out on anything interesting around them. Whether their person is watching TV, doing crafts, or working at their desk, crating the pup, placing them within eye-sight, and providing them an alternative to boredom like a Kong or other self-occupational toy, you teach your pup that calmness is not boredom and that sometimes, you will have to sit still.

EXCLUSION ZONE: this is a room set up specifically for the pup, it might not be used until they have completed their crate training, but this is a space where nap-times, bedtimes, decompression post-training or play, all happens. This is a space where the crate is covered, the room is quiet, and the pup knows that it is not just relax time but it’s sleep-time.

Another thing Ellis mentioned, was noticing your pups’ biorhythms. If your pup is getting over-aroused, is struggling to redirect off behaviours you’re trying to prevent, and is getting kind of ratty (think, bitey, yappy, and narky), then the pup is likely overtired. Ellis mentioned this happens more often than not with puppy owners, because they fail to remember that pups really are just babies and need nap-breaks anywhere from every hour to every three as they age.

PREVENTING “ADDICTION” AND MANAGING BEHAVIOURS

We have touched on a few of these “management” tools already – crates, play-pens, etc – but now we are moving onto nipping potential issues in the bud.

Firstly, Ellis repeated the phrases “do not establish habits that need changing later on – you will find it hard to do so” and “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” to the point where I feel that both have been branded on the insides of my ear canals.

Secondly, Ellis stated that he prefers to set up too many management protocols around a puppy because he can relax them as the pup grows into- and reveals themself as they age. You can somewhat predict how a well-bred, well-documented-line pup might turn out, but there is never a guarantee. You have inherited over 400 different genetic based traits from up-to your 4x great-grandparents. The same goes for dogs. So, for Ellis, the most important things for him are:

Getting pups from genetic-lines that he likes, preferring to not just see what the parents, the aunts, uncles, and grandparents of the pup, but also any siblings and what genetic traits they have presented. While you cannot guarantee everything, you CAN stack the odds in your favour.

Building a solid relationship between him and his dog. Ellis said that for the first week or two, he doesn’t necessarily bother with training “behaviours” as such, that can all come later, instead he spends time with that pup and builds a good working relationship and basis of trust and interest within him to the pup.

Under-environmental exposure/socialisation is Just As Bad as over-environmental exposure/socialisation.

Don’t overdo it – dog trainers, whether sport or professional, have a horrible habit of overworking their dogs.

Training and socialisation is a non-linear process: if you have a pup who is developing too much interest in strange dogs and/or strange people, then you dial back the socialisation and go back to building a relationship/engagement with the pup; equally, if the pup is showing early signs, or behaviours, of being sketchy or fearful around novel stimulation, take a break from environmental exposure for a few weeks, return when you think the pup has learned more or greater confidence in themselves.

Control the dogs’ freedoms and you will control the expressions of their behaviours; potentially preventing any issues before they are caused.

This goes for everything; you must be aware of your surroundings at all times. Your ability to see where other dogs, people, and stimuli is/are, will be the difference between a good or bad experience.

Introduce novel-stimulation at a greater distance than you think is required. Dogs have the ability to see up to 70 metres, the distant-sight of a person 20 to 30 metres away that is met with reward and walking away while being rewarded, will be just as good if not better than that person being 2 metres away and you potentially losing control of the situation, whereby the other person forgets your instructions to not-interact with your dog and instead loses it and coos all over them.

Work within and do not push the pups’ thresholds until they are at a point where testing their thresholds through pressure and reward will not cause them any harm. Equally, know what your pups’ thresholds are. Do not exceed them.

Do not force interactions – this happens all the time when pups show minor anxieties to novel stimulations. Take a break. Try again later. Think Point 5: training and socialisation is a non-linear process.

Do not fire your pup up with a game and then crate them – this is unfair. Always let them calm down first.

Do not let your pup develop “addictions”; a lot of working-lines, sport-dogs, working breeds develop bad habits and addictions really easily. Don’t let them present those behaviours. Fence chasing, shadow-chasing, wheel-biting, barking, are all self-rewarding behaviours; this means that prevention is often the only cure for them because those behaviours inherently feel good to the dog. Too-much control early on is a much easier protocol than increasing-control later on.

Manage the pups’ motivation to burn their energy; bottle that energy up (crates, play-pens) and redirect that energy onto what you want them to do. Do not let pups decide where to direct their energy without boundaries, this leads to behaviours that are very hard to fix. See point 11.

Puppies are sponges: remember, even if you don’t mean it to be, every moment is a training/learning moment.

MAKE YOUR LIFE EASY – you know you won’t want to carry a crate back and forth between the laundry to the living room every day, so make your life accessible and have a crate in every place where the pup might feasibly require containment. Keep a variety of self-play toys ready to go for the pup, so you always have one on hand. Keep interaction toys that you play with the pup on top of every crate and by both the front and back door, so you don’t have to try and find them, etc, etc. Puppies are hard work and you want to start out how you mean to finish: make that finish line more accessible by having multiples of everything.

Journal everything – from aspirations for your pup, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely; to what you did in training; how your play sessions went; what you did during socialisation and who with and how long; what environmental exposure you did today; what the pup ate and how much they ate and grew this week, etc.

On top of journaling, video yourself training. You’ll see mistakes, gestures, expressions, patterns, etc, that you would otherwise have missed. Also, if you are working with a qualified trainer, they will probably kiss you on the lips if you give them more than just a verbal “um-ahh’d” run down of your days and training sessions.

On the topic of training sessions: many, short sessions are much better than few, long sessions. Remember, you are teaching your pup to learn at first. Your training sessions should measure in seconds with a minimum of a half hour break in between them, at first. Ellis trains his pups anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds up to the first 4-5 months of their life; he doesn’t move to multi-minute long sessions until they are nearly a year old.

On the topic of puppy-aspirations, Ellis says that he approaches every. single. puppy. with the rose-coloured glasses belief that they Are A World Champion. Doesn’t matter if he picked them out, if they were bred by him personally, every single pup is treated like they are a world class future-champion in his sport and he tells every client to do the same with their pups. A) this helps with training plans, because if you have a world-class future-Earthdog champion on your hands, then you want to structure your training of that pup around the behaviours they will need for Earthdog. B) it also helps with the inevitable frustration that comes with owning a mouthy, naughty, little puppy. Puppies are pains in the arse, having the ability to go “yes, what you just did was really inconvenient, but you are going to be So Great once you’re an adult, so minor mistakes now aren’t the worst thing to happen.” C) even with every plan and aspiration in the world, you need to be prepared to pivot and change that plan. Maybe you wanted a terrier for Earthdog but now you have a high energy terrier who has no prey-drive; you have to be able to pivot and change your aspirations to fit the dog in front of you. Maybe that pup is going to be rubbish at Earthdog, but hey, they’re still great a climbing and jumping, so World Class Agility Champion it is.