Now that we’ve taken time to get to know what parts of the
body your pup accepts being touched or handled and what parts your pup does not
readily accept being touched, we want to work on making sure our pups are
completely “green” on their coloring outline that we did last month.
Additionally, we want to prepare our pups to go from brief, quick touches to
longer holds and manipulation of body parts. We can accomplish this through
“counter conditioning.” This means that we will train (condition) the pup to change
a bad association to body handling to a good association. “Counter
conditioning” can be used to give a desirable response to any stimulus. Check
out this clip from the TV show, “The Office,” where Jim conditions his coworker
Dwight for a specific response!
Before we get started with “counter conditioning” body
handling:
- Your pup will need to have a good understanding of the marker word “yes.” This will help you to reinforce when your dog is giving the correct response.
- Make sure to have treats, on hand. Sometimes its hard to work on body handling with a treat pouch attached to you if you are sitting on the floor, so you might want to put your treat pouch on a nearby table or couch and grab them from there.
- Allow the pup to be comfortable – it doesn’t matter if the pup is lying down or standing, as long as you can easily reach the body parts. It’s easiest to work on body handling if your puppy is in a fairly relaxed state, such as shortly before their bedtime or after a long walk.
- Remember to keep your sessions short. It’s easy to allow body handling sessions to extend for a long amount of time, especially if your puppy is fairly accepting of body handling and touch. However, always “quit while you’re ahead” with any training exercise! If you find that you are constantly allowing your sessions to go long, then only have about 15 treats with you and, once those are gone, stop the session.
Counter Conditioning for Body Handling
- Choose the body part you will be working on. Make it very specific. For example, if you choose “leg,” make sure its JUST the leg and NOT also the paw.
- Briefly touch the pup’s body part. Remember, VERY short duration.
- React appropriately based on your pup’s reaction. If pup does not pull or lean away, say “YES” and give a treat and praise. If pup does pull or lean away, say nothing and remove hand.
- Advance your pup based on their initial reaction. If pup did not pull/lean away, gradually increase duration for this body part. If pup did pull/lean away, make your movement or touch smaller. You might just hover your hand above the body part. When you find the spot where your pup does not pull/lean away, mark with “YES,” treat, praise and advance from that point.
- Move to other body parts. Its best to do “easy” touches, such as the back, neck, or tummy, in between more difficult touches for your pup.
In this video, you can see Carrie working on body handling
with her puppy, Walton. In the first clip, Walton dramatically leans away when
Carrie tries to touch his ear. He recently had to have his ears cleaned quite a
bit and is a little head shy about his ears. Carrie moves back to just having
her hand hover near his ear, getting closer and closer over the two sessions
that are in the video. Additionally, Carrie names the body part as she touches
it, but this is to mainly allow the viewer to understand which body part will
be touched next. As a raiser, you do not have to name the body parts as you
touch them. However, even in the two short sessions, one can see that Walton
almost anticipates his ear being touched as Carrie says the word “ear.”
(As a sidenote, Carrie sometimes delays saying the “yes”
marker word as Walton is licking her hand. Its ideal to mark the exact moment
you want, such as allowing his leg to be touched, but not while he is licking
the handler’s hand. Also, Walton was not on a set command and chose to lie
down, so when he stands at the end without being told “break,” this is
okay. This goes with the above pointer
of allowing your puppy to be comfortable while doing body handling.)
By going in small steps and utilizing something your pup
really enjoys, like treats, you will find that training your pup for body
handling can be an enjoyable experience for both of you!
