Mental Exercise for the Winter Blahs

I’m the first to say I love winter, but this cold weather has GOT to stop! I’m feeling cooped up, tired, restless; I can’t begin to comprehend the cabin fever my dogs are experiencing. But when we try to go for a walk they are holding up their paws and turning towards home before we’ve gone a block.

So what can we do to get through it all? And sometimes it’s not the weather that prevents us from getting the exercise we need. Illness or injury can put a stop to a long romp in the park. Even having to work late might mean only getting in a short walk.

While physical exercise is vital, you can help your dog cope by increasing his mental exercise. It can be just as exhausting as a long game of fetch. Think about it – accountants get tired just as much as carpenters.

Teach your dog something NEW. Practicing already perfected behaviors is just going to bore both of you, and do your relationship no good.

Keep a list of tricks handy to choose from when you’re not feeling creative yourself. There’s a list at the end of this blog. Print it out and post it on the fridge so you can see it while getting out the training treats.

It doesn’t have to take a long time. Three minutes is better than 30. Seriously. Think of it this way: the first time you ask for a behavior, your dog has to remember all the way back to the last time you asked for it, whether it’s last night or a week ago. That can be tough. Each subsequent rehearsal requires remembering for only a few seconds. Repeating the same behavior 25 times means pulling it out of long term storage once, and short term storage 24 times. If you split training into five short sessions, you get five long-term retrievals! Which do you think will help your dog remember it better: once or five times?

Keep some treats ready to go, so you don’t have to stop to cut pieces or find something in the fridge. While I don’t recommend store bought treats as a rule, they can be convenient, and don’t generally need to be refrigerated. Just remember to keep them out of reach while not training, and to cut them into small pieces. Here’s a rule of thumb: if it takes longer for your dog to eat the treat than it does for him to do a simple behavior like sit, your treat is the wrong size. Sometimes you might have to make the treat bigger, for example if you have a boxer or other dog with big flews. Most of the time, though, make the treat smaller.

There are a lot of short time spans in our days that we could use to train. Get creative & train your dog in different rooms, at different times, and with different distractions.

1. TV commercials
2. While the coffee brews
3. Sitting on the toilet
4. Using mouthwash
5. On hold (but don’t abruptly ignore your dog when the person answers the phone!)
6. While your computer boots up
7. While the printer is printing
8. While the pasta boils
9. Waiting for your darling husband to find his keys
10. While the car warms up
11. While supervising the kids clearing the table
12. Anytime your dog is near you

There – you’ve just trained your dog in the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the bathroom, the foyer, and in the car. And you’ve done it while sitting and standing, with and without using your voice, with one hand busy, dressed for work and relaxing and in a heavy coat while holding your purse.

It doesn’t have to be a behavior that you will ever use again, or even put a name to. The challenge of figuring out what to do to earn the treat is what’s stimulating to your dog. But on the upside, all those simple behaviors that take so little effort to teach and learn can be strung together into show-stopping tricks. For right now, focus on the steps along the way.

I always think the best walks are those when we are together, there in the moment, enjoying each other’s company. Make this true for your mental exercise as well. Focus on your dog, and let go of everything else for a whole three minutes. And when you’re done, you’ll both be happier, more relaxed, and appreciate each other even more.

Here’s that list I promised you. Print it out and hang it up somewhere you can see it. And mark it up! Cross out the things he knows already. Circle those you want to try, and check them off when you’ve done them. Highlight your favorites!

Things to teach my dog: A list for when I’m not feeling creative

1. Touch the back of my hand with nose
2. Touch the end of a target stick with nose
3. Touch the arm of the couch (or a pillow or a piece of tape on the wall)
4. Touch an open door
5. Keep going with this theme…
6. Touch the door hard enough to get it to move
7. Close the door!
8. Pull on a toy/rope
9. Pull on a towel/rope tied to a door handle
10. Pull on it enough to move the door
11. Pick up a toy
12. Pick up a pillow
13. Pick up a blanket
14. Drag something toward you (pillow or blanket)
15. Drop a toy in your hand
16. Drop something on cue, not always in your hand
17. Drop a toy into a basket
18. Spin to the right
19. Twist to the left (or vice versa)
20. Go between your legs (front to back)
21. Go between your legs (back to front)
22. Weave around your legs
23. Weave while you walk
24. Walk around both your feet
25. Ignore me (Sit behind you facing away)
26. Front paws up on a (stable) surface (like a heavy box, or a thick hardcover book for the small dogs)
27. Front paws up, & pivot around with back paws
28. All four paws up on a surface
29. Sit on it
30. Lie down on it
31. Spin in a circle on it
32. Balance on your exercise ball (Stabilize it!) Sit, Stand, or Down on it.
33. Step from obstacle to obstacle (not jump) without touching the floor
34. All four paws on the floor (sometimes called Down or Off; I call it Floor)
35. Target with a paw: similar to the touch with nose, only with a paw
36. Hit the Staples Easy button
37. Go sit on a rug
38. Shake
39. High five
40. Wave to you
41. Wave to another person
42. Raise your paw (Who’s the cutest?)
43. Woof/bark/speak
44. Sing
45. Quiet
46. Lie down on a hip
47. Lie straight down (sphinx position)
48. Lie down on side (dead dog)
49. Wag tail
50. Catch tail
51. Nod head Yes
52. Walk around the chair/table/other obstacle
53. Limp
54. Roll over
55. Beg
56. Pray (Put head on paws) with paws up on something
57. Look pitiful (head on paws, in a down position)
58. Cover nose with paws
59. Sit pretty
60. Hold eye contact
61. Sniff the air
62. Find me
63. Find the hidden treat
64. Shell game (hide treat under one cup)
65. Indicate the treat’s location (sit or touch, wait for you to give it)
66. Leave the treat alone (in front of, on paw, on nose)
67. Take the treat on cue
68. Come without taking the treats/toys scattered between us
69. Walk backwards away from you
70. Walk backwards beside you
71. Crawl forward
72. Crawl backward 
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80.  

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions have gone to the dogs… already.

January first has come and gone, and once again, I haven’t made any resolutions. I used to. I had lists of things I wanted to change, stuff I thought would make my life perfect – or at least better. They never lasted, and I’ve gotten the impression that’s the way it is for most people. Especially since it seems “lose weight” is on so many people’s resolution list. Over and over. (Sorry, didn’t mean to say “over” when talking about dieting, so again and again.)

I do, however, have goals. Plans for this year, things I’d like to accomplish. And I have several lists of goals. There’s one for the dog training I want to do for each dog, another for the titles I think they can earn, seminars and clinics I’d like to attend, and of course goals for the business. It can take weeks of dreaming and planning to come up with my goal lists.

Goals have a plan of attack inherent in them. If I just HAVE to hear a certain seminar speaker, I know I can’t rely on that weekend’s obedience trial to finish a title. And to finish a title by a certain time, I need to sharpen up Kiernan’s heeling way before that.  Goals have steps, mini-goals, accomplishments along the way. And if I don’t make a goal, I don’t feel like it reflects on myself quite like breaking a resolution does. Instead I examine the process to get there.

It’s not quite so clear with a resolution. My resolutions were vague, generic: “be neater,” “don’t be late,” “lose weight.”  And if I broke them down into smaller bites, “make my bed every day” soon fell away the first morning I woke up late. Somehow I expected to be the perfect person I wanted to be, instantly. Resolutions were kept or broken.

The dictionary on my computer defines goal as “the destination of a journey” and “the object of a person’s ambition or effort.”  I like the implication that a plan has to be in place in order to reach a goal.  Resolution is “a firm decision to do or not do something.” It’s more about the final outcome than the process of getting there.

As Bob Bailey says, “Be a splitter, not a lumper.” It’s a process, and along the way there may be detours, but there is a map too.

And certainly one needs to be “resolved” in order to reach one’s goals, I’ll stick to my goals.