Task: Cross Paws
Before a dog can be taught to cross paws on demand, there are a few basics the dog already needs to master. These basics are ‘down’( when a dog lies down with its chest touching the ground) and ‘down stay’(in the down position the dog has to know to stay in that position until released). There are other basics that can help this task to be reached much quicker, but they are not necessary to be able to do the task, these include tasks such as ‘touch’(when a dog touches something on demand) or ‘give paw’ (when a dog gives paw into your hand or the air on demand). www.traineddogsrock.com. When using shaping, it’s important to remember that your steps towards the desired behaviour should not be too big, if so it is possible that you won't reach the desired behaviour. www.dogtrainingology.com. Always remember to be aware of the environment, it’s important that the reward given to the dog when doing a desired behaviour should be bigger and more rewarding and motivating than any reward the environment may present while training. This is why it’s important to train in an appropriate place that suits the dog, owner and trainer in a way that all three will be able to give their full attention during the session. www.dogtrainingology.com. But this does not mean that when the basics is mastered the dog will be able to perform in all environments as he did in the ‘safe space’ we created for starting. A part of shaping will be to do it in different areas and environments as we go further in the process to make sure that the behaviour we are shaping is correct and that the owner and dog would be able to perform this behaviour in many spaces and shape the behaviour even more advanced in the future. www.dogtrainingology.com.
When starting with ‘cross paws’ there are a few things to remember during training. Firstly, be patient; if you rush into this and not shape the behaviour appropriately, you can cause
behavioural problems. An example of this may be if you lose your patience and grab your dog’s paws and place them into position, the dog might develop a phobia in which they will be reluctant to allow people to touch and come near their paws. If you see the dog’s not grasping the suggestions you are trying to give, move a step backwards and make sure that the dog fully understands the previous steps and that he masters them with confidence. There is nothing wrong with revisiting previous steps to refresh memory or help shape the behaviour even better. www.dogtrainingology.com. For this we will need the following things: high value treats, an object that a treat can be hid under(a small lunch box will work fine) and a piece of paper or cloth.
Step1: Get your dog into the ‘down stay’ position in front of you.
Step2: Get your dog comfortable with the jar/lunch box you will be starting with that will be
referred to from here on forward as “the object’. Make sure that the dog is not scared of the
object.
Step3: Place a treat underneath the object and place it just in front of the right paw of your dog. Your dog will try and paw at the object to get the treat out underneath, as soon as his paw touches the object, name it (eg. Right Paw) and reward. Repeat this step until the dog has mastered it.
Step 4: Move the object closer to the left paw and repeat step3.
Step5: Lift the object up and hold it in the air, low enough for the dog to still reach it. When the dog touches, name it and reward.
Step6: With the object still in your hand, move it over the dogs left paw, name it (eg. “Cross
right”) and reward.
Step7: Place the object on the ground on the other side of the left paw, when the dog touches, name it and reward.
Step8: Be quick to switch the object out with the paper or cloth moments before the dog
touches, so that he will touch the paper, name it and reward. Now the dog will touch the paper for a reward.
Step9: as soon as the dog is mastering touching the paper on command, take away the paper moments before the dog touches it, name it and reward. Repeat this until the dog masters “cross right” with no object or paper, crossing his right paw over his left paw.
Step10: now it's time to start all over, using the dogs left paw. This can be a bit more tricky as
the dog already wants to use known behaviour to get the treat(right paw). Do not reward the dog when he gives the right paw, as you are not giving the signal for the right paw, and this may lead to setbacks in the shaping. https://blog.fidoandco.com. Teaching the dog to cross its left paw may be more difficult, so be patient.
After reading through the steps there are a few important things we should note. Most important thing during shaping is that we should be patient. We should not reward behaviour we did not ask for. Because of a factor called Temporal contiguity, an effective association would be made when the behaviour offered is instantaneously named and rewarded. This is why it is so important to name the behaviour and reward it as soon as it happened. Do not punish the dog for not “getting it”, rather break the steps down into smaller more achievable steps. Always keep it positive and rather stop the training session early and on a good note, than leaving the session with you and your dog both feeling confused and stressed.
We use operant conditioning;this is when a dog repeats an action because he gets rewarded; to shape the dogs behaviour, through rewarding him wherever he does something desirable and in the same way ignoring behaviours that are not desired, eg. when we are training ‘cross right’ and the dog gives its left paw, we will simply ignore this behaviour through pulling away and then retrying until the dog offers its right paw into position, we name it and reward. With shaping it's easy to start with shaping the basic behaviour and then turn it into an more advanced behaviour at a later time, eg. teaching the dog to ‘cross right’ and ‘cross left’ not with words, but with the signals of your feet crossing right and left. www.dogtrainingology.com.
References:
Henson, Sarah(2014), 24 Dogs Who Cross Their Paws Sarah Henson
09 Oct 2020
09 Oct 2020
Dog Tricks: How To Teach Your Dog To Cross His Paws (Oct. 02 2020)
09 Oct 2020
Hunter, Mary(January 6, 2016), Training concepts: What is shaping?
09 Oct 2020
THE CROSS YOUR PAWS TRICK
09 Oct 2020
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