This month I had a crazy thought: Open floorplans will be the death of dog training!
Not really…
But it makes for a great headline, doesn’t it? That being said, hallways are a great place to teach your dog certain behaviors because of the long and narrow shape and the lack of distractions.
Don’t have a hallway? Improvise! Work between a couch and the wall or set up a barrier to create a channel against a wall either inside or along an outside wall of your home. Creating a barrier could be as simple as lining up dining room table chairs or even laundry baskets.
If you find that the weather isn’t being cooperative, (either too hot, too cold, or too wet) tire your dog out working inside on some of these hallway friendly behaviors.
Back up – This behavior is great for getting your dog to move out of the way when you are coming through a door with packages or groceries or if you want a dog to back out of the kitchen, a bedroom, or another area you don’t want them to be.
Step 1: Start with your dog standing directly in front of you with the hallway to their back.
Step 2: Holding a treat just in front of their nose (at nose level – too high and they will sit, too low and they’ll lie down), gently move into them. The second even one foot moves backwards mark the behavior (“yes” or the click from your clicker) and reward.
Resist the urge to correct them if they are wrong. If they sit, lie down or get frustrated simply start again and adjust where your food hand is. For some dogs, the presence of the food might be the distraction! If your dog is too focused on the food, try holding the food behind your back until the dog moves, then mark and reward.
Step 3: Repeat step 2 but begin to raise your criteria by waiting for more backwards movement before mark and rewarding.
Step 4: Add your cue. I like to use the work “back” as well as a hand gesture indicating they should move away and mark and reward the backwards movement. Cue them first THEN start walking towards them. Mark and reward when your dog moves backwards.
Step 5: Cue the dog and wait for them to move without you moving towards them at all. In the beginning, you might find they don’t move quite as far as they did in previous steps. That’s ok! You have just removed a HUGE part of the cue you had been using up until this point (you moving towards them). Mark and reward them anyway and raise your criteria back up slowly with each success.
Remember to be patient! If you cue them and they don’t immediately move, resist the urge to help them! Simply wait and see what they offer. They might sit, lie down or try some other behavior they have been rewarded for in the past. If you wait, avoid eye contact with them and avoid cueing them with ANY movement of your own, your dog just might surprise you! Give them the opportunity to try and solve the puzzle before you jump in to help them. If after a minute they are still stuck, try again or lower your criteria slightly.
Front – Front is a great behavior for getting your dog out of the way of a potential distraction (biker, jogger, dog, etc) or getting their attention immediately on you when you are out on a walk. Here, we are teaching the dog to go from walking next to us to coming right in front of us and facing us in a sit. This is a VERY impressive behavior to bikers or joggers in parks who are accustomed to dogs lunging and barking at them as they go by.
Step 1: Begin with your dog next to you at the end of the hallway with both of you facing the wall or door that ends the space. The rest of the hallway should be behind you. With food in BOTH HANDS, begin walking backwards and encourage your dog to follow so that as you begin to walk backwards, your dog swings in front of you to face you.
Step 2: Once your dog is facing you and is completely straight, stop moving and lure your dog close to you and into a “sit” right at your feet. Mark with “yes” (or click if you are using a clicker) the second their butt hits the floor and reward from both hands at the center of your body (I usually end up with both of my hands right between my knees).
If you feed from your left hand or your right hand, the dog will learn to come in and sit crooked facing the hand you always feed from. Therefore, you want to make sure the food is always coming from directly front and center so that your dog with come in “square” to your body.
Step 3: Repeat but this time, add the cue “front” just before you start moving backwards. Take as many steps backwards as you need to in order to get your dog facing you straight on before you lure them into a sit. DO NOT SAY “SIT.” We want “front” to mean “come in front of me and sit” without having to cue sit separately.
Step 4: Take this behavior out on the road and make sure to practice it when there are no distractions as well as when there are! If you only ask your dog to come “front” when bikers and joggers and dogs are going past, your dog will start to look for the distractions when you say the cue. Instead, practice often when nothing is passing by so that it becomes an automatic behavior that you can use when you really need it.
Fetch – This classic game is a great way to burn off energy and a really fun way to bond with your dog!
Step 1: You can start off by tossing a toy down the hallway. When your dog picks up the toy they are likely to want to bring it somewhere. Since a hallway lacks many options, they are likely to bring it back in your direction. When they do (even if they drop it before they get all the way back) either mark and reward them carrying it towards you (before they drop it) or trade the toy they are holding for another by getting them excited about this second toy you are holding (squeaking it or bouncing it in front of you) then tossing it when they drop the one they had in their mouth.
Step 2: Repeat by picking up the first toy while they are getting the second one and using that toy to reward them bringing back the one they have now!
Step 3: Work on getting them to bring the first toy all the way back to you before rewarding or showing them the second toy.
Happy Training!
Nicole Lorenzetti Yuhas CPDT-KA
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