Whether you are welcoming a new doodle pup into the family or have an adult dog whose behavior you’d like to improve, you’ve come to the right place to learn how to train your doodle dog. Our dogs don’t know how we’d wish them to behave in our home and out in the world until we teach them. So, cheers to you for wanting to start your doodle dog off on the right paw with proper training!
Manage Your Doodle’s Activities and Environment
A management plan is the first step of any training program. Before you have shown your doodle dog how you want him to behave, expect him to behave like a dog. Dogs like to chew, sniff, dig, bark, run and jump. If you have a dog, expect that you will need to provide appropriate outlets for these natural doggy behaviors. Meanwhile, a management plan prevents your dog from doing these things at the wrong time and place. We use leashes, gates, and crates to help keep our dogs out of trouble while they are still learning what is expected of them.
If you have a new dog in your home, or your dog has behavior problems that you wish to change, the amount of management you will need can seem laborious, but it is important for your dog’s success in training. The idea is to prevent unwanted habits from starting or getting worse through practice and reinforcement. By setting your dog up for success this way, you set the stage for him to learn and practice better behavior.
For instance, if you are having problems with your dog chewing the furniture when you leave him home alone, you wouldn’t leave him free in the house unsupervised but instead use a crate or secure pen to confine him. Maybe your pup thinks it’s great fun to ‘steal’ items in the house and run away. First of all you would do your best to ensure items like shoes etc are kept out of the puppy’s reach. Also, you might have the pup drag a light leash around the house, so you can calmly and quickly prevent them from being rewarded with a fun chase. The idea of management is to keep your dog out of situations he isn’t yet ready to handle while you are implementing your daily training plan.
The amount of management your dog needs will decrease as training progresses. Before you have begun training, your doodle is essentially a preschooler. In pre-school, activities and environment are structured and micro-managed. Like children, as our dogs learn and mature through training, we can afford them more freedom to make their own choices. We get to know our individual dogs and always set them up to succeed.
Some management and maintenance will be necessary for the life of your doodle. Training is a journey! In training we are always working toward improvement and solutions that will enhance not only your dog’s quality of life but yours as well. Your dog will never be perfect, they will make mistakes and so will you. It is our job to lead our dogs to be the best they can be.
Provide Clear, Kind Leadership
Dogs, like humans, are social animals. As such, they thrive under capable and benevolent leadership. It’s worthwhile to note that the often-used term ‘Alpha’, in regard to a pack of wolves, refers to the breeding pair in the pack – aka the Mom and Dad wolf. Though domestication has made our dogs different in many ways from their wild wolf counterparts, there is value in looking at how canines live in their natural environments. Most wild canine social structures resemble family groups similar to our own.
In a healthy dog-human relationship, the human needs to be the one in charge, the same way a parent is in charge of a child. This means that the human provides for the needs and directs the daily activities of the dog. Both human and canine parents make the major decisions for the family, designating when it is time to eat, play, study, and rest.
Lack of clear leadership can lead to all manner of behavior problems, anxiety, insecurity, fear and even aggression. Many dogs become anxious if it isn’t clear that someone capable is in control of potentially scary or conflicting situations.
The idea is to prevent unwanted habits from starting or getting worse through practice and reinforcement.
Misconceptions abound about what it means to be your dog’s leader. You may hear ill-informed advice from well-meaning neighbors and friends about how to be the ‘Alpha’ in your household. I have heard recommendations that range from silly to outright dangerous – from never letting your dog eat first or walk ahead of you, to growling at your dog and rolling them onto their backs until they ‘submit’. Much of this is rooted in myth and outdated information. Humane, modern training methods draw upon accurate knowledge of canine ethology and scientific principles of learning.
Practicing Leadership never has to mean bullying, threatening or hurting your dog. It matters little whether you consider yourself the Alpha, the Boss, or the Parent to your doodle dog. The qualities of great leadership are universal – good parents, bosses and leaders set boundaries, are consistent, communicate clearly, and act in the best interests of the group.
Leadership is about who decides and initiates the group’s daily activities. Being the Leader of the Pack in a way that your dog understands means providing for your dog’s needs in a consistent, predictable way. Your doodle should be able to rely on you to ensure he gets the food, exercise, outside access, play, attention and rest he needs each day. Being cared for in this way allows a dog to feel relaxed and safe, taking the load of daily decision making off of his furry shoulders.
Consider if you are proactively providing for your dog’s daily needs, or waiting for your dog to ‘ask’ for them – by barking at the door to go out, whining or pawing at you for play or affection, seeking attention and boredom-relief through destructive or annoying behaviors?
Provide For Your Pup’s Needs, Don’t Entitle Them
A dog whose daily needs are unfulfilled clearly does not have good leadership, which can manifest in all sorts of behavior problems due to the dog’s anxiety about having its needs met. Conversely, many dogs are overindulged, which can also cause anxiety, behavior problems and generally make training your dog more difficult. This is a common issue; after all, don’t we all want to spoil our dogs? They certainly deserve it for all the joy they bring to our lives. The trouble is that what we consider spoiling, very often from our dogs’ point of view, can feel like a lack of leadership.
Here’s what it might look like when a dog’s needs are ‘over-provided’ for:
- Food – ‘Free feeding’ – food is left in a bowl all day for the dog to graze as he wants. If the dog doesn’t like what is served, the owner will add something tastier on top, change formulas, etc. Dog is fed when he solicits or ‘looks hungry’.
- Play – All the dog’s toys are freely available at once. If the dog wishes to play, he solicits by putting a toy in the owner’s lap, barking, biting or pawing, etc.
- Work – Dog is given little ‘mental activity’ through the day, and fulfills his own needs for mental stimulation by chewing, digging, pacing, or general ‘misbehavior’.
- Rest – Dog has access to all resting areas including the furniture, owner’s bed, etc. The dog may grumble, growl or snap when he is asked to move from furniture.
- Outdoor Access – Dog has a doggy door to go outside whenever he wants, or solicits outside access by barking, scratching or ringing a bell to go outside.
- Affection – Dog is given affection abundantly and freely, and can solicit petting or cuddles anytime from the human, often by pawing, barking or simply inserting themself into the owner’s ‘space’. Dog may duck away or rebuff owners’ advances when he doesn’t desire petting.
Seems like a pretty great life, no? Well, as we discussed, being tasked to fulfill their own daily needs in this way can be a burden. And this lavish lifestyle can inhibit your dog’s training progress by diluting the value of the things he likes.
Be Awesome at Positive Reinforcement
Most professional dog trainers agree that Positive Reinforcement should be used early and often to train your dog. Positive Reinforcement simply means we give our dog things he likes in order to reward and reinforce, (i.e. strengthen), desirable behaviors.
Imagine asking our entitled doodle above to perform a behavior for us, and attempting to reward them with a treat, praise and affection, or a game of toss?
Our doodle may indulge us if they’re in the mood. But they won’t likely go out of their way to perform the requested behavior. They are, after all, “independently wealthy.” Besides lacking the security of clear leadership, an entitled pup is difficult to motivate with positive reinforcement.
Initiating a dog’s daily activities and providing for their needs in a structured way makes it clear to the dog that all the necessary and fun things in their life come through you – and by controlling these valuable ‘resources’ you have multiple opportunities each day to use them to strengthen the kind of behaviors you wish to see more of.
So, as we are ensuring the dog’s physical, emotional and mental needs are met each day, we are doing so in a way that optimizes our training, as reinforcing desired behaviors and good habits simply becomes a lifestyle.
Make Training a Lifestyle
Parents know that children thrive on predictability and routine, and so do our dogs! Aim to structure your dog’s day in a way that proactively provides for all of his needs.
It is natural for a canine to roam about travel, and expend some physical and mental energy before they can eat and finally rest. Your pup’s daily routine should be generally a cycle of WALK – PLAY – EAT – REST.
WALK
Dogs in social groups / packs / families travel together. The walk is a key time to strengthen your bond, explore and interact with your environment together!
As the leader, you should be the one to initiate this important activity. Walk your dog regularly at roughly the same times each day. (4 Walks a day is a good average for an adult dog – young pups or dogs still potty training will need more frequent bathroom trips.)
Walking on a leash is not a natural canine behavior! Though it is a necessary skill your dog must learn, it can be confusing and frustrating for them. Be a patient and helpful teacher.
In the beginning, the majority of your walk will be focused on teaching your dog to follow your leash guidance and strengthening his ability to focus on you among distractions. You will dictate the direction and pace of the walk, and what distractions your pup should engage with or ignore. You will proactively decide when to allow him some freedom on the leash to sniff, explore, etc, and when to resume walking together. This is perhaps the most important moment in your day to establish yourself as a capable, confident leader to follow.
PLAY!
#dogsliketoparty. They have so much to teach us about enjoying life and having fun! And much more than just fun, PLAY is the way all (especially young) social animals learn and practice the most important life skills. When we engage in inherently enjoyable, playful activity, the feel-good chemicals and bonding hormones are released in our bodies and brains. These chemicals make us more resilient to stress.
Structured, interactive play informs bonding and communication, and builds confidence in our dogs. It is truly one of the most important and fun aspects of our training program.
Provide three levels of TOYS to your doodle for the most effective PLAY:
(1) Regular Toys:
This includes your basic stuffy toys, etc. Do not provide your dood access to all of his toys all of the time; instead leave only 1 or 2 out at a time and rotate them every few days. This keeps them interesting. When you bring out a ‘new’ toy, have your doodle earn it by asking for a familiar behavior or trick, like Sit, Down, or Touch, etc. Become aware of all these ‘teachable moments’ in the day with your dog – just as a parent would require a child to say Please when they want something.
(2) High Value Chews and Food Toys:
This includes bones, bully sticks, etc, and stuffable food toys like KONGs. It’s important to give your doodle safe and appropriate outlets to chew, and these items can be valuable for times when you need to occupy your dog, calm them in their crate, etc.
(Observe your dog the first couple of times to ensure safe chewing habits before ever leaving them alone with these items. You may consult your veterinary professional for the best recommendations for your dog.)
When your dog has finished / lost interest, safely remove chew items and put away until next time. Leaving bones and chews around diminishes their value as well as your ability to be the daily provider.
(3) Interactive Toys:
Structured, interactive games like tug, fetch, etc can take your training and relationship journey to the next level. These are your special toys which you reserve for one-on-one play time with you! You will be the one to initiate and end these games. At the end of play, put these toys back in your stash until next time.
Learn how to teach your dog to play games with rules and have fun together while practicing impulse control and strengthening obedience. An easy ‘fetch’ game to start with uses two identical toys – squeaky balls, tug ropes etc.
Here is Ellie Rose the Havapoo, practicing her Sit, Down, Come, Get it, Drop It, Go to Bed and more, all while having a blast playing the Two-Toy Game!
EAT
We need food to live, of course, and most of us really enjoy eating, too! It’s pretty intuitive then, that a dog’s daily food is a powerful early training tool. One advantage of using food in training is that it allows us to reward many repetitions of a behavior in one training session. It takes many repetitions to solidify behavior, and this alone is a compelling reason to use all or most of a dog’s daily calories for training or mental stimulation.
Dogs are amazingly intelligent, and like us, they want and need to be challenged mentally to live their healthiest lives. Since every animal on the planet ‘works’ for its food, meal time is a natural part of the day to sneak in some healthy mental exercise.
Short, fun training sessions at meal times – Aim to practice 5-15 minutes or so of training at each meal time using your dog’s food. You can focus on one goal or mix up different behaviors your dog knows or is learning. Make it Fun! An optimal training session ends on an enthusiastic, successful note and leaves the dog looking forward to the next lesson.
Food Toys – I love feeding dogs in interactive stuffable food toys like the Planet Dog Orbee-Tuff Snoop. The benefits to teaching your doodle pup to LOVE food toys are numerous. They are an easy way to provide mental stimulation while satisfying your dog’s need to chew appropriately, and problem solve to obtain food. If you have leftover food or don’t have time for a training session, feed your dog in a mentally enriching food toy!
REST
Canines spend a surprising amount of their day (12-14 hours on average) sleeping. Young growing puppies, and newly adopted dogs who are still decompressing, need even more of this important time to rest and replenish – up to 20 hours a day! Provide a safe, quiet crate area and designate time for your new doodle to go in and rest undisturbed:
A strategic time to provide crate rest is after the dog has walked, relieved himself, and had some training/play time with you. Play the ‘crate game’ during training sessions with your dog so that they go in there happily.
Crate naps in the AM and PM should be a regular part of your new dog’s daily routine.
A good way to end a meal time training sesh is to have the dog finish his meal with a toy in the crate. They should settle down for a nap soon after, and some studies show this is ideal for processing / retaining their learning as they sleep!
You want to teach your dog how to settle outside of the crate as well, so that over time they are able to spend more time relaxing on their own bed or ‘Place’.
Preferred resting areas are indeed valuable resources for dogs, and it is recommended not to allow your dog on human furniture or beds for at least the first 90 days in the home or until the pup is fully acclimated to the house rules and there are no training or behavior issues. Instead teach your dog through lots of positive reinforcement to prefer his own sleeping area.
Affection: Love Your Doodle the Right Way
Surely, dogs enjoy and crave affection from their caregivers. And because they’re so cute and cuddly, we, of course, want to shower our dogs with love! But affection is an area where we can easily undermine our leadership, reinforce undesirable behavior, and send confusing and unwanted messages to our dog.
As the relationship between you and your doodle grows, you want your affection to be valuable and positive to your dog and so like every other important resource, make sure you give it thoughtfully and are clearly the provider.
A few guidelines:
DON’T give your attention or affection to behavior you don’t want to reinforce. Don’t reward pushy or ‘bossy’ soliciting from your pup with attention or affection. Dogs crave our attention – even negative attention will often do. And like little kids, your doodle can quickly learn that naughty behavior – mouthing, jumping, pawing, barking – produces the most attention from you.
DON’T give affection to a dog that does not desire it from you. If a dog does not respond to your open palms and invitations with a low tail wag and engagement, do not force affection.
DO establish a bond with your dog. Affection is often the first thing we want to share with our new dog. But consider that the relationship between two individuals is most meaningful once trust, good communication, and mutual respect have been established. Take the time to establish a bond through interactive activities – such as walks, treat training, play, etc. To give affection prematurely to an anxious, unsure, or conflicted dog could cause him to bite from fear, or as a correction for stepping over the boundaries of the undeveloped social relationship. Conversely, giving too much affection and ‘coddling’ to an insecure dog can stunt the development of healthy confidence and secure attachment, contributing to fearfulness and separation issues.
The (about) 5 second rule – When giving affection to a dog, stop petting after 5-10 seconds and observe – does the dog solicit more petting or move away? Do they ‘shake off’, a signal that they are finished with an encounter? Take the time to listen to what your best friend tells you about his preferences!
DO give affection mindfully and from the heart. Affection becomes a valuable reward for dogs that have learned to appreciate it and want it. If your dog enjoys affection, be mindful of what kind of behavior you are rewarding with your petting! Most affection should be reserved for when a dog responds to our requests. (Which could be something as simple as asking the dog to come a couple feet toward you).
DO be aware of how you give affection during greetings. It is a natural canine behavior to celebrate upon reuniting with loved ones!! But this is another area where we often unintentionally reinforce behavior we don’t want from our dogs.
A happy, social dog wants to jump and get near your face to greet you! Again – normal canine behavior, frowned upon by humans. If you desire calmer greetings from your dog, keep your own energy calm. If you do not want your doodle to jump during greetings, do not reinforce the behavior with your attention. Only give your dog attention and petting when their paws are on the floor.
Because it’s so important that our dogs learn to spend time alone (this is not a natural canine behavior and many doodle dogs struggle with it), you’ll want to keep your comings and goings calm and neutral. Against your natural inclination, be neutral, calm, and even ignore your dog just before you leave and when you return home. Come in, put your keys down, pee, breathe, etc, and allow him to calm down a bit before you quietly let him out of his crate or greet him.
How Dogs Learn: The Science
The secret truth about training your dog is that you’re always doing it, whether you intend to or not. Our dogs are always observing us, and learning from the consequences of their behaviors, moment to moment.
Dogs (and all animals!) learn by direct association. The immediate consequences of a behavior will strengthen or weaken that behavior.
In order for positive or negative consequences to be linked to a specific action, they must occur within just a few seconds of the behavior.
(For instance, for a dog to understand that he got a treat for sitting, the treat must be delivered immediately after the behavior, or the dog may not make the connection between the sit and the food. Likewise, if you scold your dog for a behavior they did several moments ago, they will not understand that they are being scolded for an action they did in the past.)
To help our dogs understand the exact behaviors that earned them a positive consequence, we teach a marker word. This word or sound (I use Good Boy/Girl) marks the precise moment the dog performs a correct action and gives us time to deliver a reward.
Later in training, we may teach a negative behavior marker (like ‘No’) – but not before we have clearly taught the dog what we want and given him appropriate behavior strategies. Our focus in training should be on teaching and reinforcing the behaviors we DO want from our dog! Early on, we use management – leashes, gates, crates, etc – to prevent bad habits, while through our daily routine we teach and strengthen the kind of behaviors and choices we like.
Dogs and humans learn by repetition! It takes 100’s of repetitions and reinforcements over weeks and months for a dog to commit a new behavior to their long-term memory. After that we still have to teach a dog to generalize the behavior, by practicing in different environments and around distractions.
Learning is a lifetime journey! Which is why we aim to make training and reinforcing good behavior a daily practice.
Always Be Cool
The best leaders are not dictators; rather they inspire and motivate cooperation and confidence from their group. They do not fly off the handle or get angry when rules are broken; they enforce boundaries matter-of-factly. They do not lose their cool when the unexpected happens; they are able to calmly and confidently handle situations as they arise.
If you find yourself frustrated or angry at your dog’s behavior, calmly put your dog away in his confinement area for a break. Take a breath and shoot an email to your trainer.
First Things to Teach Your Doodle
How to ‘Charge’ Your Marker (using a verbal marker like ‘Yes’ or a clicker!)
- We want to condition our puppy to have a positive association to a verbal marker like ‘Good Boy’ or ‘Good Girl!’.
- In the training process, this word or phrase will indicate to the puppy the exact moment he did a correct behavior!
- Keeping perfectly still (no body language), say ‘Good Boy’
- Deliver treat straight to your dog’s mouth (or toss on the floor) within 1-2 seconds AFTER the marker (no longer!)\
- EVERY time you say the marker must be followed by a treat.
- Remember, your verbal marker MARKS behaviors. It is not used to prompt attention. It is helpful to imagine you are taking a picture of the behavior you would like to reinforce.
- Good video example of how to “charge” your marker
Hand Target: “Touch”
A hand target can be a simple, effective way to redirect attention, help facilitate polite greetings, or as a ‘casual recall’ around the home. Most dogs enjoy hand targeting, so it’s a fun, easy skill to work into your training sessions.
- Get your dog’s attention, then present your flat palm, at nose level, a few inches from your dog’s nose
- Mark “Good Boy” the moment your dog’s nose touches the palm of your hand. Then, reward with a treat.
- If your dog hesitates to touch your hand, take a step back to entice them forward. (Resist the urge to ‘cheat’ by moving your hand to your dog!)
- After your doodle is reliably touching her nose to your hand every time, begin to add the word “Touch!” as you present your hand.
- Good video example of how to do hand target: “touch”
Lure–Mark–Reward Training!
- Teach your doodle puppy to follow a treat in your hand as you move them into different positions! Mark “Good Boy/Girl” when your pup gets in position, then deliver a treat!
- Have fun practicing your technique – getting different behaviors / positions and marking with precise timing! – Don’t worry about adding the cue words (Sit, Down, etc) too early. You can add your cue word once the behavior is reliable!
- Puppy following a lure-mark-reward training for Sit and Down
Name Game
You will build a strong positive association for your dog so they are more likely to turn around quickly and happily to you when they hear their name!
- 8-10 times per day, cheerfully say your dog’s name in a low/moderate distraction situation
- The moment your dog looks at you, mark and immediately reward with several small treats and happy praise
- Good video example of how to do the name game.
Reward ‘Offered Behaviors’!
It is helpful to have small treats always in your pocket or in jars around the home, so you can ‘mark’ and reward (reinforce!) behaviors that you would like to see more often – such as:
- Sitting
- Offering attention/eye contact
- Lying calmly
- NOT nipping, jumping, or barking!
Accentuate the positive! When you see something you like mark/praise! And reward.
How to Stop Unwanted Behaviors
(depends on the dog and the behavior)
Prevent / Manage:
While we are teaching and reinforcing good behaviors and habits, we carefully manage a new dog or puppy’s environment – using crates, gates, leashes, etc – to prevent them from engaging in unwanted behaviors
Ignore:
Behaviors that are not reinforced will eventually extinguish – and many ‘problem behaviors’ are unintentionally reinforced with our attention. Do not look, talk to or touch the dog at all; remove your attention completely. Remember there may be an ‘extinction burst’, where the behavior gets more intense just before the dog gives up. Wait the dog out until you can mark and reward a desirable behavior.
Teach / Reward an Alternative or Incompatible Behavior:
Behavior always serves a function. Ask yourself, “What would I like the dog to do instead of x?” Even better if we can teach a behavior which is incompatible to the one we don’t like.
Example #1: Your dog jumps to greet people. Mark and reward greeting with all four paws on the floor. Additionally, heavily reinforce Sit by having the dog Sit to earn all good things throughout the day. These behaviors will become preferred, and the dog cannot perform both at the same time!
Example #2: Your dog rushes to the door barking when guests arrive. Teach him to go to his bed and lay down, marking and rewarding him on his Place. When the behavior is very fluent, you can add the sound of the doorbell as a new ‘cue’ to go to bed. Practice many repetitions of this behavior over several days until it is mastered before you gradually introduce people coming in the door.
Interrupt and Redirect:
Make a sharp noise like ‘Eh-Eh!’ or clap, snap, to interrupt the dog’s behavior. When they stop what they’re doing, redirect them to a more appropriate behavior you can then reward.
Correct / Inhibit the Behavior:
Give a negative consequence. This should be sufficiently unpleasant to discourage the behavior but never to scare or distress the dog. The ‘just right’ correction will vary widely depending on the dog and behavior.
Using punishment correctly takes skill and understanding to avoid potential behavioral and emotional ‘fallout.’ Fair, effective corrections need to be precisely timed and non-emotional and should always serve the purpose of helping direct a dog to the behavior he can be rewarded for! It is recommended to consult a knowledgeable, humane professional dog trainer to guide you and your doodle through the more advanced phases of training.
Melissa Schiraldi is the founder and owner of True Love Dog Training located in Westchester, NY. Melissa has been working professionally with dogs since 2013. She is an ADI Certified Service Dog Trainer, a NADOI Certified Dog Obedience Instructor, and an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator.