11 JunEpisode 156 | Poppy Dop! Using a remote-controlled treat dispenser to teach a positive interruptor, and more

Annie has always loved using the Treat & Train, a bare-bones, battery-operated remote-controlled treat dispenser, but she has found it particularly useful for her current situation: Being busy and also largely pregnant in a city apartment with a toddler and a rambunctious adolescent dog. She describes how she has turned the word "Dop" into a tertiary conditioned reinforcer that, with the help of the Treat & Train, she uses to get her dog Poppy to stop jumping, leave her daughter alone, and more.

Through the end of June, get 10% off your purchase of a Treat and Train using code TREAT21 at Schoolforthedogs.com/TT.

Also get 10% off the Revol crate and all of Diggs' products using code DIGGS21 at Store for the Dogs.

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Mentioned in this episode:

De’vora Pets Scratch Square Dog Nail Filing Toy

Recommended treats for the Treat and Train:

• Cloud Star Crunchy Tricky Trainer Dog Treats in Cheddar, Salmon, or Liver
• All-Natural Lamb Lung Filets Dehydrated Dog Treats by School for the Dogs
• Crumps' Naturals Mini Trainers Beef Liver Grain-Free Freeze-Dried Dog Treats

 

Related episodes:

Episode 152 | 10 products that new dog owners need (and probably don’t know about)

 

Transcript:

Magnolia:

Dop! [beep] Dop! [beep] Dop now a dop now.

 

Jason:

Dop!

[beep]

 

Magnolia:

[inaudible] Dada!

 

Annie:

That’s my two and a half year old saying good job, Dada! I recorded this little bit of dog training last night while she and my husband and I were eating dinner. It's a pretty typical little oral snapshot into our current domestic life with our dog. I will explain what it all means in the episode you're about to hear.

 

[intro and music]

 

Annie:

So a couple of weeks ago, in the episode I did about products that I think new dog owners can really benefit from, I mentioned that one of my favorite gadgets, probably my number one favorite dog training gadget, is the Treat and Train, which is a remote controlled treat dispenser that works on a radio frequency. There's four different channels.  It's been around I think for about 20 years. I've been using it for about 10 years, and I'm always finding new fun ways to use it in training.

 

It's interesting cause it's really, it's not very slick looking. It doesn't operate on Bluetooth.  There are not a million options to it. There's no camera, there's no speaker. It's a pretty bare bones gadget as far as dog gadgets go these days, but it is a workhorse. I have many Treat and Trains and they tend to last a really long time. They're just battery operated. We use them at School for the Dogs, too.

 

And anyway, since getting Poppy, I've been using it a lot, for a couple of reasons. One is simply that I've been pregnant the whole time we've had her.  And I got pretty big pretty quickly. And I normally like to sit on the ground when I'm training. It's just sort of how I'm most comfortable. And I've really had a hard time with my massive belly being able to sit on the ground these last few months.

 

So it's been sort of more comfortable for me to train her with a remote control, requires less movement overall from me. And I just fill the Treat and Train with dry food. I usually put in like her regular dry kibble. And then some like I mix some hard treats in with it. I like to use the tricky trainers, crunchy treats or tiny pieces of lamb lung, or Crumps Naturals, which makes what they call mini trainers, which are these very small bits of beef liver.

 

So I actually have two Treat and Trains, but I keep at least one of them stocked up with yummy dry stuff and use it just to train them kind of like in little bursts throughout the day. Which suits my lifestyle right now with, you know, running a business and having a toddler and being so large. I like being able to just do little one or two minute sessions without having to go get my treat pouch on cut up treats, et cetera, et cetera.

 

 It is true that there are other devices such as the Pet Tutor that do a better job of delivering a wider variety of treats, as far as like textures go, you need things that are sort of dry and small to use the Treat and Train, but I don't find that that is that big of an impediment.

 

So sometimes I use it just to do a few minutes of practice on something simple, like sit or down, or like working on stand with Poppy too.  The device makes a little beeping noise right before the treat comes out. So that marks the moment.

 

I also sometimes use it just to get her exercise, where I will put her bed or something that I want her to target on one side of our apartment which conveniently is kind of like a railroad apartment. So nice and long. And on the other side, I'll put the Treat and Train and I will reward her for going to the spot on one side of the apartment by triggering the Treat and Train, and I can get her to run back and forth that way, while I sit at my desk and happily drink some ice coffee without having to move too much.

 

Sometimes I will put one atop her crate. You can like take the lip, the bottom lip off of the Treat and Train so that it has like a smooth surface where treats can drop directly through the top of the crate, into the crate, or you can even put it inside the crate if you have a large enough crate.

 

And I will put her the other Treat and Train by her bed. And and I will reward her going from one place to the other, telling her the key word for each place as she's going from one place to another.  Another way to both condition her, to differentiate between the two spots to learn, to go to the two spots when asked and to condition her, to like going to both spots.

 

Another sort of fun thing that I've started to do recently is work with her on filing her nails with the Treat and Train. And again, this is totally something you do not need to be doing with a remote controlled device, but I find the Treat and Train, the sort of push button training, can be really convenient for me when I'm doing other things, since I honestly just don't have a lot of time these days, unfortunately, to set aside to just training Poppy.

 

So what I've been doing often at meal times is I have a scratch board, which is simply a cutting board that I put Gator tape on, like stair. I think that's what it's called, stair tread tape. It's basically like sandpaper with a sticky back that I've put all over this cutting board and she likes to be near me while I'm eating.

 

So I have this cutting board on the floor next to me. I actually usually put my chair on top of it to keep it in one spot.  And I trigger the Treat and Train whenever she comes and stands on it. And then during any given meal, I will withhold reward in small bits until she is scratching on it.

 

Which is really good because I think the most difficult thing about Poppy is that she is very affectionate and sweet and loving. but she has like Edward Scissorhands nails and she is pretty terrified of any kind of dremel or clipper device. Unfortunately.

 

You know, when we got Poppy, she was already close to six months sort of out of that prime socialization window that you're always hearing dog trainers talk about, which is really sort of below 20 weeks, although ideally between eight and 12 weeks.

 

So I kind of missed the chance to acclimate her to husbandry related tools early on. And I've been trying to do catch up over these last few months.  But certainly teaching her to file her own nails is a step towards working on making her nails less sharp, which I think will make everyone in my household love her all the more.

 

The next step with my mealtime nail filing routine with her, I think, is going to be getting the nail file on a bit more of a slant right now. She's doing it while it's flat on the ground, which is a good start, but I'd like to be having her do it at a little bit more of an angle.

 

I also have been using a pretty cool toy that we actually just started stocking at storeforthedogs.com and at our shop in Manhattan.  It's called the scratch square by a company called Devora pets. And how do I describe it? It looks like, I dunno, like a tiny little TV screen with handles on both sides. It almost looks like an iPad for children, but where the screen would be, there is a rectangular piece of yeah, like what's it called, sandpaper type material and on both sides.

 

And then inside on the inside, you can put treats like there's holes on both the sides by where the handles are, that you can stuff with stuff with treats and the handles are also chewable. So it comes in two different sizes. I've experimented with both sizes with Poppy. I think I like the larger one better.

 

But that's something else, I don't know if it's as good as sort of a designated period of time where I'm working on specifically having her scratch my homemade dog Emery board. But it's kind of a cool toy that I think can't hurt. And you can achieve a similar idea by having your homemade Emery board and just putting some treats beneath it. But this is something you could leave your dog with and let them work on it. Anyway.

 

So these are just some of the things I've done with Poppy specifically and the Treat and train recently.  But something that I've been doing with her that I've really never done with any dog before, so it's been a complete experiment, has been using the Treat and Train as an interrupter.  And it's been working pretty well. It's a work in progress, and I think it's probably something I will work with her on doing for the long haul. So I just thought I would explain it.

 

Poppy is a very excited young dog with endless abilities to snuggle and cuddle and kiss and hug. But she also has tons of energy. And it's been an issue because I feel like she's not getting the exercise I want her to be getting as a young dog. I've been trying my best to get her out with walkers, to get my husband to take her out, to play indoor games with her like the running back and forth that I described. We play lots of flirt pole types of games.

 

I've even experimented with some hiking services where they will take your dog out of the city for four or five hours to try and get her some good outdoor time, some good running around time. But I still feel like she's not really getting as much as I really would like her to be getting.  And the result is in my opinion, that sometimes she gets extra physical in her playing indoors with us boring humans.

 

Oh, I also try and have play dates with her as regularly as possible, but there are definitely times where she has excess energy.  And she can be a pretty big jumper, which I actually don't think is that big of a deal with most pretty small dogs. She's pretty small, it's normal for dogs to want to jump. They want to smell our butts. They want to smell our mouths. It's the closest they can come to both those places.

 

But of course not everyone appreciates being jumped on, especially when you have a dog who has sharp nails and you're wearing shorts, or when you're only three feet tall, like my two and a half year old daughter.

 

Now, of course we do work on the jumping with Poppy and I've also taught my daughter what's called Be a Tree. Like, turn your back on the dog and put your hands under your armpits. Hold very still, look down, be boring. I try and reward Poppy on the ground when people are approaching at the door.

 

You know, we do all the things. We turn our back on her when she jumps, which is a good example of negative punishment, taking away something in order to discourage behavior. Anyway, we do all the things. But I guess the new thing that I've been doing with her, that I haven't done with dogs before, is teaching her a cue that means stop what you're doing and go run to the Treat and Train.

 

And it's a good example of teaching using very basic classical conditioning, because there is really, there are no criteria for Poppy in this situation. I am just teaching her that when I say this magic word, that Treat and Train over there is going to beep and then it is going to dispense your yummy stuff.

 

And I have a couple of remotes throughout the house. I put magnets on them so I can easily find them. Usually I keep them at my front door or the fridge. Sometimes I tuck one into my bra, or I have a one on like a strings I wear around my neck. You gotta have it easily accessible most of the time.

 

And the word that we use with her is DOP. We picked Dop, or I picked it up because it is what my daughter says when she wants Poppy to stop doing something. She says Dop, dop! So now when Magnolia says DOP, the machine goes off in the far corner of the apartment.

 

So DOP, you could say, I guess, has become a tertiary conditioned reinforcer.  The beep of the Treat and Train, which acts like a clicker, that's a secondary conditioned reinforcer. And the treat itself, of course, is that primary reinforcer.

 

And let me tell you, Magnolia really loves this game. She's gotten the hang of it. She yells Dop, and then she presses the button on the remote if I don't do it for her, but of course being two and a half, she loves pushing buttons herself. And she gets it. She gets that she has to say it, press the button, wait for Poppy to eat, and then she can do it again.

 

Now the big trick of this is to try and not let Poppy engage in the annoying behaviors that you're going to tell he you want her to Dop before you say Dop and trigger the device.  What you don't want is for your dog to learn, Oh, I jump on the kid, and every time I jump on the kid, they give me that tertiary reinforcer, which then eventually leads to my treat. So when I have nothing else to do, I'm going to go jump on the kid.

 

There will be times when she is jumping on the kid or whoever, and I do offer a Dop in order to get her to stop doing that. But those times need to be so much rarer than the main thing, which is just throughout the day, periodically, she hears Dop and the machine goes bananas and she has to go to it regardless of what her behavior has been.

 

So sometimes she'll be just hanging out, not doing very much at all. And out of nowhere, I will yell DOP and trigger the Treat and Train. And it's a game that I encourage both my husband and Magnolia to also play with her throughout the day.

 

I don't have an exact ratio in mind, but I would say there needs to be like between 50 and a hundred Dops that are not related to any kind of behavior I actually want her to stop, for every behavior that I'm asking her to Dop because I actually don't like the behavior.

 

Over time, what's happened is I have extended the period between when I say Dop and when I trigger the Treat and Train. So now, in many situations, if I say Dop, she will already go running to the Treat and Train, disengaging from whatever it is she was doing, whether it be an appropriate thing or not. And she will run to the Treat and Train even before she has heard the beep that means that treats are coming.

 

And again, you know, I've used the bank account analogy on this podcast many times, but you gotta think of it like paying into a bank account. There will be times in the future, I'm sure, when I will say DOP, and there will be nothing coming out of the Treat and Train. I might be somewhere where there is no Treat and Train. I don't plan to bring it with me with her wherever we go, but even in the apartment, I'm sure there will be times when I say DOP and the thing isn't loaded up.

 

But it's like, I want to have a bank account that has so many dollars in it, so many reps, like we've built so much mass on this behavior, that I can occasionally make a small withdrawal without it impacting the reliability of the behavior.

 

And, you know, a common question that reward-based trainers get is, am I always going to have to give treats? Am I always going to have to reinforce? And the answer is, for a lot of behaviors, in my opinion, you should aim to always reinforce.

 

That does not mean that you will always reward the behavior because you know, life happens. You don't always have a treat pouch on you. Sometimes your reward might just be a praise and a good head scratch rather than a piece of bacon.

 

But when a behavior is an important one, when you're teaching come or drop it, also both things that you're teaching using just pure classical conditioning, I think you should aim to reward as much as possible for as long as possible, so that the times when you're not able to reward, at least rewarding in that sort of normal way with treats or whatever, and you're using like a lower grade reinforcer, you're not going to really damage the behavior so much.

 

Because, like I was saying, your bank account is going to be so large. The behavior is going to have so much reinforcement history that it's not going to stop happening in the long run.

 

Thank you for listening. Just a reminder that if you have gotten something out of this podcast, please make sure to give us five stars on iTunes, leave a review, tell your friends to give a listen. You can also support us by shopping at storeforthedogs.com.

 

One of my favorite products, which I also mentioned in the episode about my favorite things recently, is the Revol crate. Really all the products by Diggs. They make pads to go in the crate. They make this nifty thing called the Groov, which you can put peanut butter on and deliver through the sides of the crate.

 

Through the end of June, you can get 10% off on any Diggs products at storeforthedogs.com using the code diggs21 that's D I G G S two one. You can also find the Treat and Train in our online store. Just go to SchoolfortheDogs.com/TT, letter T letter T. And you can get 10% off that too also through the end of this month, June 2021 using code treat21 when you check out.

 

If there are fun ways that you have used a Treat and Train, I would love to hear about it. You can join us in the School for the Dogs community app. Just look up School for the Dogs on Google play or in the app store, or go to SchoolfortheDogs.com/community.

 

[outro and music]