I’m not friends with Gus at the moment. Last night, while I was occupied running our online Perfect Pet course, he decided my wooden door stop would be the perfect toy to play with – and chew. I finished the class to find my carpet strewn with tiny wood splinters and the doorstops in five pieces. Luckily, I’ve got a rubber one I can use.
But Gus did redeem himself a little today. Today’s challenge is to teach your dog to creep or crawl along on his tummy. I’d taught a previous dog to do it, but not Gus. It was fun teaching something from new rather than showing the finished thing. Gus got it well and I will be polishing up his performance by repeating short training sessions several times again today – little and often is always the best way to train anything.
Here’s what to do. Chose a surface that will be comfortable for your dog and give him some purchase – carpet is probably best. Ask him to lie down (you do need this first!), then take your treat from in front of his nose and move it forward a couple of inches, or whatever that is in centimetres. Praise and drop the treat for any movement forward – even just a small neck stretch.
Repeat until you start to get some paw movement. Once your dog is starting to get the idea, hold the treat slightly in front of your dog and drop it for any movement forward. Be careful not to reward if the dog comes up off the floor – it’s usually his back end that will lift first.
Once your dog has the idea, add your cue, then gradually move your treat hand up and away from your dog over a few training sessions.
Crawling on the floor is one of the things I recommend you do to help socialise your puppy to the odd things humans do. My new book, “Help! How to socialise your puppy during lockdown” is all about what you can do to make sure your puppy has the best socialisation experiences you can possibly give her or him, even though you are restricted in so many ways because of this lockdown period.
Of course, the ideas in it are totally appropriate for non-coronavirus times, too. And they’re also be useful for dogs who maybe out of their initial puppy stage but have some fears or hang-ups about certain things.
Please tell all your friends – I’m worried we may get a huge increase in behaviour problems caused by lack of socialisation come the autumn and the ideas in the book will prevent that.
Keep training and keep safe,
Carol