Working with two dogs

What do you do when you are working with different dogs simultaneously?

Arranging the Beerlympics (Ølympiaden) at the cabin this weekend (oh yesss, there will be pictures), the last days have been more than stressful. Reason? Buddha the Terrorist and Oluf the Annoyed!

Working with one dog can be task enough by itself. Working with two dogs, can be overwhelming!
We now have two completely different dogs to train. One is a 7 year old relocated crossover dog who has special needs when it comes to training, the other is a puppy who needs constant attention and has to learn everything, because the whole world is new an exciting.
Both share a similar behavior though: lack of patience! (^.^)

I get the best training when I separate them and work with one at the time. Of course, because you can pay full attention to one individual. But back to the reality check. Buddha has not yet learned to be alone by himself for a long time, and because of this we often have to work with both dogs simultaneously.

So, how to do this? When I use the clicker, "click" means a treat will follow, and both dogs knows the drill. But if I click Buddha for a "sit", Oluf expects to get something too, because he heard the click as well!


Purrrfect, boys!

I have solved the problem this way: Oluf needs to have more patience- training. So I ask him to lay down and relax. Then I work with Buddha - at this point, I can reinforce tons of behaviors I want from him. When Buddha give me the wanted behavior and I click, Buddha is rewarded for his whatever action we work on, and Oluf is rewarded for managing to stay calm and not interfer in Buddhas training. For Luff, this is a pretty huge task, but is equally fun to manage! He is SO proud of himself everytime he stays clear of stealing Buddhas toys or treats!

In the movie below, we're working on the paw targeting. Of course, Luff knows the drill and is amazingly quick. But I can't click his action right away, because Buddha is slower! Solution? I click Buddha for putting his paw on the target. Oluf is being reinforced for holding his paw at the target over time. By doing this, the timing with both dogs is perfect, because I click when Buddha hit the target, and by then, Luff has already had his paw there for a while.

Oluf is already on the target, and Buddha has a paw in action! Beautiful!

Another trick is practicing calling in the dogs. A good thing with an older dog, is that HE knows to come when I call (well...most of the time), and since Buddha is such a tag-along, he is most likely to follow his older brother and suupah hero. By doing this, you'll have the puppy both following you and understand to come when you call. And you can reward both dogs simultaneously!

The task is not always easy. These two weeks have indeed been a challenge, both in patience and creativity. But since I am the biggest behavior-nerd ever, I really enjoy to figure things out!


And is nothing works, just try out a nice, relaxing session of Doga! (^_^)

I'll be happy to recieve more tips from those of you who works with double-dogs!

Barking madly, Silje