As winter sets in and temperatures continue to plummet, many dogs will be spending more time indoors. Concept training, including teaching modifier cues, is a great way to keep your dog’s brain busy and help prevent winter blues!
Concept Training: Stationing with Shapes
Stationing—training an animal to go to a designated area and stay there until cued otherwise—is a useful training tool for a variety of situations. In homes with multiple dogs, it can be essential for keeping the peace. How do you teach multiple dogs which station is theirs? Try concept training!
Concept Training in Action: Go to Crate
Teaching your dog the concept of left and right is useful for many circumstances, including trail-walking, dog-sports competitions, retrieving exercises, husbandry, and more. The skill is also handy when you have multiple dogs and need to guide them in specific directions. In this video, Ken Ramirez is using left and right modifier cues to teach Coral to go to specific crates and stations that are positioned on Coral’s left side and right side.
Concept Training in Action: Take a Hike
Teaching your dog to tell the difference between left and right on cue is not only fun, but the skill can be handy when you are walking on hiking trails. To begin teaching this behavior, you will need to set up two cones and teach your dog to touch a specific cone.