Crate Entry Games: Elective

Crate Entry, removing lure and adding cue.

Up to this week we have been placing our meal inside the crate to encourage the puppies to run up to the crate, mand (manding is optional! Remember, you may choose any behavior you want, I often use a stand aka “4 on the floor”) at the crate door, and then run into the crate to eat after we open the door. This works great, and builds a powerful reinforcement history for loading up. You can absolutely stop here if you wanted to! This week we want to remove the lure (the food waiting inside the crate) and teach our puppies to run into their crate and then mand or stand for their meal to be brought to them.We can also add a cue to the loading up behavior. This is an easy bonus the new owner will appreciate.

For clarity: A lure is any enticement that we use to GET a puppy to do a behavior. A lure appears BEFORE the target behavior. Food that is used to GET a puppy to do something is a LURE. Food that appears AFTER a puppy has DONE something is a Reinforcement (aka reward). Luring is a great tool, but studies (and everyone’s experiences back this up) show that lures can become bribes really easily, and both lures and bribes can actually act as a type of punishment and result in dogs ignoring them and not performing the behavior we want. A common illustration of this is the dog that when offered a treat actually runs away from the crate instead of going into the crate. Another is the dog that refuses a treat and won’t come inside from the yard. In all these cases a lure that used to ”work” has become a punishment and reduced the behavior we were teaching instead of increasing it. This happens so often it’s commonly mistaken for a failure of positive reinforcement as a teaching tool instead of an improper use of a lure. All that to say, that if a lure is used (as we have been) it’s vitally important that we quickly move from luring the dog to do what we want to rewarding the dog after they do what we want. That small subtle difference (lure before the behavior versus a reward after the behavior) is the difference between long term success or failure. Our previous routine was this.1.Remove beds and load food into crates, close doors.2.Puppies run to crate front, mand, and are let into the crate where their meal awaits.We can still use this routine when desired. It’s fast and easy!New Routine:1. Place all your meal bowls within arms reach and open all the crate doors2.With the puppies outside the weaning pen, select one puppy (if one is manding, chose that puppy) and release into the crate area and say your cue (I use “Crate”)3.Encourage the puppy to run into any empty crate if they don’t do so on their own. While the puppy is doing this, grab a bowl for this puppy and wait right by the crates.4.When the puppy runs into a crate and turns around, place the bowl of food right in front of it.5.And close the door.6.Move onto the next puppy.New Routine: Part 2 Manding For Meals1.As above, select a puppy to run to an empty, open, crate.2.Grab it’s meal bowl.3.The moment the puppy enters the crate and turns around....4.Wait, and wait till the puppy will A. Mand or B. Stand 5.Put the food bowl right in front of the puppy and close the door.6.Repeat with the rest of the litter.Tips! One of the best ways to help puppies be successful with this exercise is to do some of your group manding sessions right in front of your crate bank. This will really help the puppy find the right answer to this challenge because literally, it’s been practicing offering Manding right in this spot! The puppies don’t need to be inside the crate for this practice to help,just right in front. Although if any puppy enters an crate and Mands that is worth a treat!Troubleshooting:If the puppy seems unable to mand, feed the puppy and close the door as usual. Make a note that this puppy needs more practice manding, try to do some manding practice near the crate doors, to help the puppy understand.If the puppy runs so enthusiastically that it quickly bounces right back out, try tossing a small bit of food into the crate to slow the puppy down. After a few meals, the puppy will be expecting food there and will slow down it’s entry, at that point stop the scattered food and proceed as usual.And remember, the important bit is that the puppy runs into an empty crate, turns around, and waits to be fed. Don’t fuss too much about the manding!

Puppy Feeding Games: Meal Routines 3 & 4 (core)