Foundations

Before you dive into the actual work of training, it helps to be familiar with a few underlying foundations, some for the human and some for the dog.

Clicker Training

Clicker training is the basis of the foster training program outlined in the next few posts. If you're not already familiar with the concept, this short video from kikopup demonstrates the three methods used to create behaviors in clicker training (Shaping, Luring, and Capturing) and shows some of the really cool tricks you can teach with a clicker.

You don't need an actual clicker to get started. A marker word such as "Yes!" can work just as well. (The advantage of a clicker is that it's a perfectly uniform sound -- there are no vocal variations that might confuse your dog -- and that it's a quicker, sharper noise, so it can capture behaviors more precisely. The advantage of a marker word is that it's less startling to a sound-sensitive dog (as many fosters are) and it leaves both of your hands free, which is helpful when you're training tricks that require two hands to shape or lure.)

Whether you decide to use a clicker or a marker word -- and I usually teach my dogs using both, so that the adopters can continue with whichever tool is most comfortable for them -- you need a total of three marker signals for maximum effectiveness:

• Reward Marker: The click or "Yes!" that tells your dog she's gotten the right answer. When I say "click/treat," what I mean is "use the reward marker and hand out a treat," even if you're not actually using a clicker for this. Always treat after using the reward marker. Even if you messed up and clicked accidentally when you didn't mean to, hand a treat out anyway. Otherwise you risk diluting your signal, and you want your foster dog to perk up immediately when she hears it. No false alarms.
• Getting Closer...: A signal of encouragement that your dog is on the right path, but not quite there yet. Think of this as "warmer... warmer..." when playing Hot/Cold. It tells your dog to keep doing what she's doing, she's on the road to reward. Use of this signal should be phased in gradually; it's a touch more advanced than the click/"Nope!" binary signals. I usually start adding it in around the third or fourth day of training and let the dog figure out the meaning by context.
• No Reward Marker: A signal that tells your dog she's screwed up and is doing totally the wrong thing. "Oops!" or "Nope!" are popular ones. Deliver the NRM in an upbeat tone, never a scolding one -- you're not correcting your dog for a harmful misbehavior, just telling her that she's goofed up in your game.

Proofing

Proofing a behavior means practicing it in new contexts with progressively increasing distractions. Think of it as practicing a solo for a performance at Carnegie Hall: you'd start out by learning the piece in your own home, then playing it in a small private recital, then in gradually bigger and more public venues, and then finally, only when you knew the piece forwards and backwards and it was as comfortable as your own breathing, out there in Carnegie Hall.

You wouldn't jump straight from muddling through a song once in your living room to performing a halftime show at the Super Bowl, yet many people expect their dogs to do just that, and are disappointed when the dogs freeze or screw up.

Fortunately, proofing is relatively simple. All you have to do is practice. Start by practicing in different rooms of your home. Once your dog is performing the desired behavior reliably there, ask him to do it in a quiet area outside, or during a walk in a familiar neighborhood. Gradually build up to less familiar, more distracting environments. Never penalize a dog for being unable to perform in a new place: he's telling you that he's not ready for this level yet, and that's a message to be respected. Be patient.

Also practice with new people issuing commands. It's not too helpful if your foster dog listens to you perfectly but blows off prospective adopters who ask her to Sit or walk with them at adoption events -- yet this is what might happen if you accustom her to listening to you and only you. Get friends and family to help you train the dog by asking her to perform cues she already knows well and rewarding her for doing so. (As a side bonus, this spreads the word that you have a great, well-trained foster dog who's just about ready for adoption.)

There are some behaviors (most notably Down and the tricks that build off of Down, such as Play Dead and Roll Over) that are especially difficult for dogs to perform in new environments, because they put the dog in a vulnerable position. Given the limited time that you have to work with a foster dog, it may not be possible to proof those tricks to a performance level before you have to pass the dog on to her adopters. For this reason, I prefer to focus on tricks that are easier for most dogs to perform in strange, noisy places.