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Dog Training
Nerissa
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I want to train my dog to close doors behind her.
Background:
We live in an old farmhouse, and it's very tough to heat, so I'm currently only heating part of the house. There's a door in the hallway that separates the part of the house that is being heated from the part that is not. The house has settled quite a bit since it was put in, and the latch in the door no longer meets the hole in the frame, so I can't secure the door in such a way that prevents the dog from going from the heated part to the unheated part at will (the door opens into the unheated area), at least without making it impossible for people to go through it from one direction or the other. And I don't mind her going to another part of the house, I just mind the door staying open after she does so.
The dog:
As near as we can tell she's probably mostly Australian Shepherd and/or Border Collie. However, rather than the long-ish coat of a border collie, she's got short-ish hair and a VERY thick undercoat. (I'm thinking she's actually more comfortable in the un-heated part of the house due to this.) She's a pretty smart dog, from a pretty smart breed, so I'm sure that if I can manage to communicate WHAT I want her to do, she'll be able to learn to do it. I have no problems with giving copious treats as she learns the behavior.
The problem is in the communication. How do I explain to a dog that I want her to push the door closed?
Background:
We live in an old farmhouse, and it's very tough to heat, so I'm currently only heating part of the house. There's a door in the hallway that separates the part of the house that is being heated from the part that is not. The house has settled quite a bit since it was put in, and the latch in the door no longer meets the hole in the frame, so I can't secure the door in such a way that prevents the dog from going from the heated part to the unheated part at will (the door opens into the unheated area), at least without making it impossible for people to go through it from one direction or the other. And I don't mind her going to another part of the house, I just mind the door staying open after she does so.
The dog:
As near as we can tell she's probably mostly Australian Shepherd and/or Border Collie. However, rather than the long-ish coat of a border collie, she's got short-ish hair and a VERY thick undercoat. (I'm thinking she's actually more comfortable in the un-heated part of the house due to this.) She's a pretty smart dog, from a pretty smart breed, so I'm sure that if I can manage to communicate WHAT I want her to do, she'll be able to learn to do it. I have no problems with giving copious treats as she learns the behavior.
The problem is in the communication. How do I explain to a dog that I want her to push the door closed?
Nerissa on
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The key is to break the task into small, simple parts that can later be combined together. The great thing about clicker training is that dogs tend to "offer up" behaviors and try to figure out what you want. Your dog will probably enjoy it--both aussies and border collies usually do.
Here's a cat being clicker-trained to operate a lightswitch . . . This is what I meant by breaking it into small steps. At first, the cat is rewarded for touching the lightswitch the slightest bit . . . gradually it only gets treats for more specific actions until finally it's flipping the swtich.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja83KLQXZs
Start with a margarine tub lid or a square of construction paper in your hand. Most dogs will reach out and sniff if you put this an inch from their nose: click and treat. Repeat this until you can have it a foot or two from her nose and she moves to it to touch it with his nose. Then try putting it on a closed door. Do this until your dog is reliably touching the target on the door. Now open the door and repeat. If your dog is enthusiastic she will be moving the door a little bit anyways and start clicking the 9 hardest touches out of 10. If your dog isn't moving the door on his own, don't click when she touches the door one time and she will probably bop it again harder to show you she knows what to do. Click this harder touch and follow the instructions about clicking the hardest touches. Continue revising your criteria until she is reliably pushing the door an inch or two. Now delay one click, most likely your dog will go and push harder. If she moves the door significantly throw a party. Once she is reliable moving the door significantly, put a really good treat on the floor where she can only get it by shutting the door. Most dogs will quickly start closing the door completely to look for the treat on the ground.
EDIT: If the door is fairly heavy you might want to do this with a paw instead of her nose. You can also teach both types of touch on different targets and see which one she does more forcefully. The initial touches are pretty easy to get so it wouldn't take more than a day to experiment.
Do not add a cue. Make the open door the cue in and of itself (or an open door with a target on it if you don't want her closing all of them).
If you need her to be able to close it from the other direction you will probably need to hang a rope of some sort and teach her to pull in a similar fashion. If she likes to play tug or fetch already it will be easy, it will take a little bit longer if you need to teach her to take things in her mouth.
It's an easy door to open from the one side (she's just pushing it open with her nose now) so it ought to be easy enough to close with her nose. In order for her to open it from the other direction, I'd probably need to hang a rope and teach her to use it anyway, which I may or may not do in the future. I kinda like being able to confine her to the part of the house that doesn't have kitchen trash in it when we go out. I might just teach her to pull it closed on command anyway, so that I don't have to get up and do it when someone else leaves it open.