Recall, Manding & Scenting Exercise 2
Manding is an exercise from Puppy Culture which is the beginning of teaching a Puppy some positive reinforcement with treats as well as beginning social politeness training (specifically, not jumping up and deMANDING attention or treat). The MANDING exercise is often done with a clicker and treat. We don’t do clicker training, so I pair PRAISE with TREATS. Just my preference because in real, everyday life with dogs, especially in the young formative years, you always have your words/praise but often don’t carry around a clicker 24/7.
A reward is given when all four feet are on the floor – “four on the floor”. It doesn’t matter at first how they get there or even if they purposely did it. As soon as they are “four on the floor” a treat is given with a praise. It doesn’t take too long before they “get it” that if they are in front of me waiting for a treat (or in other cases, just attention) without jumping up, they get what they want. This bunch of 11 beauties here- were plain and simply awesome at this task. They’ll need continued reinforcement but their trainability is outstanding. Another impressive observation: how much they rely on their nose and not just sight!
Other important “take aways” from these sessions are 1) trainability observation 2) you only need 5-10 minutes of a positive reinforcement, formal training session to teach a new behavior/skill and/or reinforce one.