Old Dog New Tricks 1

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Teach Someone Old Dog New Tricks

Marla Means
UNC Greensboro
My favorite people to work with are dog lovers because they seem kind, affectionate, and
dedicated; therefore, I chose to target this type of person for my audience in my project and teach
them how to coax their dogs into a sitting position, a shaking hands/paws position, and a laying
position. These tree tricks also known as sit, shake, and lay down are three of the most basic
tricks a dog can learn, especially since the movements can follow each other smoothly from one
position to the other. The strangest aspect of the lesson I have chosen to teach is the fact that I
have to teach people how to teach dogs. My student learning outcomes for these lessons are: the
student should be able to apply the movements that I demonstrate to their own dog, repeat the
process with their dog, and exhibit that their dog has fully learned the tricks by requesting the
positions from the dog in a different order. To measure the success and the progress of both dog
and owner, the three tricks should be accomplished multiple times in a day and over an extended
period of time, about a week, in order to determine whether or not the lesson was absorbed and
understood.
To help me complete this lesson, I asked my neighbor and my friend, Kaitlyn, who owns
a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel if she would be willing to let me teach her how to command her
dog. As her dog has received no previous training, she happily agreed. I decided to implement an
in person lecture with hands on activities to accomplish my lesson plan. In order for both Kaitlyn
and Sherlock to learn, I tried to lead by example with my Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Angus, and
attempted to foster a safe environment for learning. Because we were working with dogs, I

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needed an enclosed space where the dogs could be off of their leash and out of harms way.
Therefore, we agreed to meet in my apartment where I had the living room gated off for them to
roam in a controlled space. We also needed multiple forms of reward for the dogs, so I placed a
bag of treats on the coffee table along with a couple of toys a ball, a stuffed animal, and a bone.
I also asked Kaitlyn to bring her own toys for Sherlock in case he was peculiar or possessive of
his rewards.
With everything in place for our learning environment, I began by explaining to Kaitlyn
that every dog is different and that everyone learns at a different pace. While we were talking, I
pointed out how our dogs were playing and getting along. They were both sweet dogs, but
Sherlock was not as socialized as Angus, and therefore displayed signs of possessiveness and
slight aggression when it came to playing with toys. In order to discourage this behavior and
encourage sharing, we took away all the toys except for one and let one dog play at a time while
the other watched, being held onto by their collars. Whenever the dog watching was quiet and
not whining or barking, he would be rewarded with treats. After a couple of minutes of this
shared playtime, Sherlock learned how to take turns with toys or more basically, he learned that
if he wanted a treat he had to be quiet and let another dog touch his toy.
Once our dogs were getting along, we worked on developing our own mindset for a safe
learning environment. Kaitlyn and I cleared our heads of any negativity and frustrations by
venting about our days. To some people, Kaitlyn and I talking may not seem like an important
part of the process when working with dogs, but because dogs communicate via body language,
we needed to make sure that we were permeating positive energy and not taking out our anger on
our dogs. With our environment set and our rewards ready, Kaitlyn and I each grabbed a handful

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of treats and put the toys away for a moment. As we seemed attentive and serious, our dogs
shifted from being playful to alert.
I started with Angus while Kaitlyn held Sherlock and watched. I took a piece of jerky and
called Angus to me with a kind but strong tone. When Angus came up to me tail wagging and
ears perked, I gave him the treat and pet him lovingly. This simple act actually reinforces
Anguss recall abilities by ensuring positive effects when he approaches me. With such a great
start and Anguss full attention, I explained to Kaitlyn that we will accomplish the three positions
of sit, shake, and lay down based on our own positions. More generally, our dogs are almost
solely watching the treat in our hands, so we need to position our hands at certain angles that
require the dogs to move for the treat. Kaitlyn asked how the dogs will associate a command
with a movement. I explained that through repetition, the dogs will associate a movement with a
treat as well as a specific sound and should repeat the trick even without the promise of reward
over time.
To get Angus to sit, I pinched the treat between two fingers to protect it from being stolen
and held my half-closed hand above his head at an angle that required his eyes to look up so high
that his butt touched the ground so he could view the treat more comfortably. I asked Kaitlyn to
repeat my movements with Sherlock, but he decided to move closer and jump on her legs
instead. I assured Kaitlyn that this behavior is normal and to discourage it by simply saying no
in a lower but not as loud tone. Then I asked Kaitlyn to repeat the sitting command but then back
away every time he jumped up on her, moving her hand farther forward toward Sherlock above
his head. Eventually, Sherlock achieved the sitting position and was thoroughly rewarded. We
then asked Angus and Sherlock to go by throwing a treat across the room and repeated our
sitting command by going through the process of come, reward, sit, reward.

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Then, it was my turn to show Kaitlyn and Sherlock how to move from sit to shake.
Kaitlyn held Sherlock while I called Angus to me and asked him to go into the sitting position. I
shifted my hand from the half-open pinch to a fully closed fist, palm and fingers up, with the
treat inside. Anguss instincts kicked in and when he realized that licking my hand would not
open my palm, he started to paw at my fist. The moment his paw touched my fist I opened my
hand and let him eat the treat. We repeated this process, but I started to hold my hand open, palm
up, and with the treat pinched between my thumb and my palm. This hand position allowed me
to grab Anguss paw when he touched my hand by curling my fingers, thereby solidifying the
shake. Kaitlyn did the same with Sherlock and he caught on surprisingly quick. The only
problem we ran into was the fact that Sherlock whined while performing the trick. We still
rewarded his movements but softly discouraged his whining by hesitating when relinquishing the
treat to award silence and movement.
Finally I transitioned into the last trick of this lesson with Angus. I threw a treat and gave
the command go, requested him to come by name, and asked him to sit. Angus
immediately wanted to move into the shake position, which I used to my advantage. Placing a
treat in my closed fist, palm down, with my index finger pointed at the ground I gave the
command down. I moved the treat from Anguss nose to his toes, guiding him to the floor and
using his action of pawing my hand to bring him farther and farther forward. Once in a full
laying down position, I opened my fist and gave Angus the treat. After a couple of gos and lay
downs we moved on to Sherlock. Kaitlyn asked him to move from the sitting position to the
laying position, moving the treat nose to toes and pointing her index finger at the ground.
Sherlock seemed to understand exactly what was happening and was rewarded once in the full
laying down position.

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After accomplishing all three tricks with both dogs we threw toys for them and all took a
break. Kaitlyn and I ate something and talked some more, both very proud of our companions.
After about fifteen minutes, I wanted to make sure that the lesson was solidified with Kaitlyn and
Sherlock, so I asked if she would repeat all three tricks in front of me without any help. They
successfully displayed all three tricks in order of sit, shake, and lay down after only two tries. I
was very pleased with them both and invited them back in a week to make sure that the tricks
stuck with them, asking her to practice with Sherlock every day. One week later we both
practiced the three tricks with our dogs but out of order. This new process took almost half an
hour but we did it. Kaitlyn and Sherlock had demonstrated that they had accomplished my entire
list of student learning outcomes.
I was very pleased that we were able to teach Sherlock some new tricks, especially since
he just turned three and had left his puppy years behind. Older dogs are great to work with; they
just usually take more time to absorb everything. The process really seemed to work, especially
with all the repetition we employed. I do not know if I would change anything, but I think I
would prefer if there were more dogs to work with Since Sherlock proved that he could catch on
after watching a demonstration. I can incorporate this lesson into my information literacy
instruction by showing that behavioral learning remains an effective tool for teaching,
facilitating, and retrieving information.

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Lesson Plan

Pre-Instruction
o Setting up safe and comfortable environment for dogs
o Venting all negative emotions from people
o Allowing time for dogs to socialize
o Collecting and placing multiple rewards out of immediate reach of dogs
Instruction
o Practicing go and come to set mood for learning
o Implementing the sit position
o Practicing the process of go, come, and sit
o Implementing the shake position after sit
o Practicing the process of go, come, sit, and shake
o Implementing the lay down position after sit
o Practicing the process of go, come, sit, and lay down
o Solidifying the process of go, come, sit, shake, and lay down
o Including a break to allow for more socializing for both people and dogs
Post-Instruction
o Repeating the process of go, come, sit, shake, and lay down
o Explaining the daily homework
o Inviting student(s) back after a week to repeat tricks out of order