Cooperative Care: Open Mouth Training
/Earlier this year I was introduced to the concept of open mouth training as a means of cooperative care in husbandry. My friend Ryan Talbot had been teaching it to wolves and other species with great success, and I thought it might be a useful skill for dogs, for less stressful access to their mouths at home and in the vet clinic. One thing led to another, and I ended up creating some props to teach my own dogs and apply the skill in the real world. This post is for the folks who have expressed interest in making their own props, and those curious about how I trained my own dogs to use them.
If you’re looking for building instructions you’ll find them here:
What follows are the steps I used to train my own dogs, as well as things to watch for along the way. You’ll see me toss a treat behind the dog as sort of a reset. It simply sets the dog up to approach the dumbbell at the angle that will help him the most, and lets the dog move and takes off any pressure they might be feeling while they learn.
Mouthing
Step 1: Mouthing
You’ll be starting with Dumbbell #1, which has the two cross bars closest together. For my dogs, who came installed with the love of using their mouths to pick things up and share them with me, they already had a solid retrieve, hold and take when we started open mouth training. When I first showed them the prop and gave them the opportunity to explore it, marking and rewarding for putting touching it with their nose was quickly followed by licking the prop, which was also marked and rewarded. It was a quick transfer to putting their mouths on the dumbbell.
If your dog likes putting things in his mouth, I recommend trying this approach with your own dog and seeing how they respond to it. You’ll know pretty quickly if it’s going to work or not.
To start, be sure one of the bars on the dumbbell is over the other bar while you hold it for your dog. *For each step, repeat until he is eager to repeat the behavior.
Show your dog the dumbbell. Mark and reward for sniffing it.*
When the dog to touches the bar on the dumbbell with his nose, mark and reward the nose touch.*
When the dog to touches the bar with his tongue, mark and reward the lick.*
When the dog puts any part of his mouth on the bar, mark and reward the mouth behavior.*
If you don’t see a relatively straight forward progression with your own dog, you might want to consider teach your dog a retrieve first, before incorporating this dumbbell training into that process. Once that's done, follow the steps above again to start the process.
Step 2: Mouth on Both Bars
In this step I’m rewarding the dog for any attempt to put his mouth around both bars, whether it’s lips or teeth. I’m not expecting any sort of duration, just focusing on any attempt to include both bars of the dumbbell in the mouth, even if only momentary.
Gripping
Step 3: Gripping the Dumbbell
Some dogs have a preference to hold things in the front of their mouths, while others prefer to grip with the molars in the back of their mouth. In the video above notice that the dog is mouthing the dumbbell with the front of his mouth, whereas the dog in the video on the left is gripping with her molars. Because of her preference, I’ll need to build in some extra time and patience to help her become more comfortable holding the cross bars in the front of her mouth. Ideally you’ll want the two cross bars to rest behind the canine teeth.
Step 4: Let the dog take it
In order to help the dog understand that a hold is what we’re looking for, once the dog is gripping the dumbbell reliably, you’ll want to build in a few reps where you actually let the dog take the dumbbell from you. Practice this skill until you’re sure the dog knows that holding onto it is the right answer. This will be critical before you move to the next step.
Holding
Step 5: Brief hold while you hold it.
I learned something new about my dogs while trying to figure out what might work best for each of them during this phase. I decided to try a “wait” cue while the dog had it’s mouth on the dumbbell in hopes that it would translate into a hold. While that worked nicely for the dog on the left below, for the dog on the right she was sure it meant stop whatever you’re doing and hold still! She’d let go of the dumbbell and stand perfectly still each time. I had to come up with a different plan for her.
Plan A
While this dog wasn’t sure what to do the first time I said “wait,” he easily made the connection and was able to apply it the second time. He was quickly able to apply duration of any length and hold it until the behavior was marked.
Plan B
For this dog I decided to incorporate a slight pull back while was gripping the dumbbell so that she would pull back, and then develop duration by
continuing to pull for slightly longer periods of time as shown below.
Because the end behavior I’m looking for included holding the dumbbell behind the K9 teeth, and this dog prefers to grip by the molars, I had to incorporate some time and patience while she explored how this felt in her mouth, only pulling slightly when the bars were behind her K9 teeth.
Only after she understood that the bars of the dumbbell should rest behind her K9 teeth could we begin to work on duration, by pulling slightly for a longer period of time, in very small increments, sometimes even just one second more at a time.
Transition to Wider Dumbbells
Step 6: Gripping
As you introduce dumbbell #2 and then #3, you’ll want to give your dog time and space to move his mouth freely and discover that placement of the bars in his mouth that is most comfortable. You’ll know the dog has found the right placement when he stops moving. Let him do so uninterrupted, only marking for duration after that occurs. Once the dog is comfortably gripping dumbbell #2, you’re ready to transition to dumbbell #3.
Step 7: Holding
Once you get to dumbbell #3, you might find that the dog struggles to grip when he’s right on top of the dumbbell. Backing the dog up, either with a cue or by tossing a treat, will give him the opportunity to see both bars on the reapproach, setting him up for greater success.
In the video on the right, notice the time and space given for the dog to find the dumbbell position most comfortable to him.
Adding Movement While Holding
Step 8: Adding Movement
When you’re ready to start moving the dumbbell while the dog is holding it, start slow, as shown on the left. Make sure the dog understands that holding it even though its moving is the right answer. Only then begin adding longer periods of movement in varying directions.
Transition to Halo
Step 9: Introducing the Halo
When switching to the halo, let the dog check out this new device to their liking first. Then be as straight forward as you can. Focus on rewarding for gripping. You should be able to incorporate duration and movement in short order. The video on the left shows transitioning to the halo, far from a finished product, but included to show how easily a dog can make the switch. The video on the right shows practicing with no lights, and then turning the lights on.
Adding a Person
Step 10: Adding a Helper
If your goal is to incorporate open mouth training into a veterinary setting, you’ll want to include training your dog to hold the halo while another person is examining and potentially handling the dog’s mouth in some way. This video shows a few ideas that break the training into thin slices. Ideally I’d be taking more time to practice each step along the way. In the interest of time, I’ve incorporated a lot in a very short period of time just to give you some ideas.
The steps above are simply the steps that made sense to me in working with my dogs. You may find something completely different more useful for your own dog, if so, feel free to share your process in the comments below. It may help someone else. Happy training! Have fun!