Epi4Dogs

Hi all -

I know that there is a range of philosophies when it comes to training, but with our new dog being a bit higher drive (GSD) I wanted to have a more thorough training program for him than I have done previously.

I have always used mostly positive training in the form of treats - it's easier for me to understand and to mark the behaviour I want. With a dog that isn't super toy driven, I was curious how others are getting on with training.

Dan

couple of ways to deal with this.....
1. you can make a treat (a mushy substance with enzymes in it) and put in a squeeze bottle of sorts.... then when you need to reward your dog give him a squirt of the enzymed treat . Here are some other possibilities: https://epi4dogs.com/treats/

2. or you can do some trials and see how much of something (like only protein, free dried liver /no carbs/no grains.. or dehydrated small pieces of chicken) and give tiny finger nail size bites... see how much he can handle before having loose stools.... (i used to be able to give 10 pieces of kibble with no enzymes but that was it!) and feed a very small snack of food with some enzymes not later than 1 hr after giving the treats with no enzymes.

Hi!! There are others much more knowledgeable on the ins and outs of EPI but this is something I might actually be able to offer helpful input on!

Johnny is my service dog, and I trained him myself, so it is a given we've done a lot of experimentation in this area. I can list a few things we've found that help:

*** Training immediately before/after meal times. Before his EPI was stable this is what we had to do - it was very effective to do a training session while his food was incubating in the enzymes.

*** Lots and lots of experimentation with treats. He typically does very well with single-ingredient treats broken up into small pieces, and can actually eat these all throughout the day along with various chews with no effect on his poop or digestion. I am probably one of the lucky ones who can get by with this, but if you keep experimenting you may find something that works! Johnny particularly does well with high quality jerkies.

*** Experiment with non-food reinforcers! For Johnny, some of the most effective are flirt poles, squeaky balls, and affection and pets from myself. He will work just for praise even in highly demanding environments but it did take time for us to get to this point. On walks, even just something like watching a rabbit works. I would also highly recommend a conditioned reinforcer, which it sounds like you are already doing. Similarly you might be able to condition play/toys to be more reinforcing which is what I did with games of tug.

*** Your dog sounds like Johnny who is also very high drive, so you can probably get to a point where you can really push the number of repetitions before a reward is given - Johnny works better this way after an initial session to get the behavior down.

*** Using a food reinforcer you can mix enzymes into - for us, those little pudding cup-esque things of cottage cheese have worked well, or even a small can of cat food.

*** Short training sessions with a smaller number of treats, scattered throughout the day as opposed to one bigger session.

I hope this helps! I'll keep thinking on it and add on anything else I can remember.

Good luck!!

WOW!!! What a great lit of recommendations... thanks you so much !!!

Interesting though is the fact that you self-learned these things via training Johnny yourself to be a serviec dog.

The top 3 items are exactly what i also did with my Izzy... and i too was in the canine service industry... in my previous life i was a canine search & rescue handler.... so i implemented a lot of SAR training when working with Izzy just because it was good to do overall... and it worked out perfectly !'

again, thank you for posting!

Of course! I am so happy to be able to contribute anything back to the forum even if it's something small!