Picture taken from from www.vivagoal.com
8/1/2014
From the desk of Sharda Baker.
Hi and welcome everyone!
This is Sharda with dog training newsletter!
Today we will talk about the basic dog training implementation!
You will need to build a trusting relationship with your dog for your training to be effective.
Your dog craves your love and attention more than anything and this desire is very useful in training.
All dog training should be conducted with lots of patience and loads of energy. Your dog should find training fun—he wants to please you! You should never yell or hit your dog.
Always use your dog’s name before giving a command or when praising, never when you are correcting. For example, “Rover, sit. Yes, good boy. Good Rover!”
Below are some other basic training principles you should follow as you begin to train your dog.
PRAISE AND CORRECTION
Your dog will not know whether he is doing something right or wrong unless you tell him. Teach him early that training is about praise and correction.
You should always praise your dog when he does something right—and do it immediately. If you wait longer than three seconds to praise him, he will most likely forget what he is being rewarded for!
A reward is anything that your dog gets excited about, such as treats, petting, praising words, playtime, food, a walk, a car ride, etc.
The training explained here is behaviour-based. Positive behaviour is praised and wrong behaviour is corrected or ignored. Each time a behaviour is rewarded, he will most likely repeat that same behaviour.
DISCOURAGING NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR
Even if you practice hours upon hours of training with your dog, he will still behave inappropriately on occasion. Therefore, you need to make him aware when he is behaving badly.
Following are some ways to discourage negative behaviour:
Correction – This is when you stop a bad behaviour and replace it with a correct behaviour.
Let’s say you are walking your dog on a leash and you approach another dog. Your dog tries to jump, so you correct him immediately by saying “no” while simultaneously tugging lightly on the leash. Then you say “heel.” After he heels, praise him.
This exercise let’s the dog know what he did wrong and what he should do instead.
Verbal reprimand – Choose a word that you can say that will indicate to your dog that he should stop whatever it is he is doing. It could be “no,” “hey,” “eh-eh,” “enough,” etc.
When you use a verbal reprimand, don’t yell it or say it in an angry tone. Instead, just say it in a short and sharp tone that will capture his attention.
When you see your dog doing something he shouldn’t such as chewing on a plant, say your verbal reprimand word and redirect his behaviour to another activity. Once your dog gets used to this command, he will automatically redirect himself to another activity.
Ignore him – If your dog is an excessive barker, ignore him! Obviously, you can’t ignore the sound, but you can turn your head away from him, show no reaction, or leave the room.
If you do this consistently, your dog will come to realize that by barking, he doesn’t gain your attention, but instead he loses it. And since your dog craves your attention, he will want to do whatever he can to get it—even if that means no barking!
Time out – This is a quick 30 second time out in a crate, small room or space, or a tie-down of a short leash attached to a permanent object.
If your dog misbehaves and no other types of reprimands work, you can give him a time out. If it is longer than 30 seconds, the punishment will actually be ineffective.
If he is barking during time out, wait until he stops before you let him out. Otherwise, he will bark even longer and louder the next time you give him a time out!
It may take several time outs before your dog understands what it means, but once he does, this is a great way to discourage negative behaviour.
USING YOUR VOICE
The way you use your voice tone has a significant amount of impact on your training. Your dog may not necessarily understand the words that you are saying, but he can definitely understand the way in which you are saying them.
Commands should be said in a very meaningful tone—as if what you are saying at that particular moment is the most important thing.
You want to say it with a positive tone so he is interested, but don’t say it too enthusiastically or he might think he is being praised.
When he performs the command correctly, then you can praise him lavishly with “good boy” “Good Rover” in a very loving way.
When you need to correct your dog with a “no,” it should be firm and short, but not loudly or angrily.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
In order for your dog to learn your rules of training, you will need to show consistency. You will need to enforce your rules consistently, as well as everyone else in the family.
This means that everyone must correct misbehaviour and praise positive behaviour—and everyone must have the same rules. For example, if mom and dad correct the dog when he jumps on the sofa, then the kids should also.
It will be very confusing if some of the family lets him sit on the sofa and some do not.
All the rules must be very easy for the dog to understand and learn. You want to set your dog up for achievement, not failure.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
As important as consistency is in training, so is the timing. Dogs live very much in the present moment. You must always praise and correct the dog at the time of the action.
For example, if you stumble across an accident that your dog made in the house, it will do him no good if you say “No” to him after the fact. However, if you catch your dog in the act of making an accident, then you can say “No” and direct him to the outside.
The same is true for a positive behaviour. If you ask your dog to “sit” and he does successfully, if you walk to the other side of the house to grab a treat, by the time you get back, he will have forgotten what it was you are rewarding him for.
Rather, he will actually associate the treat with whatever he is doing right at that moment.
CONSTANT SUPERVISION
Because you want to set your dog up for success, you need to keep a close eye on him at all times. Keep him around you so you can look for opportunities to reward him and correct him when he is doing something wrong.
Most likely your dog will follow you around the house, but if he doesn’t you should consider using puppy gates to keep him in a certain area or close the door to the room you are in.
When you make time to supervise and reward your dog for doing a job well done, he will want to be by your side. Again, your dog wants to please you and he wants your love and attention.
These are the helpful dog training advice you for sure can do to make training a lot easier and worthy.
I hope you learned a lot from today’s Dog training newsletter.
I will be back for more!
Warmest regards,
Sharda Baker