The Secret To Training Your Dog
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I'm sure everyone is reading this and hoping for a magic button to press and problem behaviours go away, well unfortunately, that doesn't exist with anything in life. Instead I'm going to tell you the secret to train your dog, which it's almost like a button, a button that you push in your brain to start training your dog the right way!
DON'T ALLOW BAD BEHAVIOURS TO HAPPEN.....
Simple.
I'm sure you're screaming at me, "but my dog eats food off my counter! How am I suppose to not allow that to happen when I'm not there?" Set the dog up to succeed in the first place! Don't put food up on the counter where your dog can grab it, block off your kitchen while you're not home so he can't surf for food if you leave something up there, the list goes on.
When a dog exhibits a bad behaviour, whether it's barking, stealing food, jumping or biting, he or she is LEARNING FROM IT (figuring out if they enjoy it enough to do it again). When you don't allow a behaviour to happen, the dog doesn't learn from it even if the dog has already been practising it. The behaviour will eventually extinguish itself with a little help from you to guide them in what you DO want them to do.
Dog's will always do what is most reinforcing to THEM. Every dog has a difference reinforcement system (check out my video for Different Types Of Reinforcements) so you must figure out what your dog enjoys.
Does It Work With Behavioural Problems?
This secret also applies with aggression. When you allow your dog to exhibit aggressive behaviours, your dog is learning from it and learning that it makes the scary things go away and the dog gets what it wants. Usually people put their dog in situations where the dog is highly uncomfortable and has to resort to aggressive behaviours to make things go away. Don't bring your dog in situations where he or she is uncomfortable, let the dog stop learning how to be aggressive. Once you stop that, you can start the rehabilitation if you want your dog to go in that situation again.
When you train an alternate response, the same rule applies, don't allow the dog to get to that growl, lunge etc. Keep the dog under the threshold, train what you want and you are set!
Being Proactive!
Next time when your dog is doing something you don't like, ask yourself how you can prevent that from happening again.
Not what can you do to let that dog know you don't like that!
Read More..
DON'T ALLOW BAD BEHAVIOURS TO HAPPEN.....
Simple.
I'm sure you're screaming at me, "but my dog eats food off my counter! How am I suppose to not allow that to happen when I'm not there?" Set the dog up to succeed in the first place! Don't put food up on the counter where your dog can grab it, block off your kitchen while you're not home so he can't surf for food if you leave something up there, the list goes on.
When a dog exhibits a bad behaviour, whether it's barking, stealing food, jumping or biting, he or she is LEARNING FROM IT (figuring out if they enjoy it enough to do it again). When you don't allow a behaviour to happen, the dog doesn't learn from it even if the dog has already been practising it. The behaviour will eventually extinguish itself with a little help from you to guide them in what you DO want them to do.
Dog's will always do what is most reinforcing to THEM. Every dog has a difference reinforcement system (check out my video for Different Types Of Reinforcements) so you must figure out what your dog enjoys.
Does It Work With Behavioural Problems?
This secret also applies with aggression. When you allow your dog to exhibit aggressive behaviours, your dog is learning from it and learning that it makes the scary things go away and the dog gets what it wants. Usually people put their dog in situations where the dog is highly uncomfortable and has to resort to aggressive behaviours to make things go away. Don't bring your dog in situations where he or she is uncomfortable, let the dog stop learning how to be aggressive. Once you stop that, you can start the rehabilitation if you want your dog to go in that situation again.
When you train an alternate response, the same rule applies, don't allow the dog to get to that growl, lunge etc. Keep the dog under the threshold, train what you want and you are set!
Being Proactive!
Next time when your dog is doing something you don't like, ask yourself how you can prevent that from happening again.
Not what can you do to let that dog know you don't like that!
Top 3 Things You Should Never Do To Your Dog
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In my line of work I see people doing horrible things to their dog, some things that are excusable because that is all the person knows and some things are absolutely horrific.
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I'm hoping with this post that it will encourage, you the people reading it, to walk up to people doing these horrible things to their dogs and explain that "it's not necessary", make them feel embarrassed for what they are doing and say "the dog did nothing wrong". I want these people to see that the public does not like it when they treat an animal that way and hopefully urge them to think differently.
#1: Physical Reprimands/Corrections
This means touching a dog with any kind of force that causes the dog discomfort (mentally & physically). This includes, kicking, smacking the snout, grabbing the snout, jabbing the dog in the side (yes, Cesar style), grabbing the scruff and physically manipulating the dog and so on.
This is not just morally wrong but it doesn't even work majority of the time! If you are doing this more then one time per behaviour, it DOESN'T WORK, so you're just abusing the dog for fun.
I've said it before and I will say it again, we lack the right timing and proper amount of pressure to use a correction properly.
#2: Verbal Reprimands/Corrections
This falls under the category of yelling at your dog, speaking in a firm/mean tone to intimidate your dog into submission or causing emotional damage. By yelling at your dog and intimidating him or her you are lowering their confidence, causing unnecessary stress and creating negative associations, all these things are what you see in your classic case of an aggressive dog.
#3: Seclude Your Dog From Social Situations/Interactions
I still don't understand why get a dog if you don't want it near you? This is very frustrating to explain to people who leave their dogs outside all day/night and then ask me "why is my dog out of control?" I say, "well, it's probably because you never interact with him and he doesn't know how to act around you, so he does what he knows."
A dog need opportunities to be shown how to act around people. If you constantly avoid social situations because your dog is annoying or goes crazy you need to analyse your priorities.
#1 - Should you have a dog if you can't even spend time to train it.
#2 - Do you have ridiculous expectations that no dog nor human can live up to
#3 - Is the training you're using working for your dog
I went through the same when Luna was young, wanting to avoid many social situations because I knew Luna would be annoying; want to say hi to every one, jump on people if I wasn't watching, beg for food, possibly bark at a weird looking person. But I had my goal in my head, I wanted Luna to be able to come with me EVERYWHERE and be a outstanding canine citizen, so I dealt with the crazed social situations and trained her in them.
Now Luna is 3 yrs old, she can go in stores, public area's with kids screaming, dogs barking and running off leash and she is amazing, her focus is on me and what I'm doing. It didn't take over night I can tell you that, it took a lot of patience, understanding and slow training but we got there. I took 1 year of not really having fun anywhere I went (cause I had to train my dog and watch her like a hawk) but I get 12-15 years (hoping for) of a wonderfully behaved, sweet dog that I can trust.
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