Dog Training How Tos - Laying a Solid Foundation
Dog training can be fun or it can be hard.
Hard dog training starts with no foundation.
No thought put into the methods and actual training of your dog.
You just "train" and hope it all turns out for the best.
Fun training begins with thought.
What methods are you going to use? Why? How do you apply them to your training sessions? What core behaviors are you going to teach? Knowing the answers to these questions will cut years off your learning curve and help you train faster, more effectively, and training will be a lot more fun.
As a professional dog trainer my main piece of advice for dog owners seeking to train their own dogs is to use positive reinforcement.
Training using positive reinforcement is not only extremely hard to mess up, it is what I call, "damage free.
" In other words, if you do mess up you do not damage your dog.
Using corrections, especially physical collar corrections, is very easy to get wrong.
More to the point you can damage your dogs confidence and trust in you to a degree that makes future training nearly impossible.
"Jason, I don't want to give my dog cookies all the time!" My question back to you is, "why not?" Why would you not want to reward for a job well done? Would you wake up and go to your job without a paycheck? Same principle applies here.
Pay your dog, your dog is happy, your dog will perform when asked.
Flip that over, don't pay the dog, dog is bored, dog ignores you for more rewarding behaviors, dog is unreliable, you can't train your dog.
In short, pay the dog for the work (listening to you) they do and you will see results.
Besides, positive reinforcement based dog training is not all about giving cookies to your dog.
It is about giving your dog something they see has pleasurable.
A pat on the side, a belly rub, a game of tug of war or fetch, all of these can be used to reward your dog.
Laying the foundation starts with knowing exactly what you want your dog to do for you.
When thinking about this instead of, "I would love for my dog to stop jumping," you should think, "what do I want my dog to do other than jump up?" The answer, "I would like for them to sit nicely and wait for petting.
" There ya go, start training that behavior instead of trying to stop something dogs do naturally.
This goes for all basic training.
Ask yourself "what do I want my dog to do other than (insert undesirable behavior here)" When you get your answer you will have a goal to train for.
Foundation training is what makes the difference between a reliable dog in all situations and a dog that can't be trusted as far as the end of a leash.
If you take your time, think your training through, and use positive reinforcement based training methods your dog will be on the fast track to solid obedience for the long term.
Hard dog training starts with no foundation.
No thought put into the methods and actual training of your dog.
You just "train" and hope it all turns out for the best.
Fun training begins with thought.
What methods are you going to use? Why? How do you apply them to your training sessions? What core behaviors are you going to teach? Knowing the answers to these questions will cut years off your learning curve and help you train faster, more effectively, and training will be a lot more fun.
As a professional dog trainer my main piece of advice for dog owners seeking to train their own dogs is to use positive reinforcement.
Training using positive reinforcement is not only extremely hard to mess up, it is what I call, "damage free.
" In other words, if you do mess up you do not damage your dog.
Using corrections, especially physical collar corrections, is very easy to get wrong.
More to the point you can damage your dogs confidence and trust in you to a degree that makes future training nearly impossible.
"Jason, I don't want to give my dog cookies all the time!" My question back to you is, "why not?" Why would you not want to reward for a job well done? Would you wake up and go to your job without a paycheck? Same principle applies here.
Pay your dog, your dog is happy, your dog will perform when asked.
Flip that over, don't pay the dog, dog is bored, dog ignores you for more rewarding behaviors, dog is unreliable, you can't train your dog.
In short, pay the dog for the work (listening to you) they do and you will see results.
Besides, positive reinforcement based dog training is not all about giving cookies to your dog.
It is about giving your dog something they see has pleasurable.
A pat on the side, a belly rub, a game of tug of war or fetch, all of these can be used to reward your dog.
Laying the foundation starts with knowing exactly what you want your dog to do for you.
When thinking about this instead of, "I would love for my dog to stop jumping," you should think, "what do I want my dog to do other than jump up?" The answer, "I would like for them to sit nicely and wait for petting.
" There ya go, start training that behavior instead of trying to stop something dogs do naturally.
This goes for all basic training.
Ask yourself "what do I want my dog to do other than (insert undesirable behavior here)" When you get your answer you will have a goal to train for.
Foundation training is what makes the difference between a reliable dog in all situations and a dog that can't be trusted as far as the end of a leash.
If you take your time, think your training through, and use positive reinforcement based training methods your dog will be on the fast track to solid obedience for the long term.
