Happy Dog Happy You

Most people think of basic obedience training for dogs as a series of commands that the dog, reluctantly, learns to execute. On one level, this is accurate.

However, before we begin the mechanics of teaching specific commands, let us look for a moment beyond training as the dog learning a series of orders. Underneath it all, the very important lesson your dog is learning is that he must do what you tell him to, where you tell him to do it, when you tell him to do it, and as long as you say he should do it.

Many dogs are trained in the sense that they will respond mechanically to certain words but they have not gotten this all-important message.

Without the message, training can resemble a series of tricks that the dog performs.

With the message, the dog works. He knows more than just what position to assume with his physical form when he hears a command. He understands your position as alpha dog. He enjoys his role as educated dog. His appearance is intelligent and alert.

We train our dogs to that deeper level where they work with grace, where one command can flow into the next with ease and understanding. If you think education is expensive, you’re right. It will cost you time. But the results will be worth it because you will have much more than an obedient dog.

At the beginning of the training, your puppy should be wearing a flat or rolled leather collar. Keep the leash handy but begin with it off.

Start the training indoors and avoid distractions.

The simplest way to teach your puppy to sit is to hold a toy above his head, or just snap your fingers while you say “Sit!”

If he does not sit to look at your hand, gently seat him by placing one hand lightly on his rump and your other hand under his chin. Gently lift his head and lower his rump as if he was looking up at your hand and say “Sit.” Immediately praise him.

Repeat the command “Sit”, trying once again to get him to look up at your hand and seat himself.

Sometimes, it is just a matter of holding the object in the right spot to get your puppy to sit. When he does, praise him and release by saying “Ok.” Try this a few more times and have him sit in a different spot each time. End your session by saying “Ok” and playing his favorite game.

Practice the “Sit,” both on and off leash two to three times a day for about five minutes at a time

Shyness is becoming a common problem among dogs.

Much of this comes from poor breeding practices and from lack of proper socialization.

Many dogs are bred despite problems of shyness and many puppies of shy or sound breeding are not properly exposed to other people and experiences when they are young.

Some dogs are also kept in the kennel for too long. If a puppy never gets the chance to overcome fear of change when he is young, he will grow up shy and fearful.

You can help your dog overcome shyness by gradually exposing him to new people and places. Praise him for holding his ground in new situations.

Training is also very important. By making your shy dog heel, you prevent him from hiding behind you or trying to run away every time someone comes running down your street.

Eventually, you should have unfamiliar people handle him. The easiest way to do this is to have him on a “Sit-Stay” position. Avoid petting and soothing words when he is shaking, tucking his tail, and trying to escape.

To your pet, petting and soothing will be understood as praise for his shyness and you will actually be training him to be more shy. Instead, praise him for acting bold, for staying when you make noise, and for getting into new situations.

Calmness means the appropriate response in any given situation. It is a quality we must completely understand in order to properly train our dogs.

A dog gains calmness by focusing on an objective and then attaining it through action. He can’t think his way to calmness nor can he learn it through the example of another.

A dog learns to be calm by doing.

If a dog’s action leads him to fulfillment, patience becomes a learned skill. And if a dog gets enough practice in a variety of endeavors, he can develop an overall character trait of calmness.

The biggest mistake is made by attempting to calm a dog by trying to train him to be still.  Whether the owner yells, pleads, nags, grabs the dog in some way, or stares, he is only going to make the dog nervous.

The most effective way to train a dog to be patient and focused is through the most active of his instincts: the prey instinct. Calmness and patience in the face of denial are built into the prey instinct.

Through the prey instinct the dog can learn that a condition of denial is not only temporary but is positive, as it is a predictor of eventual success.

Let’s say your dog chases another dog across the road. When he finally returns, you are angry and soundly scold him for chasing the other dog and giving you such a scare.

But here is how your dog looks at this situation.

First, he chased the dog, which was a lot of fun. Then he came back to you and was reprimanded, which was no fun at all.

What you wanted to teach your dog was not to chase. What you actually taught was that coming to you can be unpleasant.

The lesson here is that whether you are pleased or angry, your dog associates these feelings only with what he did last.

One of the commands you will need to teach your dog is to come when called. To be successful, remember this principle: Whenever your dog comes to you, be nice. Reward the dog for coming to you. No matter what, be pleasant and greet him with a kind word, a pat on the head and a smile.

Teach him to trust you by making him feel safe with you.

The fundamental  aspect of most approaches in dog training is to appeal to this faculty: the desire to please, which is supposedly at the core of the domestic dog’s character. All an owner needs to do is to gain his dog’s respect and then his dog instinctively will want to please him.

There is no intellectual point to the dog’s attraction to his owner that he should want to do something to please him. It is beyond the dog’s comprehension. A dog can never aspire to please anyone because he can never have the faintest idea what anyone else might possibly require to be happy.

The simple truth is that a dog is attracted to his owner through his instincts.

If the owner is highly positive to the dog’s prey instinct, the dog will appear to be highly motivated to please, but it is really the drive to be in harmony through the prey instinct.

By the same token, if the owner is abrasive, the dog seemingly won’t want to please and will appear to be stubborn.

Try to combine the command “Come” to your daily practice with your puppy. Make sure he sits in front of you before you praise him. This will prevent him from sideswiping you when you call him.

You know the routine. You call your dog. He races at you full tilt. Just as you reach out for him, he swerves and departs.

If you call your dog and he doesn’t come, go and find him, snap on his lead, then say “Come” in as pleasant a voice as you can muster, and back up, the dog following along to the very place you were standing when you first said the command.

This translates to the dog as “When I call you to come, you come to where I am.” Your dog will get it. He understands that when you call him he must go to you.

If we want our dogs to do things for us, we need to know how to make them feel good. Below are two positive inducements that can win the heart of any dog.

Get A Ball: Preferably, use a tennis ball because it bounces and is easily controlled by the owner. In training a dog with a ball, the more powerful the dog’s attraction to it, the faster he can learn how to obey his owner and the more irrelevant distractions he can exclude from his attention.

Praise Our Companions: Our dogs will work well for us if we can make them feel good by being with us. Praise must come from the heart and be deeply felt. The sound of our voice, the touch and stroke of our hand, should be capable of raising our dog’s spirits to a joyous state. When a dog is part of a group that heightens his drive, he becomes stimulated to maintain his good work.

“Off” is the word to use when your dog or part of your dog is on something you want him to get off.

You can begin to teach “Off” by tone of voice.

In some cases, particularly in those when your dog has previously been warned not to do something, your annoyed tone and the word “Off” will get your point across. But when it comes to jumping on you, the pleasure is so great for the dog that a word alone will not cure the problem.

In the case of jumping, you will have to slip your hand into his collar and pull him “Off” you sideways, being careful to get him to the ground gruffly but without causing him harm. In other words, move him. Don’t toss him. After much repetition and total consistency, your dog will stop jumping up on you.

In the meantime, be content with “Off”. If nothing else, it is a good beginning. And even if you let your dog sleep on your bed, you may need to say “Off” once in a while just so you can give him clean sheets!

A nervous dog gets hyper-friendly or hyper-frightened when he’s touched in training. The friendliness is masking an inner panic that is only revealed when the dog has the chance to get away or is forced to do something he views as unnatural.

This kind of dog should be worked when he is hungry. Feed him lightly in the morning of the day before and then train him on the following afternoon. He can eat his ration in the training routine from your hand. Walk him on the lawn, then pause and kneel next to him and offer him some food.

Get him to make contact on your level and then touch him as he eats. If he seems to be relaxing, start to move from resting place where the handling and touching occurs. The running will burn up some of the dog’s nervousness and lessen his negative feelings about the training.

When he seems at his calmest, train him to down with food. Every time he lies down and starts to overreact, break away and run to the resting station so that his nervousness is quickly converted into a purer form of drive expression. Slowly, you are getting him to see his group instinct as a means of success instead of a survival instinct.

Study your dog and determine what activity he seems the most relaxed in, the most free when doing, and use that as a reward for him when he chooses calmness.