The Act of Good Dog Training

Are you waiting for your dog to be good? Do you sometimes see another dog with its owner and say to yourself:
"I want THAT dog!"

Most people wait for their dogs to be good and don't recognize the goodness in their dogs when it happens. They wait and wait for a dog to be good, and they fail to realize that they've just missed an opportunity of molding their dog's good behaviour.

What's a good behaviour? When it's not bad.

To help you, here's a short list. Each time you see this in your dog, reinforce it with a 'good dog' or 'a pat' or 'a treat' or 'a click'. By rewarding a good behaviour, you are helping to eliminate a bad behaviour. The behaviour you want is written in bold and the behaviour you are trying to prevent is written in italics

When you see your dog do any of the above, give him what he wants. If you do this consistently, you have just saved some money and trained him to do the things that we expect most 'good dogs' to do-the act of come, sit, lie down, heel, retrieve, and not jumping or barking when you haven't ask for his assistance.

Remember: the MORE you train your dog the more the dog enjoys working with you, and therefore the longer the period you can keep their attention.

Sounds simple? It is, but many people fail to do it and end up calling us (smile)

Act II - The Act of rewarding and spending quality time with your dog.

How do you reward or reinforce behaviours? Think of yourself-what rewards do you like after a hard day's work? Your dog is easy to please. They love little treats (not his regular Tux) but a liver treat the size of your nail. That's it for giving it a treat. They might not care for treats, give them a ball to catch, or a scatch on their chin. Find what motivates your dog !!

Play with your dog. This sounds so simple, but people tend to forget why they welcomed their companion in their house. Have fun-throw a Frisbee, a stick, a ball. Play hide and seek. Check the endless list on Fun Stuff.

REMEMBER you don't always have to give your dog a treat when he's good. A pat, or a good boy is okay.

How smart is your dog?

A dog will only perform behaviors that are productive for him.-that's why when a dog trainer asks you 'does your dog sit' and you say yes because when you produce his food bowl, he sits. But does he sit when you ask him outside your fence?

Like any habit, once you have form good habits, they are there for life. It's important to spend the necessary training time with your dog. The amount of time you spend now is a great investment for having a well socialize, adjusted dog. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to bring your dog on the bus (at least in Europe you can. maybe on day we might be able to in New Zealand.)

Ten reasons to spend time training your dog:

1. To educate yourself on how to better communicate with your dog in order to live in harmony together

2. To train means spending time with your dog - at least 10 minutes per day practising lessons learnt with a dog trainer or what you read in books. This strengthens the relationship between dog and owner.

3. For a dog to learn to respect the owner as the leader

4. To help overcome common problems such as jumping on visitors.

5. To add variety to the dog's life and help prevent boredom which in turn overcomes behavioural problems, such as digging and unnecessary barking in bored dogs.

6. To impresse people. While all the dogs around you are out of control you will be proud of your dog's response to your commands.

7. To make your dog accept being handled when grooming or at the veterinary clinic.

8. To perhaps get some dog registration concession on registration fees for trained dogs.

9. To compete in competitions. While it may not be your intention to train to this level it is possible to get "hooked". Training should always be enjoyable and is a challenge for the dog and owner to achieve new levels. Competition ranges from basic commands through to agility where dogs compete against the clock over an obstacle course, and tracking where dogs must follow a scent to find a person.

10. Dogs which are trained are a pleasure to take for a walk and a pleasure to own.

How do you know when you are ready to try a particular exercise off-leash:

Well, if your dog isn't performing the exercise almost perfectly when you have him on lead and you are only two or three metres away, don't expect him to perform well when he's free and you're ten or twenty feet away.

Similarly, if you have to use the lead to get him to do the exercise when he's on leash, he's not ready for an off-lead attempt. Don't take the lead off until you're sure you won't need it.

Does your dog....

• Pull on the lead
• Jump up
• Display aggressive/nervous behaviour
• Persistently bark
• Destroy your home or possessions
• Refuse to come when called
• Misbehave in the car
• Refuse to eat at meals times
• Chase other animals

This doesn't mean he's a 'bad' dog. Rather, it's his 'behaviour' that is bad according to our rules.
Do you feel that your dog isn't listening to you? Perhaps you doesn't know the language.