Dog training isn’t to train your dog, it’s to train you how to train your dog.
Positive reinforcement goes a lot further than negative reinforcement
Teach your dog to put a stick/ball/toy on top of your shoe so you just have to kick to throw it. It’ll save your back.
My recent work induction was conducted by the HR dogs. I learnt they get snippy if you point out glaring holes in their operating procedures. My tip is to smile sweetly and stay quiet.
Dogs learn through pattern recognition. If they get a reaction they like after an action they will repeat that action. Attention (eye contact) and physical touch as well as treat rewards will reinforce behavior. My pup was very very vocal and barked for all his needs when we brought him home from the shelter. We had to avoid eye contact, and not give any physical attention when he was barking to show this is not behavior that will be rewarded. After a while he’d get board of barking, and would let out a whine. When he whined we would look at him and ask what he needs/wants and try to give it to him. This taught him that barking is not what you do when you want/need something. He still barks when we play but it’s no longer his main form of communication.
When leash training, be consistent with your expectations. We stop at every single curb and we give the release (saying “OK”) before we allow him to step off the curb. It didn’t take long before he was stopping at the curbs and waiting for the release without any input on our end.
If your dog is pulling while walking on leash hold onto the leash and come to a stop (do not yank or pull on the leash) and wait for the dog to let the pressure off by moving towards you. And stop like this every time they pull on the leash, it’s annoying to the dog because they can’t get to what they are pulling towards. After they release the pressure let them go smell what they were pulling towards as a reward for good behavior.
Using treats can make it easy to mark behaviors you like, but you need to adjust feeding to make sure your dog isn’t getting too many calories.
I’m a big believer in positive reinforcement and mark and reward training, I suggest looking into how those work.
The crate is the dog’s safe space, not a punishment. If I need my dog to be in her crate, I reward her when she goes inside.
There are also hand motions to go with common commands like ‘sit’. I’ve found this makes it easier for a dog to understand me.
Yep, good advice, give a treat for any need to crate or shut away as they won’t understand what you’re doing.
Definitely look up hand signals over voice signals! They’ll never understand what you say!
What are you training it to do?
‘Good’ behaviour? Or some tricks/performances?
There’s similarities, but differences also.
Generally; remember that the dog will never understand what you say, but will have an idea as to your intonation/how you feel when you speak to it. It may even pick up if you’re feeling stressed by something unrelated to it.
Treat it as a family member, that’s how it sees you. Be careful with play, some biting is natural when young as they have no hands so can laern to use their mouth similarly as you do your hands, so if young, let them try things, but teach them to stop if it gets too frequent.
Don’t shout, it’s like barking to them & they may interpret as support for their behaviour. Whispering close to them can be surprisingly calming!
You have to be more stubborn than the dog. You have to be fair. It takes a lot of time. You have to understand your dog if you want them to understand you. Most people have poorly trained dogs because they haven’t put the time and effort in to build a real connection, a well trained dog looks like telepathy.
Dogs only exist in the moment. Any correction that isn’t delivered within 1-3 seconds is going to have greatly diminished effectiveness, and anything beyond 5-10 seconds (depending on breed) is going to not be connected with the behaviour that caused you to provide the correction.
There are many breeds where, in general, the drive is so high that “force-free” training will be the fastest path to the euthanasia table. German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, and many other herding breeds in particular. Sure, you might get lucky and score a “low drive” dog, but that is relative to others in the same breed – by comparison it will still make any golden retriever look like a high-as-a-kite stoner slacker. But a high-drive dog can and will get itself into situations where treats, toys, and other positive incentives will be utterly ignored. Trust me when I say that under those conditions, there is nothing in the “force-free training” arsenal that can or will reach these dogs to break them out of their focus. And when that focus involves aggression against pets or people, balanced training is the only thing that will keep your dog from being euthanized by the authorities.
Start training at an early age. Even as young as 8 weeks. Sit, heel, recall and others are vitally important in being able to control your dog without a leash, or if they slip the leash. Try to find a MSRP-priced version of Successful Together, as it will do wonders in laying down a good foundation of training.
Look for the videographer MK9Plus (can’t tell if British or Australian), they have lots of excellent reels on how to understand your dog’s body language. Method k9 is another one.
Manhandle your dog, especially when they are young and easy to handle. Don’t hurt them, but do get them used to being strangely handled, especially in cases like when they are at the vet.
Do not take your dog out on extended runs for the first year of life, their joints will thank you for their entire life.
Do not spay or neuter your dog, their lifespan and overall health will thank you for their life. Instead, consider vasectomies and hysterectomies instead, as these leave the hormone-producing gonads in place, leading to longer and much healthier lives.
I hope this helps.
Main tip It’s about training the human (i.e. you) not the puppy
Second point: Big rewards for new behaviours you want to promote like teaching new obedience and slowly reduce rewards as time goes on/increase difficulty for same rewards
Do not punish, punishment is attention and gives its own reward when a dog is bored. Also pupuy didn’t sign up for this so what right so you have to punish
Final point If a dog training class does not cover this or goes all pack leader shite, walk away.
This is very good! Train yourself, not the dog! Combine with the below.
A dog is not a toy, machine or servant. It is a living animal and has wants and feelings just like you.
Respect it.
Give it attention, a family, care. Ignore stereotypes. It is your child.
It never behaves badly as it has no concept of such a thing and remember that it does not understand English (or whatever language you speak).
Make sure your dog knows they’re loved and wanted. The calmness that helps provide helps a lot when you’re training.
Also please socialize your dog. Dog parks can be very scary for a puppy, so it’s important to try to ease into the socializing. Maybe by other puppy meet ups or if you have friends with dogs.
I second the socializing. We got our boys when they were 6 months an after bringing them home realized they were not socialized at all. It’s been a struggle but we’re finally getting them comfortable with family, friends and other dogs.
Great advise! Both points equally!
A loving home & understanding that not all dog-dog interactions are good. Ensure they have a way out if they’re not happy with any other dog.
First and foremost, dog training is language training.
You aren’t really teaching them to do things, you’re teaching them to understand the sounds and movements you make when you want them to do things.
This means that regardless of anything else, you have to be consistent in both the execution of and understanding of what language you’re using.
Example: you say sit when training with a calm voice and a little lilt at the end. But in daily life, you say sit sharply and without the hand gesture you’d been using during lessons. When that’s the case, you can’t blame the dog for not understanding automatically that you want them to do the thing you used different words for.
Animals don’t process language the same way we do, but we can still run into problems understanding what someone else wants us to do when they say it in an unusual way. Why would a dog magically understand the difference between “sit, puppy”, “puppy, sit”, and/or “dammit, why won’t you sit?!”
Consistency is how we learn languages as humans, and we have sections of our brain dedicated to language that are very developed compared to even our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.
The flip side of that is that you have to train yourself at the same time as the dog. You have to train yourself in the commands you want them to connect with a behavior. Make sure you learn how you’re saying things, and any secondary or tertiary signals are included.
Example: if you want the dog to eventually know that the word sit, a hand gesture, and a tone of voice mean you want them to sit, you have to consistently use those commands. Eventually, even the dumbest dog will figure out that any of those commands mean you want their butt on the floor, but if you aren’t consistent with them, it’ll take longer.
Remember, that dog hears your words and tone, sees your movements and posture, and reads your facial expressions. *All" of those are part of the command you’re teaching them to respond to with a specific behavior.
That’s why a lot of trainers have a process of introducing those things in a controlled and specific way.
And, if you deviate from the command you actually taught (like screaming word sit while making angry face, bent over and shaking a finger at them instead of the usual), don’t be mad at them for not responding to this totally new and different signal grouping with a behavior you taught them with a different combination of signals.
Great advice, especially consistentcy with your behaviour!
Do these two things –
- Reward good behaviour
- Punish bad behaviour
Avoid doing these two things –
- Reward bad behaviour
- Punish good behaviour
An example of the 4th: the dog is having fun in the park. You call it over and it comes like a good dog. Then you put the leash on it and take it home.
An example of the 3rd: the dog begs for food and you give it food.
An example of the 1st: the dog gives up begging, slumps down in resignation, and then you give it a treat.
Your examples are good…but you should reward the 4th whilst training. but also it’s better to not conisider any behaviour to be ‘bad’ as the dog has no such concept and does not understand anything you say or think. They should therefore never be ‘punished’.
Also how is the 1st working? You reward it for trying and giving up? It runs the risk of rewarding trying anyway. Reward after responding to an instruction like ‘stop’ or ‘down’ is better.
Puppy training class, or if the dog is not a puppy, you may need to get individual training lessons.
Want a dog that pulls on the lead? Use a harness.
repetition. When our dog was a puppy we were decorating a common area tree with a neighbor. I told her to lay down while we worked. She would get up and come to us. I would bring her back and tell her to lay down. she would get up. I would bring her back. I was doing that about as much as I was decorating. My neighbor was like. Forget it Ill hire someone. Guess what though. The person who you hire has to train you.
