DOG TRAINING TIPS:
Talk To Your Dog
DOG TRAINING TIP
“Talk To Your Dog As Much As Possible”
This is perhaps the most important DOG TRAINING TIP you will ever hear from me!
To preface it I will tell you a little story about something I hear quite often.
While talking with a client a few days ago the comment was made; “My dog does very good when you are here working with us but when you leave he won’t listen to me!”
So I asked them to do a few things with the dog so I could watch what might be going on. It only took a few short minutes to spot what was going on.
Here Is What I Saw.
The dog actually started out very good. They told the dog to sit, and it sat right down. The dog got rewarded and then they told it to stay. So it stayed. They rewarded the dog again. It stayed there … for about 5 seconds, then it got up and walked away.
The biggest issue that most dog owners have when working with their dogs is that they are not communicating properly. Dogs need constant input!
A well know dog trainer once said that the average dog owner only communicates with his dog three to seven times per minute. On the other hand, professional dog trainers do it twenty to thirty times per minute. This is why most dog trainers get much faster results than the dog’s owners do!
When I begin working with new clients I almost always have to remind them to continually praise the dog for doing what they ask. The timing of the praise is also very critical. As in “clicker training” you have only about 5/10th to 7/10th of a second to bridge the correct behavior to the reward. Praising or rewarding instantly will give you much faster results because the dog will associate the action to the reward, and think; “Oh, I get a reward when I do that! So I’m going to keep doing that!”
REMINDER:
Keep your training sessions short. Your training sessions should be kept under 10 minutes in length. Finish each session with your dog correctly doing a behavior.
Always do something that your dog likes to do when the session ends. Playing with the dog’s favorite toy or going for a walk will keep your dog interested in training. Because there is a “fun time” following the training, it will make the dog more willing to train well.
NEED HELP?
If you need help teaching you dog, just contact us and we can give personal instruction. Contact Us.
