…Thorough obedience training does more than assure a dog’s response to his master’s command; capacities for learning and emotional stability could be increased and integrated as permanent qualities of character.

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[quote_signature name=”Name”]William Koehler, 1962[/quote_signature]
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Some people are surprised to learn that I do embrace some of the older obedience styles and masters, like Koehler. What they don’t take into consideration is that these people were not ’10 minute a day trainers.’ They were focused on the dog’s well being. Their puppies had more training by the time they were 12 weeks old than most of today’s dogs have by the time they are a year old.

Tricks and Tasks

Most pet owners today are only interested in the tricks and tasks. Sit, stay, down, walk on a leash, potty training, not jumping up on people, etc are tricks and tasks. They may even be labeled Canine Manners. But they do nothing to change how the dog interacts with the world. They do not teach coping skills, or stress management.

Functional Obedience – Real World Obedience

The theory around this type of obedience is to teach the dog real world skills:

• Can I control my dog?
• Can my dog control its own actions/reactions?
• Can I have my dog stay but keep an active mind?
• Does my dog mirror my body movements when we are walking?

Most people’s mistake is to give an obedience command value in relationship to their end goal.  “I don’t want my dog to pull.” So they take a basic obedience course in a sterile environment, with ‘high pack’/’low drive’ dogs. The dog learns to heel in a straight line, and make a couple of turns. The dog doesn’t learn:

• What to do when another dog rushes you
• What to do if your dog is afraid of another dog
• To stop when the owner stops, and walk when the owner walks
• To pay attention to the owner, not everything in the surrounding environment

Basically, most obedience classes do not teach a task in relationship to its real world function.

Behavior Vs Obedience

Functional obedience teaches the behaviors needed for the dog to reliably complete all commands and expectations without a) being micromanaged and constantly corrected, b) in a calm and focused manner, c) teaching the dog to be responsible for its own behavior.

Most people ignore their dog’s behavior and temperament until the dog. They let it practice primal survival skills, and then wonder why they have a dog that is aggressive and won’t listen. At 9 months old, when the dog’s behavior is fixed, then they want a quick fix.

There is an onslaught of new trainers who promise to ‘fix’ problems in 2 or 3 sessions, without ever considering the consequences. How will this effect the dog’s behavior? Will it make the dog more stressed, or fearful?  Will it break the dog’s trust in people?

None of these matter. The owner is happy, and for the most part the owners never ‘see’ the damage done to their dog, until it develops more behavior problems.

What You Can Do

Before you worry about training, focus on ‘what’ you are teaching a puppy.  If you are teaching a sit then teach the puppy to stay down. Don’t give it a treat as it bounces back up. Teach a long down. Teach the puppy that laying calm at your feet is a normal part of every day life. Teach your puppy to control its impulses. Teach it to be still. Teach it to ignore distractions.

Introduce your puppy to new environments, people and dogs until it is a year old – at least. If you can do these things then you will build the foundation of a great dog who will be a pleasure, and improve your lifestyle, for the next decade.

The post What is Functional Obedience – Real World Obedience appeared first on Sport Dog Training Center.

While the foundational purpose of these exercises is sound, the problem lies in the fact that everyone wants to skip the building and behavior modification and jump to a quick fix. This is where positive reinforcement becomes twisted and ineffective.

Positive dog training doesn’t mean that you do not correct inappropriate behavior. It just means that you do not use fear or pain as punishments. It means that you don’t use any aversive that will damage your relationship with your dog.

If you truly ignore the bad behavior AND you do not stop it, then you are strengthening the dog’s bad behavior. The dog is practicing the undesirable behaviors. The dog will continue to practice them as long as they self-reinforce, and self-satisfy.

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Positive reinforcement doesn’t mean walking around with a treat in your hand.

It doesn’t mean stuffing treats into your dog’s mouth to stop it from reacting or being excited/fearful.

It does mean that you have a clear understanding that when dogs are fearful or over excited they do not think- they just react.

It basically means, If dogs are allowed to repeat a behavior they will become better at that behavior.  If you want a dog to behave calmly then you need to set up the environment so the dog can practice being calm. The dog needs to be given the opportunity to realize that ‘calm’ not ‘aggression’ makes everything okay.

It doesn’t matter what behavior you are trying to fix. If your puppy chews when you are not watching him/her then limit the puppy’s freedom to areas where you can control your puppy.

Stop Rewarding Bad Behavior

In a lot of cases people reward bad behavior. I’ve seen this countless times. The dog is barking, lunging, and pulling and the owner has a treat in front of the dog’s mouth. The treat is not going to reinforce the dog being calm. It reinforces the behavior that the dog is doing when you present the treat.

But don’t ignore the behavior. Doing so can cause side effects like frustration, aggression, and extinction bursts.

I would ignore the behavior of jumping up by not reinforcing it. BUT, the moment the dog has 4 paws on the floor I would make a big deal over the dog. Remember, that the dog is engaged in the bad behavior because it wants something. If it is chewing shoes then it may be bored, or need exercise. If it is jumping up then it wants your attention.

Ignore the bad behavior means don’t reinforce it. But it doesn’t mean that you should let it continue.

Start Rewarding Good Behavior

Most people explode into activity and engagement when their dog does something bad. But they will ignore hours of good behavior. Teach the dog what you want him to do, first. Take the time to make ‘being good’ fun. Preventing bad behaviors is 110% more effective in the long term than interrupting unwanted behaviors.

If the dog is behaving inappropriately then give the dog a chance to stop the negative behavior, and the moment it does (not 10 seconds later) start giving the dog something you know it wants. This way the good behavior is satisfying a need.

Build Good Emotional Responses

Dogs are driven by what we call emotions. They will do anything that feels good, and avoid anything that feels bad. They will work (obey) if it feels good and makes them, and you, happy. If you do need to stop a bad behavior then try to do so by engaging the dog in something fun.

If the dog ‘gives’ you a behavior, even if it is accidentally, praise the dog and reinforce the behavior.

If the dog is jumping on me I will ignore it. I may turn away. I may hold my hands out to create space between us. There is no emotional satisfaction in this. Then when the dog is behaving I will play with it.

Put Good Behavior on Cue

So after you reward the good behavior then put it on cue. When my dogs want my attention they touch my hand. I taught my dogs that this is an acceptable way to get my attention. I know people who teach their dog that is will get attention if it sits quietly in front of them. Give the dog a way of asking for what it wants so that it has a ‘good’ way of communicating with you and doesn’t need to resort to offensive behavior

The post Does Positive Dog Training Mean Ignore Bad Behavior? appeared first on Sport Dog Training Center.

We’ve talked before about the difference between teaching and learning. Teaching a task to a dog means that we are showing the dog the task, in various environments, with different distractions, and adding duration and distance to the equation. It can take 2 minutes to show a dog the task, but it can take several months to show the dog everything they need to accomplish in order to perform the task reliably anywhere, at any time.

This doesn’t mean that your dog will learn it in this time. Just because a dog is shown a task doesn’t mean that the dog understands what you want. People are focused on the end game. What sequence of events teach a specific task? Dogs focus on the moment. What am I doing right now?

This is one reason why shaping may not work. Too often people wait until a dog is finished a behavior to reward. They don’t reward while the dog is doing the behavior. So the dog has finished the sit. Its but is on the ground. Now it thinks ‘well, I’ve done it. I wonder what is over there.’ This is when the owner’s treat.

People never have trouble with corrections. They are always given while the dog is ‘in’ the act. Unfortunately, most of the leash jerks are given while the dog has no idea what they are doing wrong. They are looking at something.

Let’s say they look at a strange dog. They are punished. Therefore, strange dogs are bad. (Generalization and Building Associations) This is why I want people to learn how to fade treats as soon as possible. First, it rarely fixes the emotions. It just puts a cap on a bottle of volatile reactions. Second, there is a high likelihood of creating new behavior problems.

How to fade corrections:

1. Learn to be aware. Try to stop bad behaviors before they happen. If you see a strange dog on the street then don’t wait to ‘see’ if your dog will react. Start redirecting and reorienting immediately. Next, either remove your dog, or keep your dog busy until the other dog is gone.

The more you are aware of your dog’s body language and environment, the more you are able to ‘act’ and stop in incident. If you are not aware then you can only ‘react’ to an incident that has already happened.

2. Create a predictable routine. Practice until your dog knows what is going to happen when a strange dog appears on the horizon. Be consistent. Don’t change the routine. This routine is something that you and your dog will develop together.

3. Stop yelling. Stop jerking the leash. Stop giving verbal corrections. If you are micromanaging your dog then it doesn’t have any reason to think and take responsibility for its own behavior.

4. Instead of correcting, give the dog something else to do. Some people create an alternative behavior. I just give the dog a command and continue as if nothing happened. The calmer you remain, the calmer your dog will stay. Your dog is taking its cue off of you.

I have observed that dogs who are corrected never have as high a level of confidence as dogs who are ‘proactively’ managed. When your dog sees something it is getting ready to lunge at then ‘interfere, interrupt, reorient, engage’

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The first step to an obedient dog is to teach your dog exactly what you want. But you can’t teach a stressed dog. You need to learn how to keep your dog calm.

Check Your Ego and Emotions At The Door

Dogs are emotional, thinking, animals. They are not ‘dumb’ animate objects that you can program to obey you. Like children they need to be taught. Like children they will do exactly what you teach them – both intentional and unintentional.

If you want an obedient dog the worst thing you can do is try to make it obey you. You need to take the time to teach it what you want. Then you need to condition the dog to do that thing. If you use the proper definition of the word obedience, then no dog will ever give you obedience.

Obedient dogs have a good relationship with their owner. They trust them to take care of things. Their owners are usually calm. If you want a calm dog then you need to be calm. The alpha is calm. The alpha is not the biggest and strongest. The alpha is the smartest and the one who can remain calm under pressure.

Body Language

Dogs have ‘calming signals’ and ‘calming behaviors’ that help them shake off stress. If we keep an eye on these we can anticipate something that is stressing our dog.  Your dog will tell you when it doesn’t feel comfortable in a situation. You can choose to say ‘let’s go’ or if it isn’t necessary you can choose to walk away. The more often you walk away the more the dog learns to cope with stress.

You can also teach your dog body language. Teach your dog to follow your hand. Teach it that when your left leg moves, the dog moves. When you stop moving the dog sits. When you move your hand, the dog follows.

Communication – Secret to Effective Obedience Training

If you want an obedient dog then you need to learn to communicate with it. There are 56behaviors you will see in almost every obedient dog/handler team.

1. The handler reinforces positive behavior instead of negative
2. The handler talks to their dog
3. The handler has a loose leash
4. The handler doesn’t put the dog in stressful situations (like letting strangers pet the dog)
5. The handler/dog team is ‘dog focused’ not ‘owner focused’. The team is relationship based, not master/slave based.
6. They are always training. Training is a way of life, not an 8 week series of 20 minute practice sessions.

If you don’t communicate with your dog then your dog won’t know what to do. The dog won’t look to you for the next cue (command). It will just walk along exploring the world waiting for the next correction.

The more you and your dog learn to communicate, the more ‘obedient’ your dog will appear to be.

Calming Cues

Most people do not realize that you can teach a dog to be calm. Calming cues are not magic. They only work if you spend a lot of time practicing them. The more you practice, the better they work.

I use a count down when I’m in stressful situations. The dog knows it only needs to hang on until I count backwards to ‘one’. When the dog hears one it knows the stress is over and it will be rewarded for remaining calm and at my side.

There are other calming cues, like the squeak of a ball, a clicker, or you can create your own calming cues.

Practice when it is fun. Practice when there is no stress around. But Practice, Practice, Practice. Then when your dog is totally focused and relaxed you can start adding mild stressors. These can be a ball bouncing, a treat, loud noises, you singing, you leaving a room, and they can build up to someone knocking at the door, another dog in the area, or you talking to someone.

Exercise

One thing that almost every calm dog has in common is ample exercise. Dogs need exercise to help them relax. They need to burn off excessive energy and pent up stress. It is emotionally and psychologically good for them.

Never take a dog to obedience training classes if it hasn’t had a good run and a chance to potty.

Get Started

As you learn how to calm a dog you’ll soon learn that you need to invest more time into teaching a dog to be calm than you need to spend teaching a dog to follow your cues (be obedient). In fact, after a while the two exercises will become the same thing. You and your dog will start working as a team, and in the end, you’ll have the obedient dog you always dreamed of.

The post Obedience Training 101: Start With a Calm Dog appeared first on Sport Dog Training Center.

I want an obedient dog:

I want a dog who I can ignore all day but will still do what I say

I want a dog that is invisible in my life until I want to play with it

I want a dog that doesn’t take any work, but will obey my every command

I want a dog who will life in a crate or kennel 23.5 hours of the day and show no stress or frustration when let out

I want you to stop my (working dog, herding dog, fast dog) from acting like a (working dog, herding dog, fast dog) and lay around the house and like everyone.

My working dog tries to (herd everyone, attack everyone, chase everything). I don’t want it to act like a working dog anymore

How to Create an Obedient Dog

1. Exercise

Dogs need exercise, mind stimulation, training, and a good diet to be a good dog.  But make sure it is something your dog wants to do. I’ve talked to lots of reactive dog owners who want to force their dog to take walks, instead of driving them to the dog park at 6am before everyone else arrives and letting the dog have a good run.

If your dog does not enjoy walks then play fetch in the back yard. Take the dog for a swim at a dog friendly beach.

1. Vet Care

Different studies attribute 33% – 45% of all bites to pain. Dog’s cannot tell you it is in pain. It cannot tell you that something is wrong. I’ve seen dogs do a 100% turn around in their behavior after they receive help for old injuries, health issues, or allergies.

1. Reduce Stress

One of the best ways to reduce stress is to exercise your dog. But you also need to teach your dog how to handle stress. It is not difficult to build coping mechanisms. Your dog needs to learn that it shouldn’t chase squirrels, or bark at other dogs, or pull when walking. All of these things increase stress.

1. Don’t endure marathon training sessions

It may be easier for you to train for 30 minutes when you get home. You may even find it is therapeutic. But don’t be surprised if ‘obedience’ becomes an aggravation for your dog. Obedience is a lifestyle. Break the training segments down to 2 – 3 minutes, several times a day.

1. Obedience is a Way of Life

You enroll your puppy in an 8 week course at 10 weeks old and have a perfect dog for the rest of its life. There are many skills that your dog is developmentally just ‘not ready’ for until 15 – 24 months old.

Behind every perfectly trained dog is hundreds of hours of training. When people ask me ‘how long do I need to practice’ or ‘how long do I need to give treats’ then I answer, ‘for the life of the dog.’

Some people are lucky and get that dog who just doesn’t care. It will walk quietly, lay down all day, and never even think about taking the roast off the counter. Others have a wonderful dog who is full of love, energy, and joy. We need to ‘shape’ this dog’s behavior into something we consider ‘obedience.’ If the dog fails, then we failed. If your dog reverts back to destructive or aggressive behavior then it is because we let our dog down.

I want to leave you with one last truth:

“You get back from a dog what you put into a dog”

The post I Want a Good Dog – I Want an Obedient Dog appeared first on Sport Dog Training Center.