When we think dog-training, we think being proactive, dishing out cues, making sure to get our timing of rewards just right but there is an easier, quieter, less busy way to achieve great dog-training results.
Your dog is being trained all the time…
Whether you are directly involved or not, your dog is learning about which behaviours get them things they like and which behaviours expose them to things they don’t like.
You may not have a say in what’s being learned!
Your dog is training you…
You are a pretty influential part of your dog’s environment and even when you think that you are proactively training, your dog is learning how to get you to allow him access things he likes, or learning to stop you exposing him to things he doesn’t like.
This is really the key to developing that all important relationship with a dog, to boosting their confidence and being a good guide for them.
To be a good dog trainer you need to be easy to train – making it really easy for your dog to be a good human trainer.
Help ’em out by managing their environment so it’s easiest for them to choose the most desired behaviours and make rewards readily available for behaviours you like.
decide what behaviours you like – what would you prefer your dog to do?
choose behaviours that make it difficult for your dog to do unwanted ones e.g. if your dog is sitting he can’t jump up
watch your dog closely – look for behaviours that your dog offers regularly in every day life
make it really easy – remove temptations that may cause your dog to carry out unwanted behaviour
give your dog tons of space – distance is your friend
use a HIGH rate of reinforcement – that means you keep the rewards flowing
reward where you want your dog to be
use rewards that can compete with other rewards in the environment
where possible use functional rewards – what was your dog trying to achieve with the unwanted behaviour?
Now only allow him access when he offers more appropriate behaviour instead.
Why passive training?
get the behaviours that you like without too much effort – this is lazy dog training
sometimes you will even get other behaviours, like Milo here who offers a reverse behaviour:
We see lots of puppies and we want to see more puppies, and we want to see them earlier.
Waiting for your puppy to be finished his or her vaccinations or waiting until the nipping and the accidents and the chewing are driving you bonkers is too late to start your puppy’s education.
Book a puppy-session NOW and make sure that everyone gets off on the right paw!
What happens during a puppy session?
We talk about all the things that you can start to put in place so that puppy raising is easier and your puppy becomes a great, easy to live with, companion dog.
1. Social Experience
Not only must puppies know how to be dogs, but they must also know how to fit into human society – and that’s tough!
We emphasise:
socialisation is not about your puppy learning to greet, play with and love everyone
socialisation is about your puppy learning that other people, dogs, animals and related goings-on are so normal that they’re not even worth getting worked up about
socialisation is about ensuring puppy has mostly positive experiences in social interactions
socialisation is about puppy learning how to behave appropriately in social situations
We will teach you how to teach your dog to greet politely, to manage their excitement and to teach others how to greet your puppy appropriately so your puppy doesn’t become over-whelmed, and learns that social greetings are positive, enjoyable and safe.
How to use your hand-link-a-Kong to teach all this:
Teach puppy that people approaching makes a treat appear so that puppy learns that approaching humans are safe and so that puppy learns to focus on their own people when someone else is approaching:
Off leash puppy activities must never be a free-for-all!
2. Exposure & Experience
The world is a new, exciting and often scary place for puppies. As their new guide to the human-world, in which they will live, we want to gently and carefully expose them to all the things we want them to be able to cope with later on.
Think of the dog you want in two years time…you are preparing for that NOW!
We emphasise:
bring your puppy everywhere you go – you can carry him, have him in the car
set up a couple of odd things everyday, in a new place in and around the house for puppy to explore
Remember, when you start walking your puppy out and about, increase the size of their world very gradually (from the house to the street on the first day is plenty, and around local streets is lots for the first week) and take your time, stop with puppy and allow them to explore in their on time.
3. Mental Exercise
Puppies are active and inquisitive so let’s channel that energy, so it doesn’t become a people-problem and so that puppy is an active learner and problem solver.
We emphasise:
no food bowls for puppies!
training puppy throughout the day, working for their regular food
All puppies do it, and most people are bothered by it.
Puppy nipping is important for puppies though so we put exercises in place to make sure puppies have an acceptable outlet for this behaviour, but preventing it from becoming to much trouble for people.
There are different schools of thought on this and lots of diverse advice.
We emphasise:
keeping interactions with puppy brief and low-key so puppy doesn’t become over-excited (they will often express that with mouthing and nipping)
making sure puppy has lots of down-time, settling and sleep (over tired puppies are like over tired toddlers…)
diverting puppy behaviour and using treats & toys so that we don’t need to restrain, physically manipulate or position puppy
redirecting teeth onto suitable toys
yelping and withdrawing for 5-10-count if we feel hard teeth
moving away from puppy 20-count timeout if they turn into a landshark
teaching puppies the rules of play with people
making sure puppies have lots of opportunities to play bitey-face games with other appropriate dogs
You already know all the behaviours that puppy is going to do that you are not going to like – squealing when left alone, chewing your belongings, toileting in the wrong places, and that’s just for starters.
So, if you know they’re going to bother you, why are you allowing them to happen?! Prevention is key.
Never allow puppy to practice unwanted behaviour so that they never learn to establish unwanted behaviours.
We emphasise:
night-time training so puppy never develops distress at separation (prevents sleepless nights too!)
This is lazy training, and really effective too! Puppy isn’t doing the wrong things all the time so catch him doing the right behaviour and reward that with food rewards, toys, play, attention or access to things he wants.
We emphasise:
rewarding puppy any time you notice he’s quiet, he has four paws on the floor, he’s keeping the leash loose and he’s showing calm focus
It’s normal, natural, necessary dog behaviour (humans do it too!) so let’s set up our puppies so that they never feel the need to make people go away from them, when they have stuff.
We emphasise:
making sure puppies have their own place where they can eat, chew, play and hangout undisturbed
puppies learn that when they have stuff and people come near, awesome things happen
Puppies and dogs will be handled, sometimes in invasive ways, throughout their lives. Remember, anything we want in our dog in two years time, we need to start working on right now!
AniEd Ireland 