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How to work with and be realistic with the dog or puppy you have right now

9/28/2020

Dog lovers know that a dog's physical appearance as far as size, hair length, hair color, ears shape, curly or flat coated, age, and so on. Dog's are also individuals, and these internal characteristics do not show on their outsides. These personality traits and temperaments can vary wildly from playful, wary, suspicious, defensive, resource guarding, driven, active, laid back, and so forth. Add to the mix that some dogs have some training or real life experiences that may be useful as a dog owner or trainer creates a training plan. Recently, one of our blogs went over why there are so many different methods, techniques, and tools that help a dog owner to train their dog.

A professional dog trainer will look at the dog you have right now (as best they can in the time they have) to determine the right path to start down. A dog owner who is honest with themselves can begin to assess this too. None of these traits determine how well a dog will be trained, but they do guide you to what ways will most likely efficiently and effectively train your dog to the best of your ability.

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Why are there so many dog training methods and different techniques to train dogs?

9/22/2020

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If you have ever looked into finding a complete dog training plan for your dog, you probably found a confusing amount of information out there. Some of one method's rules probably contradicted another's method rules.

Does this mean some people are using methods and training and that don't work? Why can some methods be so different, but still seem to get great results for the dog training team?

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Glossary of Dog Training Terms

9/21/2020

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Tommy is our dog and a client surrender. He is our oldest dog right now at age 14. He loves this bed.

Through my experiences, readings, and discussions; these are the definitions that I have been coming up with to define terms that I use in dog training. It's important to note that other dog trainers or canine professionals may mean different things when these same terms are used. However, I try to remain true to these definitions, such as these, when I speak on dog subjects.

Aggression ( I tend to untangle my definition from overlapping with fear or dominant as to the best of my ability) A canine with the confidence of forward moving action in order to further a goal.
Associative Learning-As per wikipedia "Associative learning is the process by which an element is learned through association with a separate, pre-occurring element."
Behavior Modification In dog training this is a series of steps and exercises that seek to improve a behavior in the domesticated canine that is seen as unsuitable to the human family or handler's purpose. (IE being a pet dog, a police dog, a therapy dog and so on) IMO the possibility of behavior modification is greatly enhanced by the knowledge of dog training, and in most cases I feel dog training is necessary to communicate to the dog in order to get to behavior modification practices.
Bribe-Relying on constant rewards (usually readily handy like treats or toys) to get the performance of a command.
Bridge-Transferring a reward like a treat to a noise like the noise of a clicker in it's place (much of the time).

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About Perception Modification and Desensitization

9/13/2020

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In general, training a dog involves teaching a command that can be understood by your dog using a verbal cue or signal. Unless you also know how to teach your dog to be focused, calm, and confident in certain situations, you may be constantly struggling, because you have missed another important piece of the puzzle.

That piece is behavior modification, which does not just apply to dogs with behavioral problems. This can also be for active dogs to learn how to chill in environments that might be exciting in order to do their work or focus on training with you.

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Four Steps of The Dog Training Process

9/10/2020

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A common question that I get asked as a dog trainer is "How long will it take to get my dog trained to do XYZ?" That question does not have any concrete answer, and of course it depends on a variety of factors. Age, temperament, owner commitment, behavioral challenges, and increasing distractions all change this answer. When I am training a dog here, I feel that I need at least 21 days of consistently working the dog on training commands and behavioral exercises to get a dog owner on their way to picking up where I left off easily (or easier). Training does not just happen in one day or in one environment. Dog training, as dog trainers understand it, when you have reliability of a command (and very dependent on whether you are talking about an adult dog or a puppy) without the need of going through much effort other than the verbal command at least four out of five times in various environments and distractions. That actually takes much more than three weeks if you want a full set of commands that can be worked in that way. It also depends on if this is a family's needs for their family dog, if this is a working dog, or if this is a sports and competing dog.

I don't know if most of the dog owning public is aware of the levels that we pass through when teaching a dog a certain command. Here are the four levels that I usually think of:

1) Demonstrate to the dog what you want him to do.You can do this by positioning or luring your dog into position. Dogs need to be shown what to do, because they don’t naturally know the things we take for granted that older dogs have already been taught. Obviously they don't understand our verbal cues, and need to be shown what they will correspond to in the future. In the Demonstration phase, the command is verbalized in conjunction with the luring or placing the dog into correct position.

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How to work with and be realistic with the dog or puppy you have right now

Why are there so many dog training methods and different techniques to train dogs?

Glossary of Dog Training Terms

About Perception Modification and Desensitization

Four Steps of The Dog Training Process

Author, Robin Rubin

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