3 simple tips to ensure dog training success
Many dog trainers feel that correcting their dog is not necessary. They will tell you that the absence of a reward will cure most bad behavior. Sometimes the behavior becomes so bad that it becomes very difficult to correct.
Here are 3 very important rules that will ensure your dog is well behaved. Behaviors like barking as an example can be very self-reinforcing. The dog is positively reinforced by barking. Therefore, getting the dog to stop barking without negative reinforcement is highly unlikely.
The use of both positive and negative reinforcement are necessary tools to train your dog.
Here are 3 easy tips
- Don’t use the word no for everything the dog does wrong. If you really think about it, you will understand. If the dog urinates under the kitchen table and you say “NO”. and then the dog jumps on a stranger when he walks into the house and you say, “NO.” Or if you have a dog that won’t stop barking and you say “NO”. The dog does not understand. He or she thinks, wow… what does NO mean? Does that mean don’t jump? Does it mean no barking? An example would be, use the word “OFF” when your dog jumps on people, the word “SILENCE” when he or she is barking.
- Don’t use the dog’s name against him, or in a negative way. Later, you may call your dog and he or she may decide that he or she doesn’t want to come because he or she can’t tell if you are using his or her name in a positive or negative way. I can take the above statement and bring it into my own life. As a child, my “real” name was Annette. But, if I did something wrong, with bad behavior, my mother called me “Mary Jane”. When I heard the words “Mary Jane,” I instantly knew it was negative and I wanted to run the other way, just like your dog would.
- If you have been training your dog with hand signals, you will want to use hand or finger signals ONLY for one command. If you use one signal for a multitude of commands, you’ll end up with a confused dog.
Use different words for different behaviors.
Here are some examples.
- Ready – Means look at me
- Sit down – means to sit down
- Stay – means don’t move
- Down -means to lie down
- Come – means come to me
- Gout – Means getting out of the mouth
- Ouch – It means Let go of my hand
- Kennel Up – Means go to the box
Make sure you have a plan or an idea of what you want from your dog. As a teacher, you need to be goal-oriented and focused on helping your dog be the best he or she can be.