When buying or adopting a dog, we want to teach it something in the very first days. In the age of the Internet, it is not difficult to find information on how to teach a dog useful catchphrases or impressive tricks. However, the first frustration and discouragement arise when something doesn’t work out. It can also happen that, at home, the dog presents the learnt behaviour perfectly, while on a walk it behaves as if it has never heard of it. So how do you plan training so as not to lead to frustration and failure? How many behaviours to teach in one session? And most importantly – how to generalise the behaviour so that it also works when walking?
Choosing training methods and how to reward your dog
From the beginning, it is advisable to stick to positive training. Rewarding desired behaviour is very effective, and a pooch who is appreciated more often is more likely to perform an activity because he has been rewarded. In addition, positive methods build and strengthen the relationship with the carer, which is very important throughout their life together.
Before starting training, it is a good idea to establish what motivates our pets. One dog will do anything for crisps and another for a favourite toy. Sometimes simply giving your dog treats won’t work and you need to play good ‘marketer’ or let your dog hunt it down. The quality of the reward should be matched to the difficulty level of the task. For a simple task, your dog’s regular food may be an appropriate reward, but when learning to recall, it is worth reaching for a real ace up your sleeve.
Stages and distractions when training a dog – how do you bite?
When teaching our pet a new skill, we would like to see results right away. We are very quick to raise the bar because all it takes is for the pooch to perform a stage correctly once or twice and we immediately demand more. This causes excessive frustration, which consequently discourages the dog from further work.
A very important element is to divide the exercise into stages and to be consistent in sticking to them. If a particular stage is achieved, it is worth reinforcing it over a period of time to ensure that the dog has memorised it. The first stages should be practised under easy conditions, free from distractions from the surrounding world. This will ensure that our pet is focused on the task at hand.
When training dogs, it is important to approach the process step by step. Before you teach your pet a specific command, make sure he can perform the action correctly. For example, if you want your dog to stand next to you, focus on teaching him the correct position. Once he is able to stand properly by your leg, introduce a suitable command, such as ‘by your leg’. This will prevent your dog from misunderstanding the command and adopting an undesirable posture. Although there are some exceptions, such as the command “stand” or “to me”, where you can introduce the behaviour and the command almost simultaneously, it is usually a good idea to focus on the action itself first and then name it.
The final stage is the generalisation of the behaviour. It involves asking us to perform an exercise regardless of our position or location. It is very important to do this gradually. If we want to transfer the behaviour to a walk, we start in an easy area, after meeting physiological needs or sniffing the area, among other things. Keeping dog training treats with us in these situations will definitely help us to maintain these habits.
Training your dog – summary
When planning a training session, we must remember to check what motivates our dog. Learning isn’t just about slogans, it’s about learning new surfaces and surroundings, and with positive motivation we further strengthen our relationship. When adding slogans, let’s remember what we want to name, so let’s teach the behaviour first. Let’s not expect express learning from our pet, every pooch learns at a different pace and patience is the way to success.
