My dog did not come with an owner’s manual and I suspect that yours didn’t either. It’s lamentable, since most of us would probably find it helpful to have instructions on how to operate a canine in four-paw drive. How do you make it go? Does it have more than one speed? Most important, how on earth do you make it stop?!

Too often, we’re left to our own devices when it comes to living with or shaping the behavior of another creature (and that includes spouses and children), yet some people do it incredibly well. What’s their secret? Couples who have been together a long time will tell you it has a lot to do with trust, respect, and reasonable expectations of each other. But they’ll also tell you that keeping a good sense of humor and having fun together was critical in sustaining the relationship over the long haul. If they could, I think our dogs would give these observations a definite “thumbs up,” to let us know that living with and training a dog should also be about trust, respect, realistic expectations – and having some fun.

Like humans, dogs tend to be healthier and happier when they get regular exercise, and most dogs are only too happy to accompany you on a walk around the neighborhood. A half hour walk provides plenty of practice time for recalls, heeling, socialization and sits. If you walk your dog on a long line, you may log in three miles while your dog puts in six. When the dog is at the end of the leash you can call him back, provide a treat for coming and send him on his way again. When bikers, runners, or kids-on-wheels approach, call the dog to you and practice precision heeling, or put your dog on a sit/stay and focus on attention work. When traffic has cleared, reward your dog with his kibble or a special treat for a job well done.

At home, you can play hide and seek games with your dog while practicing recalls. One person holds the dog while the other person hides. The person-in-hiding calls the dog. When the dog locates the hidden owner, the prize can be a cookie, the dog’s favorite toy – or an animated game of “chase.” This activity not only reinforces recalls, but encourages the dog to think and use his senses. Friends and family can take turns calling the dog back and forth in the yard or up and down carpeted stairs. The dog’s recalls will improve and he’ll be well exercised.

Teaching a dog to stay can be a useful skill around the house and is easy to incorporate in a daily routine. Ask the dog to stay while you place his food bowl on the floor. If he gets up, the food bowl is removed. Once the dog returns to sitting, the food bowl returns to the floor and becomes the reward. When your dog wants to go outside, ask him to sit and stay first. Access to the great outdoors becomes the reward in this instance. Using tricks to train the dog is also fun and never fails to impress your friends and neighbors. The old “bone on the nose” trick is a great way to teach a dog to hold still and to develop a little self-control in the process.

Does your dog become a tornado on paws when the doorbell rings? That’s because it usually predicts an intruder on the premises. Teach the dog that the doorbell means something else, by having a friend or family member press the bell several times during a twenty-minute training session. During this time, no one enters the house. Once the dog realizes that the bell no longer predicts intruders, it should become less meaningful and his reactions to it will decrease. When you get to this point, have someone ring the doorbell again. This is your cue to produce the most desirable food you can think of in his room, crate or bed. Does the name Pavlov sound familiar? Soon, the doorbell will predict a feast instead of an intruder, and the dog will go running to his crate to find it, eliminating the frenzy at the front door when someone comes to visit.

Dogs who greet people by launching themselves to breath-taking altitudes, need to learn “sit” as their default mode. When someone approaches they should ask the dog to sit. Only when he is sitting will he receive praise, petting or treats. Family and friends can practice this exercise by randomly calling the dog back and forth. Each time he comes to a new person, he must sit before receiving a reward, and before moving on to a new person. If your dog likes to greet friends at the door, insist that they ask for a sit before interacting with the dog. As is often the case in dog training, sometimes you have to train the people before you can train the dog.

Training your dog is an art and a science, and if you find a way to make it fun and entertaining, you’re more likely to do it on a regular basis. It’s a good first step on the journey of building a life long relationship with a well-behaved dog who adores you.

As a dog owner you may have wondered from time to time what professional trainer’s secrets are. Or you may have wondered while attending a class why some owners seem to be more successful than others. The temperament and personality of an individual dog certainly come into play but there are some “tricks of the trade” that anyone can use to achieve better training success.

1. Rate of Reinforcement
The most effective trainers nearly always have a higher rate of reinforcement during teaching new behaviors than less effective trainers. According to some informal studies successful trainers are giving reinforcement as much as five times more often than less successful trainers. This means that when training your dog something new you should reinforce the right behavior (or parts of the right behavior) very often which makes the behavior easier for your dog to understand.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice
Good trainers know that reliable response to commands is built on repetition. Your dog will need to perform new behaviors many times in all different situations before the behavior can be considered reliable. This means other than practicing at home or at class you need to “take the show on the road” and practice on walks, at parks, at pet stores and anywhere else you can think of. This helps dogs to understand that the commands will be rewarded and must be followed no matter what is going on around them.

3. Good Timing
When you click and give rewards has a huge impact on how quickly your dog learns new behaviors. Your dog will repeat behaviors which are rewarding but if your timing is off they may not be the behaviors you were looking for! A common example of this is when teaching Sit, owners click (or treat if not using a clicker) after the dog has gotten out of position. Poor timing sends mixed messages to your pooch. Strive to click (or treat) while the behavior is happening.

4. The 80% Rule
It’s difficult for many trainers, novice and experienced alike, to know when to move on to more advanced parts of a behavior. A long time rule of thumb is you should be getting a correct response at least 80% of the time before moving on. This means if you are practicing come and your dog comes eight out of ten times from a distance of twelve feet you are ready to try a longer distance. If the correct response is under 80% however, you need to put in more practice before advancing.

5. Keep It FUN!
Dogs respond better to training when it is presented to them as a game. Don’t be afraid to get silly praising your dog. Often people get a routine and stick with it practicing the same behaviors every day in the same order. Boring! Not just for the dog but for the trainer as well. Switch it up, teach something new every couple days even if it’s just a trick. Keep training sessions short but plan on having multiples each day. Three 5 minute sessions are better than one hour long one when practicing at home one on one. Avoid training when you are in a bad mood or if you or your dog aren’t feeling well. If you find you are becoming frustrated ask your dog to do something easy and end the session on a high note.

You know most of us nowadays have WAY too much to do in life in general. I don’t know about you but it seems like if I get to sit down and do nothing for even just a little while it’s a luxury!

You have a job and/or a family or maybe you have another business or volunteer work or you are active in your community or church. Or maybe you just have an active social life.

Anyway sometimes you can be so busy that you wish the dog was just EASIER to deal with! “I don’t have time for all of this right now!”

Have you ever said this? Maybe your dog is starting to “act up” or misbehave and you feel like, “I don’t need this right now!”

Once you start feeling or thinking this you need to go on high alert! You may be about to lose your patience!

A couple of things to remember: First, if your patience is thin, don’t even think about training your dog or trying to fix any behavior problems. Now is not the time to train!

Take a deep breath and get through the situation, whatever it is, without “losing it” and remember: Whatever is going on with your dog you can begin to make changes almost immediately but not if you’re pushed for time or impatient. Your dog will feel your tension and will also feel tense. This will make the situation worse!

Second, remember that one of the keys to getting your dog to behave is for you to be the leader. In the dog world the leader doesn’t “lose it”. The leader is calm and composed.

When you get tired or impatient or pushed for time by your circumstances it’s easy to be frustrated when your dog doesn’t respond like you want.

So if you are having one of those frustrating moments or days when your dog is just not behaving well, don’t lose your patience. When you lose that then you’re not acting like a leader!

Get through the situation by reminding yourself that it can be fixed, but today is not the day. Wait until you have more time or your situation is more convenient to begin the training.

Be patient and be the leader!

The Release Word tells the dog that she no longer has to hold the position you put her in, whether it’s sit or down or come. It is the command that gives you unquestioned leadership, since the dog cannot release itself. Once you have chosen the release word, it should stay consistent throughout the dog’s life. This is the key component to teaching Wait and Stay.

We suggest you use a word that has no other connotations to it – “Release” is a very good one. Others are – “Dismissed,” “Go Play,” “At Ease,” “That’ll do.” “OK” is difficult — you should say the name first, to get the dog’s attention, and to differentiate that word from all the other times you say the word OK in conversation. Don’t use “Good Dog,” since you’ll be using that phrase to praise the dog.

Use the release word to literally release a dog from an exercise. Whether she’s watching you or on a sit or down, it works the same way. When you’ve decided the exercise is at an end, say the release word you have chosen, then step away from the dog, and invite her to take a break.

Teach your dog what the RELEASE WORD means:
• Ask the dog to do something she knows how to do (maybe “sit”).
• When she’s sitting, say your release word, and give her a treat.
• Do that about 5 times, and she’ll begin to understand.

Wouldn’t it be great if your dog naturally offered you good behaviors all the time? Just think about life with a dog that you didn’t have to nag to get them to sit, down or watch you. Is this an elusive dream? NO! It’s all possible and quite easy to achieve. To start this process you can do a couple things. The first way is to capture the behavior when it occurs. This basically means catch your dog in the act of doing something good, mark it with a word like “YES” or clicking so he knows he did the right thing and reinforce him with a treat. I prefer to use this technique whenever possible. For example, wait for your dog to sit on his own, yes/click and treat.

The second way is to lure the behavior. With this technique, one would use a food lure to get the dog to do the behavior, yes/click and reinforce him. Once the dog understands how to do the behavior, you can begin to teach him to offer the behavior on his own.

For sits begin by asking for or luring a couple sits to “prime the pup” and then reinforce. Now move so the dog will get up and you just stand there and smile at your dog. You can talk to him, but don’t cue the sit in any way. The second he sits, YES/CLICK and treat. Repeat every time he offers the sit. The more you reinforce it the more ingrained it will become, until your dog begins to offer it as a default behavior any time he wants something or doesn’t know what else to do. For eye contact carry some non-perishable treats around with you or stash them around your house. If your dog spontaneously gives you eye contact, YES/CLICK and treat. Repeat this often.

For downs repeat the same process you used for the sit. Lure a couple downs and then just wait for your dog to offer it on his own. Be sure to reinforce him when he does. If he doesn’t offer the down on his own, help him out by using the down hand signal only and reinforce when he does. Now gradually fade out your hand signal. For example, if you currently have to move your hand all the way to the floor to get your dog to down, the next time stop your hand 2 inches from the floor, etc.until you don’t have to indicate the down with your hand at all. This is a good spontaneous behavior to teach dogs who jump on people.

Reinforcement doesn’t always have to come in the form of treats, although using treats at first will speed things up. If can be a toy, a kind word, a smile, petting, a walk, chasing a squirrel, etc. Be sure to always reinforce good behavior in some way every time.

Most dogs do not like to be pet on top of their heads initially. They usually don’t mind if you come back to their heads, but most do not like the sight of your hand coming down towards their heads. It can be intimidating to them. When you reach your hand towards your dog’s head how does he react? Does he look away, back up, lick his lips, yawn, duck his head or run away? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your dog does not want to be pet on the top of his head.
Keep in mind that in the winter when it’s dry and there is a lot of static electricity if you pet the top of his head and shock him, you’ve not only NOT reinforced him, but you’ve punished him too. Remember, reinforcement must be reinforcing to your dog not you! If your dog does not like it, it’s not reinforcing.

Get in the habit of observing your dog and then reinforce them for good behaviors. He won’t feel compelled to do bad things to get your attention because doing good things will always pay off for him. Train yourself to be more in tune with your dog and you will be on your way to a loving, well-mannered and respectful relationship.

A dog’s adolescence is the time when everything starts to fall apart, unless you make a concerted effort to see it through to the stability of adulthood. Your dog’s adolescence is a critical time. If you ignore your dog’s education now, you will soon find yourself living with an ill-mannered, under-socialized, hyperactive animal. Here are some things to watch for.

Household etiquette may deteriorate over time, especially if you start taking your dog’s housetraining and other good behavior for granted. But if you taught your pup well in his earlier months, the drift in household etiquette will be slow until your dog reaches his sunset years, when housetraining especially tends to suffer.

Basic manners may take a sharp dive when puppy collides with adolescence. Lure/reward training your puppy was easy: you taught your pup to eagerly come, follow, sit, lie down, stand still, roll over, and look up to you with unwavering attention and respect because you were your pup’s sun, moon, and stars. But now your dog is developing adult doggy interests, such as investigating other dogs’ rear ends, sniffing urine and feces on the grass, rolling in unidentifiable smelly stuff, and chasing squirrels. Your dog’s interests may quickly become distractions to training, so that your dog will continue sniffing another dog’s rear end rather than come running when called. (What a scary thought, that your dog would prefer another dog’s rear end to you!) All of a sudden he won’t come, won’t sit, won’t settle down and stay, but instead jumps up, pulls on-leash, and becomes hyperactive.

Bite inhibition tends to drift as your dog gets older and develops more powerful jaws. Giving your dog ample opportunity to wrestle with other dogs, regularly handfeeding kibble and treats, and periodically examining and cleaning your dog’s teeth are the best exercises to ensure that your adolescent dog maintains his soft mouth.

Socialization often heads downhill during adolescence, sometimes surprisingly precipitously. As they get older, dogs have fewer opportunities to meet unfamiliar people and dogs. Puppy classes and parties are often a thing of the past and most owners have established a set routine by the time their dog is five or six months old. At home, the dog interacts with the same familiar friends and family, and is walked, if at all, on the same route to the same dog park, where they encounter the same old people and the same old dogs. Consequently, many adolescent dogs become progressively de-socialized toward unfamiliar people and dogs until eventually they become intolerant of all but a small inner circle of friends.

If your adolescent dog does not get out and about regularly and few unfamiliar people come to the house, his de-socialization may be alarmingly rapid. At five months your dog was a social butterfly with nothing but wiggles and wags when greeting people, but by eight months of age he has become defensive and lacking in confidence: he barks and backs off, or he snaps and lunges with hackles raised. A previously friendly adolescent dog might suddenly and without much warning be spooked by a household guest.

Puppy socialization was a prelude to your safe and enjoyable continued socialization of your adolescent dog. However, your adolescent dog must continue meeting unfamiliar people regularly, otherwise he will progressively de-socialize. Similarly, successful adolescent socialization makes it possible for you to safely and enjoyably continue to socialize your adult dog. Socialization is an on ongoing process.

We all use the phrase dog training but I encourage owners to think instead of ‘teaching’ your dog.

I had a client the other day who told me her family didn’t think their 2 year old dog needed any ‘training’ because the dog was good. I asked if her kids stopped going to school at age 5 or 10 or 15? Dogs are always learning and its up to us to teach them good manners and continue to teach them the behavior we want vs. the behavior we don’t want.

Its also important to remember that dogs are dogs. Dogs bite, chew, dig, bark, run, steal, etc. These are their natural behaviors and we need to teach them how to live with us humans and how to control these natural impulses.

One of the best ways to teach your dog is to incorporate training into your every day interactions. Before giving your dog access to anything (or at least most things) that he wants or needs, ask for a simple behavior – sit, eye contact, wait, before giving your dog his dinner, letting him outside, letting him on the couch, etc.

Ongoing teaching for your dog requires desire – whatever you want from your dog has to be imporant enough for you to take the time to teach them. It also requires focus and understanding. Understand that your dog’s ability to learn is like grade levels – distance and distractions are the key factors of difficulty that determine these grade levels and you need to help your dog learn one grade at a time.

Another common problem is specific undesirable behavior that gets owners frustrated. Narrow down your focus to:

-Know what undesirable behavior you want to change
-Identify the circumstances under which the behavior occurs
-Have a desirable behavior that you wish your dog to do instead

Remember that just telling your dog NO! does not teach him what TO DO. If your dog is jumping, tell him to sit and make sitting more rewarding than jumping. With certain reactive behavior, it is not always that simple and you need to control the environment and use food rewards to help your dog ‘get it right’.

Feel free to contact me for more information on any issues or questions you may have.

Happy Holidays!

While this poem does not relate to directly to dog training, it does say a lot about communication and initial perceptions. Someone sent it to me and I wanted to share it with you.

A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”

With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, why he didn’t even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

Home Alone

All owners find it occasionally necessary to leave their puppy at home alone. So before leaving your puppy for long periods, you should teach him how to amuse himself appropriately when left alone, such as by chewing stuffed chewtoys, and learning how to enjoy his own company without becoming anxious or stressed. A dog is a highly social animal and therefore requires adequate preparation for spending some of his time in social isolation and solitary confinement.

To teach your puppy how to settle down calmly and quietly when you are absent, start by teaching him to settle down with a chewtoy at times when you are present. Right from the outset, make frequent quiet moments part of the puppy’s daily routine. Following the confinement schedule will help your puppy train himself to settle down. Additionally, encourage your puppy to settle down beside you for longer and longer periods. For example, when you’re watching television have your pup lie down on leash or in his crate, but release him for short play-training breaks during the commercials. For a young puppy, you can’t have too many rules.

When playing with your pup, have him settle down for frequent short interludes every one or two minutes. Initially have the pup lie still for a few seconds before letting him play again. After a minute, interrupt the play session once more with a three-second settle-down. Then try for four seconds, then five, eight, ten, and so on. Although being yo-yoed between the commands “Settle down” and “Let’s play” is difficult at first, the puppy soon learns to settle down quickly and happily. Your puppy will learn that being asked to settle down is not the end of the world, nor is it necessarily the end of the play session, but instead that “Settle down” signals a short timeout and reward break before he is allowed to resume playing. If you teach your puppy to be calm and controlled when told, you will have years of fun and excitement ahead. Once your puppy has learned to settle down and shush on cue, there is so much more your dog can enjoy with you. Until you have trained your puppy to enjoy spending much of his day at home alone, you might recruit a puppy sitter who has time to spend with him.

Separation Anxiety

Maintaining your puppy’s confinement schedule when you are at home prepares your puppy to be calm when you are gone. Allowing a young puppy unrestricted access to you when you are at home quickly encourages him to become overly dependent, and overdependence is the most common reason why dogs become anxious when left at home alone. Try your best to teach your puppy to enjoy his own company, to develop self-confidence, and to stand on his own four paws.

Once your puppy is confident and relaxed on his own, he may enjoy all of his time with you when you are at home. When leaving your puppy for hourly sessions in his short term confinement area (dog crate), make a point to check how he fares when left in another room. For example, periodically confine your puppy to his crate in the dining room while you prepare food in the kitchen, then keep the pup in his crate in the kitchen while the family eats dinner in the dining room.

Most importantly, when you are at home, make certain to familiarize your puppy with his long-term confinement area (puppy playroom). Confining your pup when you’re home enables you to monitor his behavior during confinement and check in on him at irregular intervals, quietly rewarding him for being quiet. Thus your pup will not necessarily associate his confinement area with your absence, but rather he will learn to look forward to time spent in his playroom with his special toys.

Give your puppy plenty of toys whenever leaving him on his own. Ideal chewtoys are indestructible and hollow (such as Kong products), as they may be conveniently stuffed with kibble and occasional treats which periodically fall out and reward the pup for chewing his toy. If your puppy is gainfully occupied with his chewtoy, he will fret less over your absence. Additionally, leave a radio playing. The sound will provide white noise to mask outside disturbances. The sound of a radio is also reassuring, since it is normally associated with your presence.

When Leaving Home

Make sure to stuff a number of chewtoys with kibble and treats. Make sure to stuff a piece of freeze-dried liver into the tiny hole of each Kong, or deep into the marrow cavity of each bone. Place the tastily stuffed chewtoys in your puppy’s long-term confinement area and shut the door . . . with your puppy on the outside! When your puppy begs you to open the door, let him in and shut the door, turn on the radio or television, and leave quietly. Your puppy’s chewing will be regularly reinforced by each piece of kibble which falls out of the chewtoy. Your puppy will continue to chew in an attempt to extract the freeze-dried liver. Eventually your puppy will fall asleep..

Home Alone

Dogs are quite happy to sleep all day and all night. They have two activity peaks, at dawn and dusk. Thus, most chewing and barking activity is likely to occur right after you leave your pup in the morning and just before you return in the evening. Leaving your puppy with freshly stuffed chewtoys and offering the unextracted treats when you return prompts your puppy to seek out his chewtoys at times of peak activity.

Jekyll-and-Hyde Behavior

Smothering your puppy with attention and affection when you are home primes the pup to really miss you when you are gone. A Jekyll-and-Hyde environment (lots of attention when you are there, and none when you are gone) quickly creates a Jekyll-and- Hyde puppy which is completely confident when you are there, but falls apart and panics when you are gone. If you allow your puppy to become dependent upon your presence, he will be anxious in your absence. When stressed, dogs are more likely to indulge in bad habits, such as housesoiling, chewing, digging, and barking. During your puppy’s first few weeks at home, frequent confinement with stuffed chewtoys is essential for your pup to develop confidence and independence. Once your puppy is quite happy busying himself with his chewtoys whenever left alone, you may safely allow your now wellbehaved and confident pup to enjoy as much time with you as he likes, without the fear that he will become anxious in your absence.

Wonderful Weekends and Worrisome Weekdays

Whereas weekend attention and affection is wonderful, it primes your new puppy to miss the family on Monday morning when the parents go to work and the children leave for school. By all means, play with and train your puppy lots during the weekend, but also have lots of quiet moments to prepare your puppy for lonely weekdays.

Proofing behavior means making your dog’s response solid in all situations.

As you start to teach your puppy good manners, you need to be aware of his ability to learn in different situations. You want to think in terms of teaching your puppy each behavior first at Kindergarten level and working up very gradually to college level. The factors that determine these grade levels – or degrees of difficulty- are location, distractions and distance.

When in a familiar or room, it’s easy for your puppy to learn. When there are no distractions, it’s easy for your puppy to focus on you. When you’re close to your puppy, it’s easier for him to pay attention. If any one of these things changes, you’ve just skipped a grade or two. So, if you move into a new room in the house, you’ve just increased the difficulty. If you’re in the familiar room but there are toys on the floor (distractions), then you’ve just made it harder for your puppy. And if you move 5 feet way, its now tougher for your puppy to focus on you.

Be aware of these things as you teach your puppy any new behavior and always set up your training to allow your puppy to be successful. Then move gradually from Kindergarten to College by changing just one variable at a time.