To get the most out of your training sessions with your dog…

• Establish a relationship that is gentle, calm and non-threatening. Follow this rule of thumb: if you can’t laugh, don’t train. Do something else that is relaxing like throwing a ball or taking a long walk together.
• Decide on the beahvior you want to work on ahead of time. Know what you want the finished product to look like so you can work steadily towards that goal.
• Plan your building blocks to the behavior. Break it down into small, achievable steps and gradually build it up. Remember to be flexible.
• Prompt the behavior whenever possible. Use a lure, target or find a time of the day when the behavior is most likely to occur when youa re first teaching it.
• Keep your session short, positive, fun, easy and end on a high note if possible.
  Plan to incorporate training sessions throughout the day and in all interactions with your dog. Remember, every time you do something with your dog, he’s learning, whether you intended it or not, so use that to your advantage.
• Train a minimum of fifteen minutes per day, 4-5 days per week. Your training sessions do not have to be in fifteen minute blocks, although they can be if that works for you. The most effective training is spread out throughout the course of the day.

Fun, Fun, Fun ...

Exercise is a critical component in making life with our canine companions pleasant to be around. Without it, we would all be very boring, and they would be very … difficult to live with. It’s been estimated that if dogs were getting enough exercise, their behavior problems would decrease by half! The average dog is BORED! We do everything for them, because we love them. The average dog, barring any health problems, should have a minimum of a half hour per day or aerobic exercise. Doing just that could help your dog be calmer and more attentive. Bored dogs, like bored kids, find things to occupy their time, and it’s not ususally a behavior we would pick out for them. They enjoy things like digging holes, barking at the sky or redecorating the house.

Making sure that your dog gets enough exercise is mostly a matter of planning it into your day. Dogs are crepuscular, meaning they are most active early in the morning and again in the evening. At one of those times of day, plan a meaningful exercise activity with the dog, like a romp outdoors, a retrieving game, or a jog. Make sure the dog is moving most of the time. (Caution: before beginning any intense exercise regimen with your pet, please consult your veterinarian).

Remember this – most of our companion dogs, whether mixed breed or purebred, were designed to be very busy and active during the course of a day. For example, the average border collie can average 30 or more miles PER DAY in the course of it’s work as a sheep herder and still have energy left over at the end of the day to play with the family. Are you meeting that exercise need in your buddy? Plan on some exercise every day – it will be good for both of you and you will enhance your bond and relationship with your companion.

Training Secrets

Good trainers:

• are quick
• are generous
• are unpredictable, but dependable
• are variable in when, where, how much and what kind of reinforcement they offer
• concentrate on and reinforce what the dog does right
• offer the dog a reinforcement it really likes
  keep their training sessions short and interesting
• use a bridge or conditioned reinforcer to mark the behavior they like
• find a gentle, non-threatening way to show the dog what to do
• phase out the ‘help’ as soon as possible
  do not use commands until they have the desired behavior

Dogs do What Works

Dogs (and humans, for that matter) do what works. Another way of saying this is that a behavior is under the control of its consequences, or a behavior is reward driven. Say, for example, that when you come to class I give you a $50 bill. The chances of you coming to class again are very good, and you may keep coming to class often in the hopes of getting another $50 bill! Dogs do the same thing. If they jump on the counter and get a sandwich, no matter how much you punish jumping on the counter, they keep trying for a while in case they get another sandwich.

This has a direct bearing on training our dogs. If being around us and responding to the cues we give has a direct positive effect on the lives of our dogs, they will continue to do what we ask of them. If not, the behavior will end. If you can control the consequences of your dog’s actions, you can, in effect, control their behavior. There are two ways to control consequences – reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement means that a behavior will increase, and punishment means that a behavior will decrease.

Positive reinforcement is the optimal method for shaping behavior because the consequences that effect a behavior are associated with the environment in which those consequences are delivered. Think of punishment here. For punishment to be truly effective it must be immediate, on a large scale, only be associated with the behavior you wish to decrease, and must happen each and every time the behavior occurs to be truly effective. It is often impossible to meet these four criteria. Punishment can also lead to finer discrimination (teaching your dog to be sneaky, for example), and that is definitely not what we want in our dogs.

Using positive reinforcement strengthens and enhance the animal-human bond. To be truly effective it must be used less and less when a behavior is learned, it never leads to avoidance problems, and when poorly times does not harm your relationship and can only slow down the learning.

In using positive reinforcement we are giving the dogs an opportunity to do what works for them, and each time they receive their paycheck and their pat on the back, they are learning what works. If each cue or signal causes the best things in life to rain down on their heads, they will continue to do what you ask, and in fact seek to become better at it! HAPPY TRAINING!

Suggested Reinforcers

If you’re having trouble finding something your dog loves to work for, try some of the suggested reinforcers below.

Food:

Hot dog bits, Cheerios and other cereals, Freeze dried liver, Crumbled ground beef or turkey, Pounce cat treats, Pedigree Tandem, Alpo beef bites, Alpo beef burgers, Rollover, Natural Balance, Red Barn, Pupperoni, Snausages, Kibbled dog food, String cheese, Left over bits of meat from dinner, Hard boiled egg bits, Atta Boy treat sticks, Trout pellets, Rabbit pellets, Corn Nuts, Popcorn, Wheat thins, Cheese Whiz, Ice Cubes, Bread Crust, Croutons, Rice Cakes, Peanut Butter (on a spoon), Canned cat food (spoon), Pureed liver, Cooked pasta, Rice balls, Jerky treats, Charlee Bears, Obey, and Old Mother Hubbard

Objects/Toys:

Tennis balls, Kongs, Buster Cubes, Activity Balls, Rope tugs, Frisbees, Sticks, Firewood, Cressite balls, Boat bumpers, Buoys, Bicycle tires, Burlap sacks, Leash, Collar, Fire hose pieces, Soap bubbles, Hockey pucks, Cardboard tubes, Basket balls, Soccer balls, Boomer balls, and Carpet squares

Activities:

Fetch, Eat dinner (workfare), Hose/sprinkler, Belly rub, Back scratch, Play with other dogs, Play with cats, Play with kids, Play with you, Down, Go for walk, Chase flashlight beam, Swim (for some dogs!), Target , Cuddling, and Praise from you