I am always training. I’m either training my dog how to behave in the house properly, how to relax when I need him to, how to properly go through doorways, how to behave around my other dogs and, oh yeah, how to perform on high-level obedience exercises. ;) I want as many experiences to be as positive as possible for my dog. This doesn’t mean I hesitate reaching for his collar when he behaves improperly in the house. If he jumps at one of my other dogs, I take him by the collar, drop my voice and tell him to “stop”. But, in the end, I want the positives to FAR outweigh the negatives.
Every interaction with your dog is an opportunity to train. And, in the meantime, you are building your relationship. I once went to a top breed handler’s seminar. He talked about keeping the dogs in kennels until they were jumping up and down every time he approached...just begging to be worked with. Inwardly, I cringed. You take a social creature, isolate him from the ‘pack’ and expect to have a good relationship with you. It’s impossible. Instead, I want my dog to look at me like I hung the moon. I want to build so much drive to work with me, that he is willing to jump through fire just to look into my eyes. If you have never had a dog that was this devoted to working with you, I hope you one day do, as there is no better feeling in the world.
Training a high level competition dog requires a change in your mindset. You need to look at everything as training. Lets look at the simple act of going to my dog club to train.....
- As I’m packing up to leave, I want my dog following me through the house, making sure that I don’t leave without him. Or, at minimum, he needs to be watching my actions from somewhere. I do not want him running to another room or hiding (huge red flag!)
- Dog has to sit while I put his collar on.
- As I open the door to the garage, I practice a sit stay...VERY hard for my dog who wants to get in the car.
- I walk through the door and I call the dog to heel position. If he doesn’t do it right (straight and with attention), I simply put him back inside the door and try again.
- I leave him sitting on the rug just inside the garage while I go open the back hatch of the car. Another sit stay opportunity!!
- I call him to get into the car. I expect him to come fast and go immediately into his crate.
- Dog relaxes as we drive to the dog club.
- Unload my gear at the club while my dog waits in the car.
- Open my dog’s crate. Dog is required to wait for his lead to be attached and is then given permission to jump down from the car.
- Bring my dog onto the training grounds. He does not have to heel, but he isn’t allowed to pull me around.
- Take him to the potty area. No pulling!
- Unhook his lead. He is NOT allowed to leave me when I unhook the lead. And, I do not tell him to stay with him, it is a required (and trained) behavior. I play with him for a minute (off lead), before I release him with a “go potty”.
- As soon as I call him from the potty area, he’s required to respond promptly and come to me to be put back on lead. If he doesn’t respond, I walk him down and he gets a mild recall correction.
- Dog is placed on a floor mat while I set up the rings. I don’t care what position he stays in on his mat, but he has to stay ON the mat.
Look at all of those opportunities for reward and interaction! And I haven’t even started to train yet!! And, no, I don’t keep treats in my pockets for rewarding around the house. If your dog can’t perform basic skills for praise and petting, this is something you need to work on. As long as the praise is genuine and the physical interaction is something your dog enjoys (back scratches, belly rubs, ear scratches, etc.), the dog does not need a cookie.
There are always going to be some negatives applied during training. A lack of effort on a finish may result in a collar bounce. If he doesn’t respond appropriately when I ask for a hand touch, he may have to run to touch the next hand. But, I want the positives to outweigh the negatives. And, not just in training, in life. Think of it as if you had two buckets. Every time you had to correct your dog or do something negative, you have to put a penny into the “negative bucket”. But, every time you do something positive or are able to reward/praise your dog, you put a penny into your “positive bucket”. Now, when you are finished at the end of the day, all of the pennies in the negative bucket disappear, but all the pennies in your positive bucket go back into your pocket, to be used again and again.
Most people don’t pay attention to all of the little things, until they start to turn into big things. But, now, you will have to use up a lot of your negative pennies to get back on track. And, to clarify, negatives aren’t necessarily corrections. In my mind, withholding a reward is a negative, as is stopping an unwanted behavior. Make the right thing easy, so you can reward it, and make the wrong thing difficult.
So, every minute you share with your dog, you need to consider the interaction that is happening. Which bucket are you dropping a penny into? The negative bucket or the positive bucket?
Train hard. Play harder.
Shannon
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