Dog Obedience Training has come a long way in the past 50 years. Even 25 to 30 years ago dog training was considered, by most people, to be primarily for show dogs. Not many dogs, that were considered pets at home had any formal training. Most of those that did, were trained by using punishment, without the owners really knowing what they were doing.
Welcome to the 21st Century.
Dog training today is as much training you as it is training your dog. For all practical purposes the two are synonymous. Our goal is for both of you to learn how to communicate with each other.
Obedience Training is more than just sit, stay and down. It is; understanding, behavior modification, guidance, listening to your dog, and a lot of patience, all in one. At this point you may say; "This is overkill, I just want my dog to sit when I want and come when I call." That's fine but what about everything else? And, there is a lot of "else's", including, peeing & pooping in the house, chewing the furniture, jumping all over you, socializing with people and other dogs and that's just the beginning. All of that plus a lot more goes into:
Understanding
Why is your dog not listening to you? Why is she pawing you
and making a nuisance of herself? Why is she doing the
opposite of what you want?
Modern day Dog Obedience Training helps you to understand,
at least a little of what is going on in your dogs mind. Why is
he doing those things? There are many reasons. Just learning
what they are goes a long way toward helping you train your dog
to do what you want, which in turn will help you create a happy
long life together.
Behavior Modification
Dog training is basically Behavior Modification. A dog wants
nothing more than to please you. But, your dog has to know
what you want of her. You can't sit down and discuss it with her
since you have a slight language barrier. Therefore, what you
will be doing is to modify her behavior to the way you want her
to do things. Your dog knows what comes naturally to her, she
doesn't know about what humans want, until you teach her and
that is Behavior Modification.
Guidance
You are the leader, the teacher, the master. Your dog will follow
your directions, but you need to guide her step by step and
relate to her exactly what you want. That doesn't mean getting
down on your hands and knees pulling your dog by her leash, it
means your learning how to comunicate with her in order for her
to learn from you.
Listening
This isn't as hard as it sounds, but there definitely is a language
barrier, and it does take time for the both of you to learn each
others language.
Humans use a lot of words when they try to comunicate. Dogs
on the other hand have a fairly limited vocabulary, but by
listening and watching their expressions and movements, you
will eventually understand what they are saying. That doesn't
mean that they will explain Darwin's Theory of Evolution, but
you will have a good idea of what they want from you.
Repetition
Dogs learn a behavior by repetition. In order to teach you dog
what you want of him, you must repeat the same behavior over
and over again. If you want him to learn the word and how to
Sit, you must keep repeating the procedure until your dog
understands what to do when he hears the word Sit. Depending
upon the dog, this could take hours, days or weeks.
Consistency
Consistency goes hand in hand with repetition. You must be
consistent in your training. If you want your dog to learn to
Sit & Stay at the door until you release him to go out, you must
consistently make him do it by giving him the same command.
Anytime you don't do it and he goes charging out the door you
are sending him mixed signals, which means he doesn't know
what you want of him. He will learn that he doesn't have to
Sit & Stay at the door all the time, because that's what you
taught him.
Patience
And a lot of it. You definitely need Patience, Patience and more
Patience. Get the point?
It is going to seem as if your dog is, doing everything you don't
want her to do. It's not that she wants to be rebellious, it's
just that it takes time for her to understand "Humanese." Now
if you spoke "Dog", that would make life a lot easier. Teaching
you "Dog" is harder than your dog learning English, or your
preferred language. (You tell me who is smarter.)
The expression "Patience is a virtue", was obviously coined by a
dog trainer. If you have it you will be very successful, if you
don't, welllll!
