Want a well behaved dog that does what you ask when you ask, me too but how do i get it ? I can tell you it is hard work when you have to work and look after house and home and family, and honestly some days I want to just closed the door and forget that I have a dog let alone 6 of them. the reality is dogs can be hard work no matter how much we love them and sometimes we need to hear that from other people. it is ok to get frustrated unhappy and lost when dealing with your dog, what we don’t want is for you to stay there. What we need is to find ways to bring our dogs along on a journey with us so that we can live peacefully with them and enjoy our time together.
How do we do that? well as a trainer i get to take my dogs to work with me… sometimes but often i don’t get to actually do any work with them because of the demands of my job.
The things I can train on my way around between jobs are manners stuff like sit wait and crate training.This means I can have them with me even if I am too busy to give them one on one attention.
Secondly I need to know my dogs motivators, if another dog is his motivator I am a bit behind the eight ball right from the start. I need to be the motivator so I can play
focus games with him and help build his reliability.
I need to play some confidence building games with him as well, this not only strengthens his focus and helps him to be more sure of what I want hm to do but it also builds my focus and my ability to keep hm focused how? because the more I practice it at home and in the quiet times and the more I practice it when I am at work or out the better I will be at the games as well.
We also need to stop listening to anyone who tells us that there is only one way to train a dog, I have been dog training for 15 years now and every dog and every owner is different, I love it when the light clicks on for dog and owner, because suddenly a partnership is formed and great things can happen.
What works for Arthur may not work for Martha and that is ok. There are plenty of non- aversive training methods out there to help us get over the line.
What is important is learning to communicate with your dog, helping your dog to understand what you are saying without confusion.
So don’t give up in frustration, focus on the things you already do well and then set some new rules and follow them, add new rules one at a time get them 80 percent right before adding the next. Remember practice makes perfect for you as well as the dog.
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