Probably the most difficult part of dog training that takes the longest time to train and get the results you want.
Would you like your dog to sit on command quickly? Would you like your dog to lie down on command, even when he is running? Sound impossible? So many dog owners find quick response is beyond them and as soon as their dog is off the lead, all notion of control goes with it.
They have been to training clubs, attended seminars, read books and tried any amount of tricks and tips and nothing has worked.
So what is the secret of consistent quick response? Only very few trainers have the answer and I will share some of those secrets with you in this article.
These techniques are very powerful and, when implemented correctly produce truly outstanding results.
In order to ensure puppies are given the best start in life, you need to make sure the right rules, boundaries and limitations are being put in place so the young dog knows what is expected and what is not allowed or permitted behaviour.
Puppies and young dogs need to understand what they are being corrected for and they need to understand the correction so it is vital these are delivered in the right way.
All dogs, even young dogs and puppies are very good at manipulating the people with whom they live to get what they want.
This does not always cause problems because humans are generally lazy creatures who will only be willing to change something if it becomes absolutely necessary and then a lot of hard work is required.
As with most things in life, prevention is better, easier, cheaper and longer lasting than cure so the details of this plan, whilst remaining quite general will cover the basics.
Further and more detailed specific plans are available on request and cover most problems.
If you are having a particular problem that is not covered on our list, please contact us and we will write one that is specific to your needs.
It is important you train the correct state of mind.
If your puppy or young dog is currently excitable, boisterous and generally a pain, you have probably been rewarding the wrong state of mind.
It is imperative this is completed before any other training is undertaken, even that of basic obedience.
The key question is how can you teach your puppy or young dog that a calm mind is a better place to be? You lead by example as young dogs copy the example of other dogs or people around them, in other words the dog will match the energy of the dogs or people around.
So the first and probably most difficult for a human to do is to be completely calm with your dog regardless of what they are doing.
Just take a minute to visualise that, your dog is tearing around the house leaving a wake of destruction and you feel like chasing after him screaming for him to stop.
Now visualise being perfectly calm.
This is a very difficult thing to do but a very important skill to practice and will pay dividends in the long term.
The dog must understand its place in the family and meeting and greeting after periods of separation is a key part of this.
If you are greeted by a very excited dog that jumps up and demands your attention and you respond in kind, you are matching the dogs energy which means the dog is in control of the situation.
The greeting may be when you return from a period out of the house or in the morning after you have been apart for the night.
If you do not respond to the greeting with the same energy, instead you walk past the dog with a calm air of indifference and ignore the fact the dog is trying their best to get your attention, the behaviour will reduce until the dog is matching your energy of calm behaviour.
By doing this you are leading and setting the example you want followed.
When the dog has calmed down, calmly call then to you and if they come straight away, reward them with some long calm strokes down the flank or side of the dog.
Keep away from the head as this will trigger excitement.
Now you are beginning to demonstrate the characteristics of a leader.
What else is a good trigger for excitement? Visitors, people who come to your front door and then invade the territory.
What better to send your dog into fits of confusion? No, Get down, come here, get off, behave yourself are typical reactions to a dog jumping up at visitors and usually issued with increasing levels of volume and stress, all of which fuels the dogs confusion and fear.
Yes, you read that right, fear.
Your dog is probably frightened by the probable confrontation with whoever is coming into his territory and is worried he might not survive!! The doorbell or knocker usually starts of the barking and rush towards the door in a desperate attempt to see the intruder off and to protect the family but the dog lacks the necessary confidence to be truly in charge and is asking for someone else to take over.
Calmly walk in front of the dog at the door, ask your visitors to bear with you before you open the door and take your dog calmly by the collar or slip a lead over his head.
Take the dog into another room and close the door on him.
Let your guests into the hall, ask them to wait and go get your dog.
Bring him into the hall on his lead and if he is barking, pulling and excited, put him back in the other room for 20 seconds.
Open the door, take his lead and let him back in.
Repeat this exercise until he comes in with all feet on the floor and calm.
Then let him approach your guests for a sniff and if he remains calm, they can give him a calm stroke.
This teaches the dog you have control of the entrance to the house and you decide who comes in, not them.
The biggest source of excitement by far and the part of owning a dog that causes the most problems is the walk, taking the dog out of an environment where they feel safe, secure and comfortable and there are no threats to their peace and quiet and going into the big wide world where they feel they have to look after you and protect you from every perceived threat and possible attack whilst leading you on the hunt for food! No wonder the leave the house at such a rate of knots! Typical reactions to this behaviour from owners is yanking back on the lead repeatedly, telling the dog to heel repeatedly and generally getting wound up and stressed when the dog does not do as it is told! You know what is coming don't you? You and the dog must leave the house in a calm and controlled manner! Sounds so simple doesn't it? How you achieve it though is a different matter.
You will also have no doubt heard you must go through a doorway first as proof of leadership and dominance.
This is indeed true, but many owners when they approach a doorway will tell their dogs to wait or sit or some other form of command.
The dog does not wait of his own accord for the owner to pass first then follow calmly.
This can only be achieved by breaking the exit from the house down into basic stages so we can, at each stage, teach the dog to be calm before we move on to the next one.
When we walk our dogs, we all have a routing, we may not be aware of it but our dogs certainly are and they spot the routine and begin to get excited.
I might guess at a routine that goes something like this: An item of clothing will be put on, depending on the time of year or you might change into outdoor shoes.
You will then go to where the lead is kept Then you will put the lead on the dog and be dragged to the door, down the road to wherever your usual destination is.
If that destination is a park or some other area where the dog is let off and given freedom, your dog will probably pull you all the way there but probably will walk quite well on the way back, having got his own way.
To teach the dog to be calm before he leaves the house takes time, patience and consistent behaviour from you, the owner.
At any of the above stages whilst you are preparing to leave the house the dog demonstrates excitement, the stage stops.
If you are putting a coat or boots on, stop and take them off, let the dog calm and begin again.
Repeat until you can complete this stage and the dog remains calm.
Work through putting the lead on in the same way, taking it off if excitement becomes too much, leaving it on when the dog is calm.
When you move towards the door and the dog goes in front of you, turn around and walk away from the door for a few paces.
This tells the dog if he is in front of you, the walk does not happen.
Repeat until the dog lets you go first.
This may take many attempts.
Keep calm and quiet.
When you can go through your door and the dog calmly waits for you to go first, then you can go for a walk.
Do not let him off his lead at all.
If necessary, buy a long line so he can have a run but you retain control.
Further training is available at our classes or home visits.
Places in our classes are very limited due to demand so call now to join the waiting list.
K9 Consultants guarantees the methods described above are effective and will produce the required result.
K9 Consultants cannot guarantee your interpretation and implementation of these techniques and methods.
Only our classes or home visits can teach you correctly.
Call now for booking information.
Would you like your dog to sit on command quickly? Would you like your dog to lie down on command, even when he is running? Sound impossible? So many dog owners find quick response is beyond them and as soon as their dog is off the lead, all notion of control goes with it.
They have been to training clubs, attended seminars, read books and tried any amount of tricks and tips and nothing has worked.
So what is the secret of consistent quick response? Only very few trainers have the answer and I will share some of those secrets with you in this article.
These techniques are very powerful and, when implemented correctly produce truly outstanding results.
In order to ensure puppies are given the best start in life, you need to make sure the right rules, boundaries and limitations are being put in place so the young dog knows what is expected and what is not allowed or permitted behaviour.
Puppies and young dogs need to understand what they are being corrected for and they need to understand the correction so it is vital these are delivered in the right way.
All dogs, even young dogs and puppies are very good at manipulating the people with whom they live to get what they want.
This does not always cause problems because humans are generally lazy creatures who will only be willing to change something if it becomes absolutely necessary and then a lot of hard work is required.
As with most things in life, prevention is better, easier, cheaper and longer lasting than cure so the details of this plan, whilst remaining quite general will cover the basics.
Further and more detailed specific plans are available on request and cover most problems.
If you are having a particular problem that is not covered on our list, please contact us and we will write one that is specific to your needs.
It is important you train the correct state of mind.
If your puppy or young dog is currently excitable, boisterous and generally a pain, you have probably been rewarding the wrong state of mind.
It is imperative this is completed before any other training is undertaken, even that of basic obedience.
The key question is how can you teach your puppy or young dog that a calm mind is a better place to be? You lead by example as young dogs copy the example of other dogs or people around them, in other words the dog will match the energy of the dogs or people around.
So the first and probably most difficult for a human to do is to be completely calm with your dog regardless of what they are doing.
Just take a minute to visualise that, your dog is tearing around the house leaving a wake of destruction and you feel like chasing after him screaming for him to stop.
Now visualise being perfectly calm.
This is a very difficult thing to do but a very important skill to practice and will pay dividends in the long term.
The dog must understand its place in the family and meeting and greeting after periods of separation is a key part of this.
If you are greeted by a very excited dog that jumps up and demands your attention and you respond in kind, you are matching the dogs energy which means the dog is in control of the situation.
The greeting may be when you return from a period out of the house or in the morning after you have been apart for the night.
If you do not respond to the greeting with the same energy, instead you walk past the dog with a calm air of indifference and ignore the fact the dog is trying their best to get your attention, the behaviour will reduce until the dog is matching your energy of calm behaviour.
By doing this you are leading and setting the example you want followed.
When the dog has calmed down, calmly call then to you and if they come straight away, reward them with some long calm strokes down the flank or side of the dog.
Keep away from the head as this will trigger excitement.
Now you are beginning to demonstrate the characteristics of a leader.
What else is a good trigger for excitement? Visitors, people who come to your front door and then invade the territory.
What better to send your dog into fits of confusion? No, Get down, come here, get off, behave yourself are typical reactions to a dog jumping up at visitors and usually issued with increasing levels of volume and stress, all of which fuels the dogs confusion and fear.
Yes, you read that right, fear.
Your dog is probably frightened by the probable confrontation with whoever is coming into his territory and is worried he might not survive!! The doorbell or knocker usually starts of the barking and rush towards the door in a desperate attempt to see the intruder off and to protect the family but the dog lacks the necessary confidence to be truly in charge and is asking for someone else to take over.
Calmly walk in front of the dog at the door, ask your visitors to bear with you before you open the door and take your dog calmly by the collar or slip a lead over his head.
Take the dog into another room and close the door on him.
Let your guests into the hall, ask them to wait and go get your dog.
Bring him into the hall on his lead and if he is barking, pulling and excited, put him back in the other room for 20 seconds.
Open the door, take his lead and let him back in.
Repeat this exercise until he comes in with all feet on the floor and calm.
Then let him approach your guests for a sniff and if he remains calm, they can give him a calm stroke.
This teaches the dog you have control of the entrance to the house and you decide who comes in, not them.
The biggest source of excitement by far and the part of owning a dog that causes the most problems is the walk, taking the dog out of an environment where they feel safe, secure and comfortable and there are no threats to their peace and quiet and going into the big wide world where they feel they have to look after you and protect you from every perceived threat and possible attack whilst leading you on the hunt for food! No wonder the leave the house at such a rate of knots! Typical reactions to this behaviour from owners is yanking back on the lead repeatedly, telling the dog to heel repeatedly and generally getting wound up and stressed when the dog does not do as it is told! You know what is coming don't you? You and the dog must leave the house in a calm and controlled manner! Sounds so simple doesn't it? How you achieve it though is a different matter.
You will also have no doubt heard you must go through a doorway first as proof of leadership and dominance.
This is indeed true, but many owners when they approach a doorway will tell their dogs to wait or sit or some other form of command.
The dog does not wait of his own accord for the owner to pass first then follow calmly.
This can only be achieved by breaking the exit from the house down into basic stages so we can, at each stage, teach the dog to be calm before we move on to the next one.
When we walk our dogs, we all have a routing, we may not be aware of it but our dogs certainly are and they spot the routine and begin to get excited.
I might guess at a routine that goes something like this: An item of clothing will be put on, depending on the time of year or you might change into outdoor shoes.
You will then go to where the lead is kept Then you will put the lead on the dog and be dragged to the door, down the road to wherever your usual destination is.
If that destination is a park or some other area where the dog is let off and given freedom, your dog will probably pull you all the way there but probably will walk quite well on the way back, having got his own way.
To teach the dog to be calm before he leaves the house takes time, patience and consistent behaviour from you, the owner.
At any of the above stages whilst you are preparing to leave the house the dog demonstrates excitement, the stage stops.
If you are putting a coat or boots on, stop and take them off, let the dog calm and begin again.
Repeat until you can complete this stage and the dog remains calm.
Work through putting the lead on in the same way, taking it off if excitement becomes too much, leaving it on when the dog is calm.
When you move towards the door and the dog goes in front of you, turn around and walk away from the door for a few paces.
This tells the dog if he is in front of you, the walk does not happen.
Repeat until the dog lets you go first.
This may take many attempts.
Keep calm and quiet.
When you can go through your door and the dog calmly waits for you to go first, then you can go for a walk.
Do not let him off his lead at all.
If necessary, buy a long line so he can have a run but you retain control.
Further training is available at our classes or home visits.
Places in our classes are very limited due to demand so call now to join the waiting list.
K9 Consultants guarantees the methods described above are effective and will produce the required result.
K9 Consultants cannot guarantee your interpretation and implementation of these techniques and methods.
Only our classes or home visits can teach you correctly.
Call now for booking information.
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