Do not punish a dog who is coming to you, even if it took him longer than you wished. When he is super excited to come to you, take it outside to your backyard or other calm, fenced location. Call your dog five to 10 times a day in your home and back up as he comes bounding to you to engage him even more. Reinforce recalls with truly wonderful meat or cheese reinforcers when your dog does come to you. Use your cue to call your dog for a walk. Use your cue word to call your dog in for meals. While we don’t have the space here to delve deep into this cue, I can give you some quick pointers.īegin teaching a recall off leash inside your home. Teaching even a stubborn dog a good recallĮntire books and DVDs have been created to help dog parents teach a solid recall, something all dogs should know. Remember - treats like meat and cheese go a long way when training a stubborn dog! Photography ©mdmilliman | Getty Images. A dog can learn to leave things once he understands that doing so will get him a much better reward. The second he removes his nose from it, mark with a “Yes!” and give him a much better-smelling meat reward. For example, when teaching “leave it,” ask your dog to leave a boring piece of kibble. Instead of fighting that powerful nose, work with it. And his nose is leading him to run away from you at a dead run while he chases the scent of the wild rabbit that hopped through his yard. It takes him right to that delicious piece of hamburger meat you accidentally dropped on the kitchen floor. What is involved from the dog’s point of view in these two skills? His nose. Both skills are vital and can even be life saving. Two skills that seem hardest for dog parents to teach consistently are “ leave it” and a solid recall. Therefore, it’s in our own best interest to have the behaviors we want for our dog work best for them as well. Step 4: Realize that some things are harder than others for dogs.ĭogs do what works - for them.
Or, ask for something the dog knows well, such as a sit and just after he sits, tell him “Let’s go explore!” and walk or run around the yard. You could first do a sniffing nose walk around your backyard and then begin the training session. Once you have reinforced your dog’s new skill with terrific food many, many times in the home, and once he’s giving you the asked-for behavior 90 percent of the time in that environment, then take it to the backyard or front porch (on leash in unfenced areas).īe aware of your dog’s incredibly powerful nose that kicks into high gear outside or in new environments. You can set your training sessions up for success by first teaching your dog in a calm setting. Imagine a young elementary school student trying to learn math problems with other kids running around the playground, chasing each other and laughing. I train new skills at home first because it’s a quiet, private space where I can control what’s happening in the environment. Step 3: Repetition, repetition, repetition. Agree on your house rules before you bring a dog into your home, and then all work together to reinforce the behavior wanted. Most dogs are simply confused because we haven’t communicated the behavior we do want clearly enough. Some dogs are good at weaving their way through people in the same home reinforcing a behavior one day and other people correcting that same behavior another day. If one pet parent consistently asks for an incompatible behavior - let’s say a sit - and often rewards that sit, the dog will begin to sit and will cease jumping if he gets zero out of it.īut then when the other pet parent comes home from work, he or she enjoys the dog jumping up to say hello and inadvertently reinforces that behavior by playing with the dog, perhaps even patting him on the sides and talking joyfully to him. Let’s take a dog continually jumping on people in the home. Step 2: Possess very clear communication skills. They don’t arrive already understanding our human-made house rules.
Understand that dogs really do need training. Step 1: Be patient when training a new (or old) dog new skills.
It doesn’t mean they can do unwanted things like knocking trash cans over - it means we need to be patient as we begin showing the dog his new home.
Even with our language skills, you or I would need time to settle in to a new environment.
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