Dog training. Really is training us owners.

[vash]

Wife and I really want to get the most from our latest dog. Really get the most from the experience.

We both figured we may as well take some dog training lessons. For the most part, I noticed it was geared to breaking our own bad habits. The trainer lady would run.... no let me set this up, Our dog is a bit reactive on leash. He barks, pulls and jumps to try to get to other dogs. No malice, just to play. It's why we wanted the class. We hope To curb his lack of impulse control.

He was the only mutt in class. The only adopted dog. I was kinda worried about our rogue, damn near feral pup. One class ended and all the dogs exited in orderly fashion while our log was writhing at the end of his leash like a banshee. In the and, all that was left was HANK and a puppy border collie. Oh o...talk about completion! The class was called THE REACTIVE DOG or something.

Anyways our dog in the control of the lady trainer was a whole different animal. It was cool to watch. She handed us our dog and gave us homework. We have to teach him to put both paws on a circle at the order "touch!" Wtf??? There is no way! And he is to nose our hand at the order "hand". By the time we got our lessons, both dog ignored each other. Both were trying to figure out WTF we idiot humans wanted.

This is going to be fun! I'll probably go insane and broke. Classes are not cheap.


I just got a round paver and hank is putting both paws up there! I think he is getting it.

So I'm I. I have been doing so many things wrong. I don't expect to be Cesar Milan, but I hope I get some things right.

[pavulon]

good on all of you. We have two english shepherd mutts and they are the only dogs in town out running along side anyone on a bike unleashed. They aren't perfect but they make other dogs look miserable.

[Sooner or later]

Dogs aren't multitaskers so work on one thing at a time. Their memory span can be about 15 seconds.

[Baz]

Good to hear you are educating yourself to be a better human to your dog, Vash.

I wish all humans would do that!!!

Woof!

[Jims5543]

Yes, 17 years ago when we got our Lab we took it to a dog trainer. We too were shocked to learn it is 80% Human and 20% dog training.

Then a few months later my wife put on Oprah, Oprah thought it would be funny to have a dog trainer work with some wives to get better behavior from their husbands.

My wife called me into the room to see this show, we were both laughing so hard at it. The audience / Oprah/ Wives were all laughing at the husbands. My wife and I were laughing at he wives they were unwittingly the ones getting 80% of the training.

Good job taking to dog to a trainer so you can learn how to be a good Human. It was the best move we made.

When we got our Mutt we took her to group lessons they were for AKC certification so it was funny having our Mutt in with all these other pure breed puppies. We were doing it more for the group of dogs exposure making sure she was going to be well socialized from the start.

[john70t]

I'm finally starting to enjoy my dog after 4.5 years.
Now he's 50lbs and 'good' but as a small pup he had serious ADD and would jet off randomly, bugger separated my shoulder a couple times. Larynx of iron.
He also would not accept me as alpha/boss/determiner and wouldn't even look me in the eye when scolded.
I was late in the game and it took extra effort to undo bad habits.

A couple things I/We worked a lot on:
1). Human is the leader when walking.
I pause stop and turn around, he is supposed to follow. That is the rule.
Humans enter and exit any door first! No push past!
Humans have control of any space.
But some dogs especially need to wander a bit while walking so I got a 15 ft leash which works for that beagle mix. He is more interested in smells and people than other dogs. I give him slack and try to listen.

2). Humans mean what they say the first time.
"Come here/leave it/quiet" are not questions to ponder. They are orders.

3). Special rules for crossing the street.
Heel close. Every. Single. Time. This took more than a year of intensive.
So less splatter and loss of aforementioned pet that way.

4). Dogs only understand positive reinforcement.
Good things work best. That's why they will wait for months and years for their human to return. They will bring back food without touching it. They want that good praise or treat. All dogs are motivated differently to respond differently to praise vs food.
Negative reinforcement does not compute past a very very limited point. Beating dead horse etc. It just does not compute. Their brains work differently.

5). Dogs will always challenge but mostly in a good way.

6). A good dog is a tired dog.
Wear them out..then teach the lesson. Give them praise when quiet and doing the right thing.
This is the most important thing to remember.

[RKDinOKC]

I was training up my 3rd dog. She is a golden and the puppy enthusiasm takes some work to get control of without breaking the dogs spirit. Start with only a 2 ft leash. When they learn not to pull on that i.e. not let their base attention get distracted to the smells sights and sounds, THEN move to a 6 ft leash and it will be plenty.

Anyway, was going well and had to board her a 8 months old to go on a trip of a little over a week. Left her with a friends trainer that was really good, taught classes had winner goldens etc. She had 4 goldens and was just going to make my puppy part of the group and add her to the training exercises. Thought it would be great.

The lady said Pepper would be in good hands. Of her 4 goldens. One was a obedience show dog, one was a hunting dog, one was an agility dog, and the last was a service dog that worked daily in a mental health clinic. All of the training disciplines. My friend had told me she was a really good trainer and taught training. I did notice she was one of the trainers that doesn't give any verbal feedback just treats. Anytime the dog does anything positive the get a treat. Didn't think it would make that big of a deal as I use a mix of treats and praise.

Puppy was well house broken. In fact, she would come to me and say "I want out" then go to the door or if I was in the same room got to the door and say, I want out.

My first golden, Penny taught me dogs could imitate sounds. She barked at me to get my attention while I was busy on the computer. Annoyed I said, "What do you want!"...Very plainly Penny said, "I want out," and just looked at me. Surprised the heck out of me so got up and let her out.

My second golden started talking when I was trying to teach her Roll Over. Instead of rolling over she imitated me and said, "Roll over." Built on it from there. If you wanted her to actually roll over, you had to say, "Can you Roll over." She learned a LOT of phrases and go so tood my Mom's speech therapist told me, "The dog was making all the right sounds the only reason it wasn't perfect was dogs can't move their lips." She even brought her kids to hear the dog that talks like Astro on the Jetsons.

My current golden. Pepper was just getting started and only knew a few imitations. Hello, good morning, and I want out. I explained that to the trainer she was staying with. The trainer kind of dismissed it and explained how she would work with Pepper daily when she worked with her dogs. She did text me picks of Pepper playing with her dogs and behaving well with good reports that Pepper was doing great and learning fast.

Stopped on my way home to pick her up. She had her dogs and Pepper each sitting on their own mat when I walked in. And Pepper just sat there attention glued to that hand the treats came from. The trainer told me Pepper had done really well and went to the back door and sat and waited to get let out. About that time Pepper started to shake her head up and down and mouthing. The trainer immediately stuck her hand out and Pepper stopped immediately. Trainer commented she didn't know what that was.

Don't know what that trainer did but I can barely get Pepper to Bark, let alone say anything. It takes some coaxing to get her to talk. She is getting better though. She has become very popular at the local Starbucks. She says, "Hello" and they give her a small sample cup of whipped cream. They call it a puppuccino. If asleep she will wake me by licking and rubbing her head on my hand, and when I start to wake up say very clearly, "I want out." She won't say good morning unless it actually is the first thing in the morning.

One of the best things besides good leash (eventually no leash necessary training) was teaching my dogs to use the restroom on command. Started by taking her out on the leash when it was obvious she needed to go and lead her to a specific place in the back yard and say "Do your stuff." Or if I noticed she was squatting a bit differently would say, "Do number 6." And then praise her and call her closer for more praise and sometimes a treat. Now part of the routine to take her with me anywhere is to go to the back yard to do her stuff before we leave. It has gotten so that I just ask if she wants to go for a ride, she barks, gets excited, and goes to the back door so she can do her stuff before we go.

Hope I didn't bore you with my dogs.

Another thing I learned is if a dog has a behavior you don't like...train them to DO IT ON Command, then just don't give them the command! Digging, chewing things (you can get them to bring it to you first to see if it's okay to chew), jumping up, even running around excited in the house (only take that one outside and tell them run run run!).