5 Useful Dog Training Tips

Armed with a huge amount of knowledge gained from reading books, watching You Tube and listening to other people’s advice, you set about training your puppy or older dog. Here are 5 useful tips on things that we should try to avoid when training.

Repeating instructions (cues)

Sit, sit, sit, sit, we’ve all done it, given an instruction waited for a response and then repeated the instruction or cue. What we are actually doing is elongating the cue i.e. making it sit, sit, sit, sit, so eventually the dog can finish what they are doing before carrying out the instruction. Not overly problematic when trying to get a sit in the kitchen but transpose this to the recall command when you are out and it could lead to problems in getting your dog to return. This can be avoided by ensuring you take your time with your training schedules i.e. ensure the command is followed before progressing on to using the command with a few added distractions, take your time one cue, immediate response is what you are eventually looking for.

Rewarding the wrong behaviour (timing)

Whether you’re using a clicker or a word to ‘mark’ when the dog is doing the required behaviour e.g. in the case of training ‘sit’, click as soon as your dog’s bottom hits the floor. If timing is poor and the click or mark is too late, the dog may have carried out 2 or 3 other behaviours, so we end up rewarding the ‘wrong’ thing. This is particularly important with lead walking, poor-timing often means we reward the very thing we’re trying to eradicate like pulling or jumping up.

Dog’s learn in the moment, so timing a marker when we get the response we are looking for is imperative.

Adding duration too quickly

Many of the things we want our dog to do will have an element of duration about them. When we recall we will expect them to come straight away so no duration is needed here but when we ask for a sit and stay, we will expect them to stay in that position until we release them. Adding duration to your training provides an added element of difficulty for your dog, don’t assume that once you have taught the sit command, they will stay there indefinitely, they wont, How long will duration take to train? This is entirely dependent on your dog, so go at a pace that is in keeping with what the dog is achieving. If one day you get a sit and stay for 5 seconds, increase the period slowly, so perhaps move to 10 seconds. If your dog doesn’t succeed at this, don’t be afraid to going back to a time which you know your dog can achieve i.e. 4 seconds, reward the success then slowly building up in small increments.

Too many distractions

The sit command is often taught in the kitchen, as that is where the food bowl is prepared, so why don’t we get the sit when we venture out into the garden or the lounge. Everything that was not in the room when the dog was initially taught to sit, is a distraction, especially for young dogs. Sights, sounds, smells are often heightened in a young dog so paying attention to your instruction often takes second place. Give some thought about what distractions there are in the new location and if need be, stay some distance from them before setting your dog up to succeed with your command. The garden provides an abundance of distractions from moving leaves, to the sound of traffic, allow your dog to get used to these before attempting to use it as an area for training. If you see the dog being distracted, don’t give them the cue, remember we are trying to set them up to succeed, not fail.

Don’t overfeed before training

Many people use food as a means of rewarding the dog during training. A dog will respond far quicker and with more purpose if they know performing certain actions will sate their appetite. By no means starve the dog but use certain times during the day to carry out training activities, i.e. before lunch or dinner. Make a mental note of the amount of food you have used in their training and adjust mealtime volumes accordingly.