Dog Training Tips
The need-reward method is the most effective one. The need created is for food. Most dogs are fed once daily so the training must take place twenty-four hours after the last feeding; for difficult trainees, thirty-six hours later.
Let’s say you want to train your dog to come when you call it. Tick the end of a twenty- or thirty-foot cord to its collar and take it outside. Use the same command each time with the same tone of voice, which is usually the word, “come.” Say “come” and pull the dog to you with the cord and offer it food as a reward. Being hungry, it will take the food with relish. Then walk on and when the dog is some distance from you, repeat the procedure. Repeat it a dozen times, which is enough for one session. Wait a few days and go through the same paces, and in a surprisingly short period, you will have conditioned it to come on command.
About the only time the no-reward method is used is to break an established bad habit. One example might be a dog that barks excessively when there is no good reason for it, such as an apartment dog that barks and doesn’t stop when you leave for work. Before the neighbors call the police, try this solution. Cut two ten-inch pieces of one-inch-wide adhesive tape from a roll and stick them on a convenient surface in the apartment. Leave, but wait where you can hear the dog start to bark, then return, sounding your choice of command perhaps “quiet” or “be still” that you will use later without the discipline.
Remove one piece of adhesive tape and wrap it around the dog’s muzzle and leave again for thirty minutes. We suggest you leave, as the dog will go through all sorts of contortions in an attempt to remove the tape. In half an hour return and remove the tape, repeating your command to be still. Leave once again and wait for the barking to start over, which it will; return and wrap the second piece of tape around the dog’s muzzle. With all but the most stubborn dogs, two treatments will train the dog to obey the command. A word of caution: do not use this technique in a hot environment since the dog, not able to pant to maintain a normal temperature, could develop heat exhaustion.
Leash Pulling. Another problem to correct with the discipline-with-no-reward method is that of a dog constantly pulling on the leash. This is an alternative way to the more normal methods and is not com-mended if you have tennis elbow or bursitis. Cut a sapling about eight feet long and remove all the leaves except those at the end. As you walk your pulling dog, lower the sapling so that the dog is walking into the leaves on the end. In a short time, most dogs will back off and walk withal slack leashes rather than constantly pull into the “bushes.”
Dog Training by Rote
To illustrate the training-by-rote method we will use the example of housebreaking a puppy. This requires a good deal of time, for a week or two, but the rewards are great. The puppy is to be housed in a crate or cage just large enough for it to curl up in. Place a folded blanket in the bottom as a bed. Take the puppy outside every few hours, and every few minutes after a meal, but when the puppy’s back in the house it should be in the cage when you don’t have the time to watch its every move. It is a rare puppy that will soil its bed, and once the habit of relieving itself outside is established most every puppy will remain housebroken for life. That puppies can hold out for long periods is exemplified by a six-week-old Gordon Setter we delivered to a friend. We drove eight hours through a blizzard with the puppy sleep-in in a box in the backseat. It slept all the way. Even puppies can hold out but usually, they won’t be bothered.
To test rote training, we selected a one-year-old Miniature Poodle that had had no training except leash breaking. On a cold, wet day chosen by choice, we walked the dog on a lawn and gave the command”sit” and gently pushed its hindquarters down until it was sitting. Then we walked the dog a dozen feet or so and repeated the performance. We continued this effort for almost an hour until suddenly when we said, “Sit,” the dog sat, and for the rest of its life, every time we gave the command, it sat.
The dog was taken from the kennel to our house sonic months later and it lived out its life as a house dog. Dogs avoid sitting on wet surfaces, but by our training this dog to sit on net grass would plop down anywhere anytime it was given the command. Of course, there was a reward associated with this training and that was for the dog to see that we were pleased. Most dogs try for a favorable reaction from a person they like.
Car Chasing. Chasing cars is an especially dangerous bad habit. An ancient method of stopping a dog from doing this is to hang a stick Mona rope or chain from the dog’s collar so that it dangles three-quarters of the distance to the ground. When the stick is balanced properly it becomes an encumbrance when the dog tries to run. Of course, the proper method is to the leash or pen a dog up in the first place.
Dog Training by Reward
With the reward method, a dog is never disciplined but rewarded only when it responds to your satisfaction. A reward may be offered either as affection or food; when the latter is given as a treat now and then, the dog accepts it as a form of affection. This method is used by many pet owners, and it requires patience of Job. We find it frustrating.
“I feed and walk our dog. I bathe and comb it and spend most every day with it and it likes my husband better than me. Why?” This observation is a common one, and the obvious answer must be that the husband probably disciplines the pet. The person who makes the dog toe the line is its master.
In our opinion, the need-reward method is the most effective one. The need created is for food. Most dogs are fed once daily so the training must take place twenty-four hours after the last feeding; for difficult trainees, thirty-six hours later.
Training to Come. Let’s say you want to train your dog to come when you call it. Tick the end of a twenty- or thirty-foot cord to its collar and take it outside. Use the same command each time with the same tone of voice, which is usually the word, “come.” Say “come” and pull the dog to you with the cord and offer it food as a reward. Being hungry, it will take the food with relish. Then walk on and when the dog is some distance from you, repeat the procedure. Repeat it a dozen times, which is enough for one session. Wait a few days and go through the same paces, and in a surprisingly short period, you will have conditioned it to come on command.
About the only time the no-reward method is used is to break an established bad habit. One example might be a dog that barks excessively when there is no good reason for it, such as an apartment dog that barks and doesn’t stop when you leave for work. Before the neighbors call the police, try this solution. Cut two ten-inch pieces of one-inch-wide adhesive tape from a roll and stick them on a convenient surface in the apartment. Leave, but wait where you can hear the dog start to bark, then return, sounding your choice of command perhaps “quiet” or “be still” that you will use later without the discipline.
Remove one piece of adhesive tape and wrap it around the dog’s muzzle and leave again for thirty minutes. We suggest you leave, as the dog will go through all sorts of contortions in an attempt to remove the tape. In half an hour return and remove the tape, repeating your command to be still. Leave once again and wait for the barking to start over, which it will; return and wrap the second piece of tape around the dog’s muzzle. With all but the most stubborn dogs, two treatments will train the dog to obey the command. A word of caution: do not use this technique in a hot environment since the dog, not able to pant to maintain a normal temperature, could develop heat exhaustion.
Leash Pulling. Another problem to correct with the discipline-with-no-reward method is that of a dog constantly pulling on the leash. This is an alternative way to the more normal methods and is not recommended if you have tennis elbow or bursitis. Cut a sapling about eight feet long and remove all the leaves except those at the end. As you walk your pulling dog, lower the sapling so that the dog is walking into the leaves on the end. In a short time, most dogs will back off and walk withal slack leashes rather than constantly pull into the “bushes.”
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