Dog Training Archives - FamilyDogFusion

Mar 31 2017

Can You Really Trust a Dog Trainer?

Hiring a dog trainer is one way to train your dog. The other way is to do it yourself.

Although there are benefits to both avenues, what you choose really depends on your purpose for buying the dog.

For examples of how different dog trainers approach your situation, listen to Discover Your Dog Ep 062 Common Everyday Mistakes Made by Owners and Trainers, with Sean McDaniel

Ask Yourself This Question

Is your dog going to work for you or be a part of the family? This is the only question that you need to answer before you can make the decision as to how to train your dog.

Yes, there are many people that have a dog that both lives with them AND has a job. In this case, the dog still needs to understand the importance of boundaries in that home.

If you answered that your dog is going to be a part of the family, then the only choice, in my opinion, is to have someone teach you to train your dog. This is the ‘do it yourself’ option.

I say having a professional trainer (or behaviorist) come to you is the best option for many reasons. How you choose a personal trainer is also important.

How to Hire a Trustworthy Dog Trainer

The process through which you choose a personal trainer should be no different than choosing anyone you may use for a professional service.

How would you go through the process of finding a babysitter or daycare for your child?
What would you do if you needed someone to clean your home or house sit?
Would you just jump on Craigslist and pick the first available?

No. When you are choosing someone to teach you how to train your dog, it should be someone you can work with and learn to trust. Everyone is different when it comes to how we view our dogs as part of the family. A trainer should be flexible, patient, and most of all, intuitive to the needs and abilities of your family.

Some of the benefits of having a trainer and learning to do the training yourself are: Attention to personal needs and preferences; A better and longer lasting bond; The pace of training is appropriate; and Questions are answered as they arise.

Mar 30 2017

How to Teach a Dog to Sit and Stay in Record Time

SIT is one of the most critical basic dog training commands. Use this deceptively simple routine to learn how to teach a dog to sit and stay in RECORD time.

For more information about teaching your dog to sit, listen to Discover Your Dog Episode 045: Dog Training Basic Commands: SIT

Most of the time I talk to a new client, I will tell them that I teach basic dog training commands:

Heel
Sit
Come
Down (which means lie down)
Place (which means go to a mat and lie down on it)

Very often I get the response, “My dog already knows sit.”

How Do You Know that Your Dog “Knows Sit”?

I will inquire about two things:

One, did you use a treat to get her to sit? And two, can you walk away and your dog hold the command?

Typically the answer is yes to the first part and no to the second part of the question.

Many times during a session, an owner will put their dog into a sit while I am instructing them. I will ask them to release the dog from the command, and then it becomes apparent: most people do NOT have a release command!

Also, the old school of thought is to put your dog into a sit/stay. This is when you really want your dog to hold the sit for a little longer so you ask her to stay as well.

Obedience is Your Dog’s Willingness to Obey

Think about this for a minute…

If you have to use a treat to get her to stay, is she being obedient?

If she can stop obeying whenever she wants, is she being obedient?

If she breaks command as soon as you walk away, is she being obedient?

Obedience is the willingness to obey.

If you give the sit command and can continue on with your business for over a minute, then your dog is being obedient. Treats constitute motivation and your dog will soon expect treats from you—this expectation is not “willingness to obey.”

So how do you teach your dog to sit obediently?

The Three Easy Steps To The Perfect Sit

With a leash on your dog, tell her to sit. Then, quickly and calmly put a hand on her chest and one hand one her rump and push her chest towards her tail while guiding her rump to the ground.

Using positive tones and words to reinforce the motion of sitting then when she relaxes, stop talking, release her, and stand up.
If she stays in the sit position, continue to praise her verbally (not physically at the beginning stages) for up to 10 seconds or more.
If she pops up, say the phrase, “All-Done” (This is the release command I use. Others say things like “Free,” “Free-Dog,” “You’re finished,” etc. The important thing is to be consistent.)

It is not important how long your dog holds the command when teaching sit.

The two most important lessons here are saying the command only and exactly one time, and letting your dog hear and learn the release command.

That is it! Simple enough.

Mar 17 2017

Prepare Your Dog for a Trip to the Vet

Taking your dog to the vet can be stressful for both you and your dog. The good news is, there are things you can do with your dog to make the regular vet visit an enjoyable experience.

Below, we will discuss many of the stress-causing elements of a veterinarian visit and give you some warm-ups you can do with your dog to help in each of the situations.

Help Your Dog Enjoy Riding in the Car

You will most likely have to put your dog in the car to take her to the vet. Before just throwing her into the car, practice with her getting into and out of the car. Let her relax with you in the car for short periods of time without starting the vehicle. Gradually increase the time and then start the car.

I also recommend that you create a designated area for your dog to be when riding. In SUVs, it is easy to designate the back area. In a car, the back seat is the safest place for your dog. If you insist on the front seat, make sure she knows to stay on the passenger side. Teach your dog to relax and enjoy the ride.

Get Your Dog Accustomed to People, Pets, and Places

That awful vet visit should never be awful. With practice and great socialization, you can make a visit to the vet’s office a pleasing event.

Start with going to different public places such as the pet store, Home Depot, and even your vet’s office when you don’t have an appointment.

Good practice for your dog would include:

Entering and exiting various places
Walking on different types of flooring
Experiencing different types of lighting
Sampling different levels of noise
Hanging out with crowds of different size

It is always a good idea to go when there could be other dogs around. Let others approach and pet your dog whenever possible. The mission here is to get your dog used to people, pets, and places.

Visit the Vet Before Your Appointment

The first visit can be very intimidating for a dog. As I mentioned above, I always suggest going to your veterinarian office on non-appointment days to introduce your dog to as many of the staff as possible. Most people never think about doing this with their dog. It is a simple practice that could avoid many stressful trips in the future. Getting your dog to know the people she will be seeing only two or three times a year is very forward-thinking.

Preparing Your Dog for the Veterinary Exam Itself

When playing with your dog, you can do some very simple things that can prepare her for what she will experience during an exam:

Rub her ears, stick your fingers in them (not to hard or far), and clean them every now and again, even if it is with a dry paper towel.
Play with her paws, stick your fingers between the pads, and check the nails. Clip her nails yourself when you can.
Belly rubs, roll her over, make her hold still on her back for short periods of time.
Pull her tail—not hard—just lift itand hold it until she relaxes.

Relax and Enjoy

These few things will go a long way toward helping you enjoy your experiences when having a visit with your veterinarian.

Oh, and think positive. If you stress over the visit, your dog will sense this and start to stress-out as well and not even know why.

Feb 05 2017

The 5 Types of Dog Aggression

Dog aggression can be categorized in 5 different areas:

Physiological
Reactive
Dominant
Protective
Fear

Through the process of explaining each different type of aggression, we will also talk about warning signs for you to look for with your new dog.

Your dog may show one or two signs of aggression early on, but the most significant time for your dog to show any behavioral signs is after 6 months. This is significant because it takes a dog about this long to learn you.

NUMBER 5 Dog Aggression: Physiological

Physiological Aggression is a medical issue, not behavioral. It has been called ‘Rage Syndrome’ in the past as well as other medical terms. This type of aggression is extremely rare. This aggressive action from a dog is totally understand predictable and can be totally out of character. You never know when the aggressive behavior will happen, why it happened, or to whom. A dog would show no remorse if punished, and there is no predictability to the level of aggression either.

There is no behavioral “fix” for this type of aggressive behavior. Make no mistake—most aggressive issues are behavioral and can be worked on. This one cannot.

When you have done everything you can to work on this aggression and yet your dog still does the behavior, you may be dealing with a physiological issue.

NUMBER 4 Dog Aggression: Reactive

Reactive Aggression is a behavioral that is much easier to recognize. Like physiological aggression, it is rare in the sense a dog will have to have many major traumas happening in its life. When a dog is in pain or in a frenetical behavior, this is the time to be very aware of how your dog is reacting to you.

In a pain situation, our human reaction is to sympathize and make the dog feel better. The pack reaction is to leave the weak behind or kill as a survival instinct. For this reason, a dogs survival instinct will kick in and can become very aggressive when approached. This is reactive. Your dog does not do this with any forethought or conscious decision making. Be aware.

With frenzied behavior, a dog is in it’s own mode of protection. In this situation no matter what you say or do, your dog will not pay attention to you. In this frenzied moment a dog is very likely to turn on its owner, another dog, or anything that gets in the way of the frenzy. Again, this is reactive. If you grab your dog, in this situation, expect him to bite you.

Typically in these situations, your dog is not showing signs of consistent or long-lasting aggression, but what you need to look for are extended periods where the trauma or catalyst for frenzy has long past and your dog still reacts the same way. The signs for future aggression comes only if your dog is in total recognition of the situation and still shows aggressive behavior. If this situation occurs, it is more likely because your dog has learned to behave this way through these traumatic situations.

NUMBER 3 Dog Aggression: Dominant

Dominant Aggression is a very rare form of behavioral aggression compared to the others we will talk about. In my 14 years of experience I have seen this type of aggressive behavior less than 3% of the time. In this case, a dog perceives that it can and should be the dominant of the pack. Typically you, as the dog’s family, are the pack. This means that your dog will show aggression at any moment she feels she can take that dominant role. This also means it is not a very good fit in most situations only because most of us, humans, are not really willing to fight for this role.

The size or breed of the dog does not matter. This is a pack mentality that could be derived from any number of situations. The dog:

May have had to fight for its role from the beginning of its life
May have tested for dominance early and found that it worked the majority of time
Is just wired to be the pack leader.

I have seen this behavior confused with NUMBER 5 many times and yet it is very different. The confusion comes, mainly, because we try to put human characteristics to this behavior. When your dog is in a situation that she should have to make a choice as to whether or not she should take a role as a dominant, she will challenge.

NUMBER 2 Dog Aggression: Protective

Protective Aggression is a form of the NUMBER 1 type of aggression. With protective aggression, you have to recognize it for what it is and deal with it accordingly. It is also a huge pack behavior and, depending on where your dog feels he is in your pack, this will determine the level of aggression your dog takes. Most people want their dog to have this type of behavior, and they expect their dog to control it at all times, regardless of whether or not he has had training.

It is much easier to recognize this behavior in most dogs because typically it is about protecting something:

A bone
Food
Other dogs
Kids
YOU

Your dog will protect these things, among many others. This aggression is usually seen as if it is out-of-the-blue. All of a sudden, your dog is being aggressive toward something she has and it seems she has not done this before.

There are warning signs and behaviors to look for. If your dog is one to bark at the window, fence, crate, car, etc. when other dogs or people go by, this is a form of protection. It is also a self-reinforced. In other words, as the dog outside the barrier passes and continues going on, your dog feels as if it did it’s job by chasing the other dog away.

Another warning sign would be if your dog avoids situations. For example, as a small child approaches a dog with food, the dog may drop the food, wander off, and continue to watch from a distance. As that child gets older, the dog may still do the same behavior with a low growl, or might even still stand over the object and let the child take it. If this dog does not have a consistent reminder of its place in the pack, it will soon defend that item aggressively.

NUMBER 1 Dog Aggression: Fear

Fear Aggression is the most common form of aggression in dogs. Fear aggression includes all other types of aggression except dominance aggression & psychological aggression. Territorial, protective, reactive, possessive, and any other name you can think of are all covered under fear aggression.

The reason I broke protective aggression out into its own type was because it has more to do with a dog learning to interact. Most of the other types of fear aggression stem from your dog’s personality. Dogs show two distinctive personality types: confident & fearful. The seems personalities are usually formed during the weaning process. It is very difficult to change a dog’s personality once it has been established.

I have heard this personality type called skittish, scared, and lacking in confidence, among other things and the one thing you can be assured of is if your dog has this type of personality, you will have to be very aware of how you handle the scary situations. As owners we have a tendency to sympathize and try to calm our dog. Then when the behavior becomes too much we can be overly assertive. Both off these reactions are only making the situation worse.

Warning signs from your dog are unnecessary, or overreacting, to new and different situations. She may run, she may bark, she may back away then lunge forward. When any of these warning signs happen you have to be very careful how you handle your reaction because most of the time you will be giving attention to the behavior and only reinforcing something much worse in the future.

For more specific practices, listen to our podcast, Discover Your Dog. Episode 074 The Freaked-Out, Insecure, Neurotic Dog.

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