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Scott Sanchez, Head Trainer
Rhonda Sanchez, Trainer
Leonard Letoto, Trainer
Licensed - Bonded - Insured
Tag Archives: Paia
How To Communicate With Your Dog
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While it can be argued that English is the common language used throughout the world among humans, such is not the case with our dogs. Not only does your dog not speak English, it does not speak any other verbal language either. Therefore, when we bring a new member into our family, the responsibility is on our shoulders to lay the foundation for healthy communication.
The purpose of this short article is to create a paradigm shift of our understanding in how we can best communicate with, and teach our dogs to produce desired results. To make it simple, consider that our dogs have the capacity to be multi-lingual. The following, but not limited to, can all be considered languages of communication, Body, Verbal, Food, Toy, Collar, Whistle and Leash. To attempt teaching, using all these languages at the same time, sets up confusion not only for the dog, but more importantly, the owner. At Sit Means Sit Hawaii, we initiate teaching communication without using any verbal commands. We use our body, integrating our SMS collar and then the leash as needed, to guide and create a desired physical movement. For most, this approach is counter intuitive, since generally folks assume the dogs speaks English, and then they start throwing out commands louder and faster, sending the dog into confusion all while yanking on the leash. The classic, “yell at the dog until he figures it out,” is the shortest route to confusion and the direct route to inconsistent compliance. This scenario is no different than someone yelling at you in a foreign language. Confusion and frustration show up quickly, followed by fear. This does not set a healthy stage for learning to take place for either you or your dog. Teaching your dog a skill starts with gaining your dog’s attention. With our Sit Means Sit program there is no yelling, screaming or otherwise “hissy fits” involved to get your dog to learn. We build a line of communication in a planned progressive protocol. The progression is based on each dog’s capacity to demonstrate a level of comprehension to pay attention to the owner. Once the dog understands what is expected to pay attention, then we begin with teaching a defined skill, followed by verbal marking. The initial skill set includes the commands “come” “sit” “place” and “free.” We can teach all these skills without a single word being spoken. Our deaf dog clients are the easiest to grasp this approach. By refreshing the importance of clear communication, it is our intention to shift your paradigm to the language of mutual understanding, so you can continue to teach your dog new skills. We would like to encourage all of you to check your communication style, and if need be, refresh your approach down to a whisper and go back to Sit Means Sit basics. Go ahead and dust off the place board, pull out the long leash and challenge yourself and your dog, to go through the corner stone drill of Come-Place-Free drill. Then progressively, add duration, distance and distractions, do all this to enhance your relationship and level of communication with your best four legged pal.
Sit Means Sit Hawai 808-283-DOGS http://www.sitmeanssithawaii.com
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Incorporating Treats/Food In Your Training
Treats/Food can be used to both shape behavior patterns and reward behavior patterns. When using treats to shape new skills, we use the food as a lure to create the movement pattern desired. Normally we break down the desired skill into progressive stages to instill a “success builds success” type of environment.
Once the dog has followed the lure through the initial stage of the movement pattern, food is then released to the dog. Then progressively, we connect the stages while delaying the release of the food until the entire skill is completed. It is important during the learning progressions that the food be released with predictability to the dog. When the skill has been completed 30-40 times in its entirety, the food can now take on the form of a reward.
Studies show that once the skill has been learned, that the speed of execution of the skill, can be better enhanced by random release of the food. This means, that there should not be any predictability in the dispensing of the food reward. This has been documented to increase the working drive AKA enthusiasm, of the dog to complete the skill on demand. Make sure, that you maintain the common goal, that your dog will learn to execute the skill without any food once it matures through it’s learning and proofing stages. Everybody has a dog that does tricks in the kitchen but only for a treat. Through proper balanced training, you and your dog will not only do tricks without food, but do them well outside the boundaries of your home.
Scott Sanchez
Sit Means Sit Hawaii
808-283-DOGS
http://www.sitmeanssithawaii.com
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Tagged 96706, 96779, Aggressive dogs, Dog Trainer, Dog training, Ewa Beach, Leonard Letoto, maui, Oahu, Paia, Rhonda Sanchez, Scott Sanchez, Sit Means Sit Hawaii
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House Breaking Your Puppy or Dog
Believe it or not, house training is one of the easiest things to teach a dog because dogs are clean by nature and don’t like to soil their den area. Using this concept, begin by always supervising your puppy when he/she is not in her den-crate environment. The largest reason people fail with house training is that they give the puppy more freedom than the pup or dog is capable of handling. An un-supervised pup or dog is bound to make mistakes.
Use a Crate to Replicate the Den
If you can utilize a crate to replicate the “den” environment that dogs need and feel secure in it will shorthand the process. If the puppy or dog is given the opportunity to get out of his crate when necessary, it can aid your house training efforts enormously. As the puppy is let out from the dog crate, take him out on a leash to the spot you will want him to eliminate. If he goes, praise him. If not, put him back into his crate and try again in about 15 minutes or so. Continue with this cycle until you and your dog have a routine going. Success earns the pup freedom for twenty minutes or so. Gradually extend the time as he grows older and more reliable. Remember a seven-week-old pup does not have a great deal of bladder control. Don’t expect him to go more than a few hours without having to eliminate, and don’t expect him to wait once he is out of his crate to eliminate.
Use an Elimination Word
Begin the first time you take your puppy out to give a word to associate elimination with. In the beginning the puppy won’t understand the word, but if each time you take him out you say to your puppy, “hurry up”, or “go potty” and continue to repeat the phrase until he goes, praising when it happens, your puppy will learn to associate these words with the action. Later when traveling or out in public it can be a cue word to get your dog to relieve himself in quick time, without having to wait in the scorching sun, or freezing rain.
All-in-One Management System
An even easier system for house training is using a crate with a dog door and an enclosed dog run on the other side of the dog door. The dog crate goes up to the dog door. The dog door in the beginning may need to be taped or otherwise rigged up so the puppy can comfortably go through the dog door. The outside of the dog crate should be enclosed somehow to prevent the puppy from getting into any harm, or harm finding him!
Supervise your Pup or New Dog
When the pup isn’t in his crate, you have to use constant supervision to keep him from making mistakes. The easiest way to do this is to literally tie or tether the pup to your waist with a leash or line, or tether him to a piece of furniture where he has no more than three feet of freedom in any direction. Remember that a pup tethered to furniture should be watched carefully or he may chew it. Crating, supervising and tethering are examples of a management system used to support the dog until he is trained. With the crate set up to the dog door system, your puppy learns quickly to let himself out of his containment area to relieve himself. It also helps him develop some independence from always having you to hold his hand, thus increasing the need for the puppy to feel that he needs someone to take him out, he can’t possibly go by himself.
Preventing Separation – Anxiety
Because dogs are inherently pack animals, they prefer to be with us, than be alone. Most cases of adult “separation- anxiety” would never develop if the dog as a puppy had been trained in the crate/dog- door/dog -run management system just described. Early on the puppy would learn to deal with being alone and without the opportunity to dig, chew or destroy things left available. One important thing to consider with this system is that when you first let your puppy out of his crate you would still want to take your dog immediately to the outside area you are encouraging him to go relieve himself in. Even though your crate has access to the outside, puppy may have been resting and not recently “emptied out.” It won’t take much movement on the dogs part to feel the strong urge or need to “go.” We don’t want mistakes that could have been prevented. These are some of the first essentials for a good start with your new puppy. Enjoy him and give him a good start with safe and secure boundaries in your home!
All three dogs are Sit Means Sit trained dogs. They are trained to do fun things which help us educate the public. “Stuff” Sit Means Sit Phoenix, Toni Drugmand “Beck” Sit Means Sit Denver, Dave Skoletsky “Sonic” Sit Means Sit Atlanta, Darin Shepherd
By Fred Hassen & Toni Drugmand
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What Do You Think About Pit Bulls?
Sit Means Sit Hawaii 808-283-DOGS http://www.sitmeanssithawaii.com
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Keeping It Neutral
One of the hardest concepts for any of us to grasp is that our Sit Means Sit collar is a “neutral” training aid. What this means is we de-emphasize the presence of the SMS collar to the dog while still utilizing it during training. But why is this so important?
The goal of most dog obedience programs is to
build the relationship with your dog to the point where training aids are no longer needed. Eventually, your dog will respond to your commands (verbal or otherwise) because of the bond that was created through the progression of the training exercises performed in conjunction with the trainer’s communication aid of choice. These aids need to be looked at as only a part of the training regimen; the aids are not the regimen. To use an analogy:
When I was first learning how to ride a bicycle, I rode one that had training wheels. During the learning process, however, the training wheels were never really emphasized. The principles that were stressed to me were safety, balance, turning and the rules of the road. As a result, when the training wheels were removed, I barely noticed that they were gone as I rode around enjoying my new found mobility. In my mind, they had never been a large factor in learning to ride so I never gave it a second thought when they weren’t there anymore. Now imagine if my father had made a big deal of the fact that the bicycle on which I was learning had training wheels. I’d probably look for them every time I got on the bicycle and I might have been too scared to ride without them.
Now take this same thought process and apply it to training our dogs with the SMS collar and its role in the learning process. If we make a big fuss about putting on the collar and purposely display the remote to the dog every time we use it, we would be setting ourselves up (along with our dogs) to fall into a trap. With the press of a button we are able to communicate with the dog at both short and long range distances. The delivery of this communication does not require overt gesturing with the remote or your body. I’ve personally witnessed a few incidents in which the remote was pointed at the dog much like one points the remote control at the television when changing channels. Doing this presents a visual picture that is more complicated , unnecessary and can be detrimental to the training process and its results.
INCORRECT CORRECT
When used properly, the SMS collar teaches the dog to listen to the owner by increasing the dog’s focus on its owner’s commands, not the tap or presence of the SMS collar. When the SMS collar is implemented correctly, in concert with keeping the training exercises at the forefront, you will find that the SMS collar blends into the foundation of your relationship with your dog. Additionally, we always emphasize the value of repetition to our clients and advocate using the SMS Collar consistently for a period of 12 weeks. This volume of repetition behind you allows the language of our Sit Means Sit program to solidify in a way that produces comprehension of your commands in almost any situation. The outcome is a happy, obedient dog that listens to you anywhere, anytime!
Leonard Letoto
Sit Means Sit Hawaii
283 3647 (DOGS)
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Tagged 96706, 96779, Aggressive dogs, Dog Trainer, Dog training, Ewa Beach, Leonard Letoto, maui, Oahu, Paia, Rhonda Sanchez, Scott Sanchez, Sit Means Sit Hawaii
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“Place” Your Dog When It’s Time To Put The Collar On
When our dogs see us first thing in the morning, they are very excited! This state of mind can make putting the collar on a challenge. The first thing we do is “place” them, to help calm them down, and keep them still so we can fasten the collar correctly. When the dog is on “place” they are calmed and focused, allowing us to make sure the collars are fitted properly, and most importantly, turned on. Our dogs know once the collars are on, that play time is just around the corner. So as soon as your collar is on, go straight into play time, and then a little normal obedience, to maintain a healthy and balanced relationship between owner/handler and dog.
If you need any assistance, please call us right away so we can be of immediate help: 283-DOGS
Scott Sanchez
Sit Means Sit Hawaii
283 DOGS
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The Feeding Ritual
Dogs thrive with structured routines. We aim to have a balance of structure, exercise and fun from the moment we wake up with our dogs, until we put them to bed.
Our morning feeding ritual includes a bit of structured game play, (meaning we control the game and intensity) exercise and obedience work just before meal time. We have a total of a fifteen minute feeding ritual. We start by letting the dogs out and engaging in controlled playtime for about 45 seconds to a minute with a toy such as a tug. We then move them straight outside to do their business. Next we send them onto the treadmill for 8-10 minutes of easy walking at a pace between 2.7 and 3.4 miles per hour, depending on the dog. With this completed and their food bowls ready, we do 3-5 simple obedience skills with each dog and then feed them.
This little ritual has proven over time to be calming and fun for all for of us. It is important to mix the toys and games up, as well as the obedience skills and the location of these activities. Doing this always presents a different picture to the dog and challenges the level of comprehension. While they might snap into a left side heel position with the food bowl in your left hand, they might be confused when you tell them to heel and hold the food bowl in your right hand. It’s all part of the fun of learning.
Scott Sanchez
Sit Means Sit Hawaii
283 DOGS
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Brushing Your Dog’s Teeth
Regular brushing of your dog’s teeth can reduce the accumulation of plaque and development of tartar, reducing the risk of periodontal disease and keep your dogs breath nice and fresh. Once your dog becomes accustomed to having its teeth brushed, we recommend brushing every five-six weeks.
If your dog is uncomfortable with you sticking objects in its mouth, start with your finger. Dab your finger in some peanut butter so it associates this as being a pleasant experience. When you are ready to introduce brushing, we use real lime juice as the “cleaning agent.”
Approach your dog from the side, not face to face. Kneel next to larger dogs. With a small dog, set it on your lap with its face away from you and its hind end against your stomach. Reassure and praise your dog before, during and after the brushing. Go slow and gradually build up to brushing all the teeth and gums.
Brushings should consist of gentle short, up and down motions in small, circular patterns. We begin at the back and work forward, brushing the upper and lower, inner and outer surfaces of the teeth. Pick a time when you and your dog are relaxed to begin this gentle process of cleaning your dog’s teeth. Happy Brushings!
Rhonda Sanchez
Sit Means Sit Hawaii
283 DOGS
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Tagged 96779, Brushing, Cienna, Dogs, German Shepherd, GSD, Paia, Rhonda Sanchez, Scott Sanchez, Sit Means Sit Hawaii, Teeth
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