3 Keys to Successful Dog Training

For questions call Sit Means Sit Madison at
608-561-3647

Timing

Timing means that if your dog does something it is not supposed to do-
such as jumping on you or digging in the trash or even pottying in the
house, you need to make sure you catch them in the act of doing so. If
you don’t ,they do not know they have done something wrong. So it is up to us
to make sure we are watching our dogs until we know that they are
completely trustworthy. It also means that we need to praise or
reward our dog when they do something correct. It needs
to be instant gratification ,meaning you need to make sure that you give your dog a
reward or praise as soon as they give you what you want. I go by a 3 to
5 second rule -praise or fix the problem within 3 to 5 seconds of your
dog doing right or wrong so that they understand what it is that you’re communicating
with them.

Consistency

Consistency in a nutshell is making sure we are consistent with our
dog in every instance. Dogs are situational learners, what that means
is if we tell our dogs to sit in the house where there’s no
distraction and they sit that’s good. Now if we take them out to the
park and we tell them to sit and instead ,they lay down or they walk off or
whatever ,they learn they don’t have to listen to you in that
situation. You have to make sure you are consistent every where you
go. As well as in every situation.
So here is an example of what I see that happens with clients at times.
They told her dog to get in the vehicle and then they tell the dog to sit.
The dog sits ,they close the door ,the dog gets up ,the client gets in
the car and starts to drive away. That just showed the dog they don’t
have to listen always because they never told the dog to get up. So
the dog again just learned that it is situational obedience, which is
confusing the dog. So being aware of our dog and what command we put
them in is vital to dog training success

Motivation

If you think about it ,most dogs want to please their owner ,however
when there are distractions ,what is their motivating factor? It ‘s not you
and doing everything you asked them to do, it’s about the distraction,
such as a deer running through the yard or seeing another dog or seeing a
new person, so on and so forth. So in dog training we have to
make sure that our command is more valuable than the distraction. And
that comes through teaching the dog how to filter out the distraction
because there is something in it for them. But even that in a nutshell
our dogs need to listen regardless.
Think about something that you love to do, wouldn’t it be great if you
got paid to do that??
Now think about that in terms of dog training. Our dogs need a
paycheck but it needs to be of value. If you take for instance my dog-
he is not very food motivated, so I’m not going to use food when it’s
a high distraction environment to give him the reward because it won’t
matter to him. So I would use a toy or praise because a toy for him is
his highest level of motivation so I have to use what is appropriate
for each individual dog, to make sure that there is the proper
motivation for that dog.

For questions call Sit Means Sit Madison at
608-561-3647 and contact us today. Choose Sit Means Sit for the best dog and puppy training in Madison.