dog training games Archives - Page 7 of 13

Teaching your dog to fish

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” We’ve all heard the saying, although no one seems to know its origins. The point is valid, though. What you’re doing with 2-Minute Training is teaching your dog to fish.

Giving a man a single fish is certainly fast and effective. It solves the immediate problem. Teaching someone to fish takes a lot longer and requires more effort by both parties. But it’s a forever solution to the problem. When it comes to dog training, you have the additional barrier of communication. You can tell a person how to do something. If they have questions, they’ll ask. It’s less clear with dogs.

Making your choice

A specific example most dog owners can relate to: when somebody enters your home, the dog jumps on them to say “Hello.”

Single fish answer: Every time someone comes over, you grab your dog’s collar and prevent the jumping. Or tell your dog “Off!” every time they jump.

Fishing answer: Teaching your dog a greeting behavior that’s triggered by a knock or the sound of the doorbell.

It takes longer and requires more effort to teach the “fishing” answer. It always will. But once learned, it’s there forever and you won’t have to dread the chaos when the doorbell rings.

Pick your battles

Every dog owner has his/her own rules of the house for the dog. Some people don’t want their dogs on furniture. Others don’t want their dogs sleeping on their beds. We know people who don’t want their dogs to precede them through doorways. Everyone chooses what’s most important to them.

Whatever rules you choose as absolutes for your dog, it’s worth taking the time to transform into a training game. Spend a few minutes to break down the behavior. What are the smallest nuggets you can teach your dog?

For instance

If it’s staying off the couch, think about what happens when your dog jumps up on it now. Does it always happen when you’re already sitting there? Does your dog rock back before jumping up? How can you interrupt the action and turn it into something else?

If you’d like your dog to settle in their own bed instead of up on the couch, make sure that bed is in the dog’s path to the couch. When you see your dog getting ready to jump up, they must step on the dog bed first. Use your “place” game and toss a treat into the dog’s bed.

Your dog, your rules

Focus on teaching your dog rules that matter every day. There are some dogs who resist putting on a collar or harness. That’s something that comes into play all the time. It’s worth breaking that down into small pieces:

look at the collar (click & treat)
sniff the collar while you’re holding it (c&t)
touch the collar (c&t)
allow the collar to touch their neck (c&t)
put the collar on (c&t)

Our lives got easier when we taught each of our dogs this simple behavior. They used to get excited and run around like hooligans when we reached for collar and leash. Now they all get excited, run over to us and stay still while we clasp their collars. It’s a small thing but useful many times a day. It was worth it to teach our dogs to fish.

Dogs need your feedback

Do you talk to your dog? If not, why not? Dogs need your feedback especially when you’re playing training games, but other times, too.

Consider this dialog:
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: Tuesday?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: The seventh?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student:…..

Even if all of the student’s answers are right, by persisting with the same question without feedback, the trainer is causing doubt and frustration. If your dog is struggling to understand what you want, it’s not the dog’s fault. Your role is to encourage your dog to keep trying, offering feedback to keep them in the game. And find a way to clear up any confusion. We’ve encouraged you to talk to your dogs for years, and still our classes can be much too quiet.

Dogs want to play with you

It’s perfectly understandable that you don’t want to look foolish in public. But consider: do you look sillier with high-energy dog training with a responsive, engaged dog? Or with a low-key public session where your dog ignores you?

One of the phrases our students hear most often and are probably sick of is “Be more fun! Be more interesting!” In all honesty, your dog shouldn’t find anything or anybody more interesting than you. You should be your dog’s focal point, because they have more fun with you than anything else on the planet.

When you’re more animated, more enthused, and more focused for those 2-Minute sessions, your dog will be, too. If your dog doesn’t understand what you want, increase your feedback, don’t eliminate it! Give your dog encouragement: “You can do it, I know you can!” “Try something else, buddy. That wasn’t it, but I know you can get there!”

If your dog doesn’t hear good, positive feedback from you – what motivation do they have to keep trying?

Stay engaged

If you’re not feeling it on a particular day, don’t train. It’s really that easy. The session wouldn’t be productive anyway, so just don’t bother. You don’t want to get aggravated, you don’t want to frustrate your dog. So give it a bye. If your mood changes later that day, that’s when you give your dog a couple of minutes. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too.

One of the complaints we hear about people’s dogs is that the dogs are more interested in “stuff” in their environment than in their people. It’s not the dog’s job to find you interesting. It’s your job to be interesting to your dog. That doesn’t mean putting on a show. It means paying attention to your dog, not your phone, when you’re out for a walk. And when your dog spots something interesting, engage with them! If it’s something you’d rather they not focus on, redirect their attention with a game or a toy or conversation. If it’s something worth checking out – go do that and be part of the exploration.

That’s the key. Be a part of everything your dog does. Interact, talk to them. Let them know they’re not just a “thing” you take out and play with when it’s convenient. Dogs need your feedback. The more you let your dog know they matter to you, the more you’ll matter to your dog.

Get your dog to stop pulling

Dogs love routine. Dogs love patterns. You can take advantage of this, and cure your dog’s pulling on leash, with 3-step Pattern Walking. It’s a great way to get your dog to stop pulling.

3-step Pattern Walking is easy to learn for both you and your dog. The key aspect is to be absolutely reliable in your treat delivery. Never lie to your dog. If Phydeaux hears the magic word, even if you say it accidentally, Phydeaux gets a treat.

Get started

Pick a three-word phrase you can remember easily. It can be anything you choose – it will only have meaning for you and your dog. One-Two-Three. Do-Re-Mi. A-B-C. Wa’-Cha’-Wej. Whatever you like is fine.

Get a handful of treats and start teaching your dog your pattern words. Say the third word in your sequence and give your dog a treat. Five times. Just the third word and a treat. Your dog doesn’t have to do anything. You’re just familiarizing him/her with the idea that every single time they hear that particular word, they get a treat. That’s your magic word for your dog.

It bears repeating: Every single time you say the third word in your sequence, your dog gets a treat. Even if they’re not paying attention, even if they’re howling at the moon. If they hear that word, they get a treat. A really good treat – top tier nummies.

Next step is to say the last two words in your sequence. When you say the third word, give your dog a treat. You’re teaching your dog the pattern that leads to the golden ticket – your third word. Repeat five times.

Obviously, the next part is to say all three words and give your dog a treat when you say the third word. Repeat five times.

Dogs are smart

Most dogs catch on pretty darn quick. Getting 15 treats after hearing a single word is a powerful signal that it’s a wonderful word to hear. It’s pretty amazing watching them figuring it out.

How does this turn into loose-leash walking? How does this get your dog to stop pulling? By adding movement to your three-word sequence. One step for each word, reward on the third word. Every single time.

Remember that dogs learn by the timing and placement of rewards. For Pattern Walking, that means keeping the reward close to you. If you want a traditional “heel” position, hold the reward by your left thigh.

What if your dog is ahead of you or behind you? It doesn’t matter. Keep the reward where you want your dog to be. You’re showing your dog exactly where he/she needs to be to get the treat.

Stretch it out

As your dog learns the pattern and gets better at staying close, you can stretch out the sequence. Maybe say two steps between each of the three cue words. Pay close attention to your dog’s reaction. If your dog is staying with you, add more steps. If they’re wandering off, or starting to pull, keep the sequence a little tighter.

Most dogs catch on to Pattern Walking quickly. If your dog is still pulling, stop when you say the third word and wait for your dog to come back to you to give the reward. Don’t reach to give the reward – let your dog come back into position.

Don’t ruin your word

If you run out of treats, or forget them on an outing, stop using the three-word sequence. For it to remain valuable, you have to deliver a treat every time you say the third word. Failing to deliver on the promise will lessen, or eliminate, the value of the word. Reliably delivering on the promise you make to your dog will cement the behavior you want.

Whisper to your dog

There’s a person on this planet who claims an ability to “whisper” to dogs. Nonsense. This tip has nothing to do with that person’s outdated, cruel, made-for-video dog harassment. We’re sorry that a perfectly lovely, onomatopoeic word has been corrupted. Because we do, in fact, want you to whisper to your dog.

Quite serendipitously, we learned this week how useful it can be. In an otherwise horrible, terrible, very bad week (both sisters down-for-the-count with Covid), it was the brightest discovery. We had no voices, no “Mom voice,” no audible authority. So we whispered to our dogs. And they listened.

A wonderful, quiet surprise

Understand that a significant part of dog training, for us, has been about the volume. Public spaces tend to be noisy. Dog training classes always start out noisy. Dog shows are super noisy, especially if a performance event is held in conjunction with a conformation show, which is often the case. Added to the crowd sounds, dogs barking, loudspeaker announcements, catering, are blow-dryers. Not a good place to hear yourself think.

So we’ve always given our dogs short, easy-to-yell names. Our students might argue differently, but we’re not, by nature, loud people. We’ve never been “hushed” by a librarian in our lives. And we’ve spent a lot of time in libraries. It’s taken years for us to shed the polite volume of conversation for the projection teaching demands. But it’s important, so we do it.

Along the way, we may have become louder with our own dogs. Even harsh-sounding at times. Which is odd to listen to, because every time we play training games with our dogs, the overwhelming emotion is joy. This loving, lovable being wants to play with me!

So we whisper to our dogs

We’ve often said that the best part of every day is the time we get to play training games with our dogs. Those couple of minutes when you’re in sync and having fun set the whole day off right. We always say, “Tell your dog everything,” so we weren’t quite sure how it would go the day we woke up with super-low, no-volume voices. We whispered because there was nothing else to do.

So we tried it. And the dogs loved it. They listened harder to make sure they didn’t miss anything. We even got the cutest head tilt from Booker (he’s the only one who actually does it). Their focus was intense. It was wildly successful.

That’s not to say it’s always going to work that way. Just like anything else, if you do it all the time, it’s no longer interestingly different. Then it’s just another routine. But every once in a while, it’s worth trying. Maybe if you’re having a hard time getting your dog’s attention. Or if they seem distracted or a bit “off” that day.

Old memories bring smiles

It actually reminded us of our mother. When we were growing up, she rarely, if ever yelled. Instead, if she wanted us to stop fighting, or pay attention, she whispered. We know of some parents who go so far as to just pretend they’re talking.

Try it! When you whisper to your dog, it’s a pretty effective way to get your dog (or your kids!) to be quiet and listen, instead.

Dog Trainers Talk To Aliens

If aliens ever really show up on Earth, the most in-demand people will be animal trainers. Think about it. Who else makes a regular practice of clearly communicating with another species? Dog trainers talk to aliens all the time. It’s what we do..

Granted, the shoe would be on the other foot. If an alien species gets here, they’ll clearly be far ahead of us in terms of technology, if not intelligence. Although, since they’ve probably cracked faster-than-light travel, and we haven’t, they’ve probably got us there, too.

But assuming we don’t have Star Trek’s Universal Translator by then, who’s most familiar with trying to figure out what non-humans are trying to communicate? It’s animal trainers in general. And maybe dog trainers specifically.

No one else has a better understanding of what it takes to clearly communicate with an alien species. In the thousands of years dogs have thrown in their lot with humans, they still haven’t developed the anatomy to speak our languages.

Communicating clearly

So how can people communicate clearly with dogs? By understanding how dogs learn and making use of that knowledge. Dogs are actually pretty straightforward:

Dogs always do what’s most rewarding to them.
Dogs learn by the timing and placement of rewards.
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
And, for unknown reasons that we’re profoundly grateful for, dogs really do want their people to be happy.

Timing is key

One of the best things you can do to clarify things for your dog is to work on your timing. That’s one of the reasons we advocate using a clicker. If your finger’s on the clicker button while your eyes are on your dog, you’ll hit that button as soon as you see something you like. Taking the time to think about it, travel from your eyes to your brain to your mouth to say “Good Whatever!” may not be as instantaneous. Your message to your dog may get muddied. Especially if your dog, like ours, is extremely active and busy.

You can see a clear demonstration of this in our video “Booker learning to “Push!” Like all the Boston Terriers we’ve known, Booker uses his paws a lot. For this game, the objective was to have him use his nose or muzzle to “Push!” the bowl. It’s the beginning of an idea we have for a “hockey” game for our dogs.

In the video, Fran’s eyes are glued on Booker’s interaction with the bowl. The clicker is in her hand, ready to go. As soon as he swaps using his paws for his nose, he hears the click and gets a reward. Because we’re human and we tend to talk to our dogs, Fran also says “Yes!” when she sees it. That’s okay. He knows he’s good and he repeats the action that got him the “click” and reward.

Crystal clear

Also notice where Fran rewards Booker in this sequence. She doesn’t pull him away from the game. She brings the reward to the “thing” he’s supposed to be focusing on. And it works. Booker knows that the bowl is the object of the game. He doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to do with it yet, but that’s okay. It’s a process.

Good timing and reward placement are key to bridging the communications gap between you and your dog. You’re never going to be able to speak “dog.” And your dog will never speak English. But you can still understand each other. Let’s hope the aliens are patient with us, as we are with our dogs.

Dog Training “D’s” aren’t grades

D is for dog. It’s also for the three things that can torpedo any behavior, trick, or exercise. The three dog training “d’s” are Distance, Duration, and Distraction.

You need all three if you want to be successful in any dog sport or performance event. They matter for household obedience, too. But you can’t “work” on all of them at once. Pick one at a time. There are games you can play for each one, but only one per 2-Minute session.

Distance is hard

If you’re teaching your dog “Stay!” the three “d’s” are crucial components of the behavior. Whether you’re letting the plumber in the house, carrying a pasta pot, or hosting Great Aunt Gertrude for afternoon tea, there are times you’d appreciate it if your dog would just not move. A reliable “Stay!” is worth the effort it takes to achieve.

Don’t ever consider a “Stay!” anything but hard work. The last thing most dogs want is to sit back and observe. They want to be part of the action, in the thick of it. To teach your dog to “Stay!” choose a spot that’s very quiet, away from any commotion. If there’s no such thing, pick a place where the dog can see what’s going on without moving.

You can work on the distance “D” by having your dog sit in the middle of a room so that you can move all the way around them. Tell them to stay and start moving. Picture your dog as the hub of a wheel, and you move back and forth between the hub and the rim – be the spokes. Vary the distance you move every time – sometimes take a single step, middle distance, as far as you can get. Then go directly back to your dog and reward them for staying every time you finish a “spoke.” Move at an even pace, but keep moving all the time.

If your dog gets up, or lies down, don’t fix it. Use your non-reward marker and move your dog to a different position and start over. Out and back to your dog. Make it speedy at first. You can slow down your motion as your dog becomes more familiar with the exercise and starts to understand what’s expected. The faster you move, the more times you get back to your dog, the more rewards your dog gets for staying in place.

Duration is harder

When you work on the duration aspect of the stay, don’t leave your dog. Stand there right next to, or in front of, your dog. The first time you practice “duration” keep the reward rate high and steady. Try not to test the limits of your dog’s patience at first. Watch your dog for signs of movement, as mentioned in teaching the “Stay!,” the only things the dog’s allowed to move are his/her head or tail. Any paw movement isn’t a “Stay!” If you see it, start over again in a different spot. You don’t have to move far, but you should reset and try again.

You may find that your dog thinks they’re finished as soon as they get a treat. This is “one and done” syndrome and it’s fairly common. The fix is to have a second reward ready to pop into your dog’s mouth as soon as they swallow the first one.

Because of the many, many treats dogs can consume for this exercise, it’s a good one for hand-feeding a meal, or a portion of a meal. Another “kitchen game” to play with your dog.

As your dog starts to understand, increase the interval between rewards, and practice the “Stay!” in all positions – Sit, Stand, and Down.

Distraction is hardest of all

When we first started training in Obedience, one of our instructors took distraction to the maximum. With the dogs at one side of the room, and the handlers at the other, she would send a moving toy down the middle, between the dogs and handlers. The radio-controlled car, the toy monkey with cymbals, and the walking elephant toy were favorites. The most difficult for the dogs was the tennis ball she rolled down the center.

Those are all extreme distractions, not to be used until your dog is well-versed in the “Stay!” At first you can ask someone to bang a pot in the other room. Or call your phone. If there’s no one else around, you can turn up your phone’s volume and play any sound you think your dog would find distracting. A doorbell sound is the bane of many a dog owner – whether it’s in real life or on TV.

Put the Ds together

When your dog is doing okay in each of the three “D’s” – put them together. As long as your dog is showing you they know what’s expected of them, gradually increase the difficulty of the exercise. In the Canine Good Citizen test, the most difficult part for the dog is staying with a stranger while their person leaves the room. Technically, the dog doesn’t have to “Stay!” – they just have to be calm and not fuss too much. Teaching your dog the three “D’s” will help.

Think about those “D’s” whenever you’re training your dog. Does your dog “Sit!” from across the room? Can she maintain a “Stand!” for the length of a veterinary visit? Will your dog ignore the bicyclist zooming by on your walk? These are all situations that use those “D’s.”

Dog Bowling Game

The Dog Bowling Game came together from two separate bits of life. The first was another trainer who always called Hope’s French Bulldogs “Bowling Ball.” The other part was Torque’s love of knocking things over. It’s a match made in heaven.

Our game is contrary to the maze videos where pets wind their way through a forest of bottles they’re not supposed to knock down. The objective is to knock them all down, just like a real bowling game.

Where to start

We went all out (on the cheap) and got a toy bowling set. It’s not very expensive, and it’s fun for video. But the “real” thing isn’t necessary. You can certainly start with any empty plastic bottle. There’s a possibility that your dog may put holes in the bottle, so start with an empty.

Before you start playing, decide what your criteria will be for the eventual, complete game. Do you want your dog to knock over the bottles with their nose, paws, or you don’t care? How about the order? Do you want your dog to aim for a showy 7 / 10 split, or you don’t care?

We don’t care: Torque can knock down the pins in any order with any portion of his body. In most of our dog bowling game videos, you’ll see that some of the pins topple when he swipes by with his butt. That’s okay with us, we really don’t care.

After you’ve decided the shape of your Dog Bowling Game, have at it. Be ready with your clicker, your treats, and your empty bottle. Put the bottle down in front of your dog. Stare at the bottle. If your dog is puzzled at first, it’s understandable. Chances are throughout their life, you’ve told them to leave alone any bottles on the floor.

Patience is the key

Just be patient and wait. Any interaction your dog has with the bottle gets a “Click!” and reward. The steps for most dogs will look something like:

Look at the bottle.

Sniff the bottle.

Swipe at the bottle.

For each step your dog achieves, “Click and Reward” three to five times. Then wait for them to try something else. For each training session, you may have to go backwards before you move ahead. It takes a while for behaviors to solidify.

If your dog is like most, they won’t believe how easy and fun this game is. Most dogs love batting stuff around and chasing it. That’s going to be the challenging part. When your dog is running up to that bottle to bash it over, it’s time to add more bottles to the game.

When your dog chases the first rolling bottle around rather than staying with you to continue playing, just ignore it. Turn your back on the dog playing with the bottle and stare at the second bottle. Bend over and admire it up close. Your complete lack of interest in what your dog is doing, and obsession with the other bottle, should motivate your dog to come over and see what you’re so fascinated by. If/when this happens, celebrate! Your dog chose playing with you over getting their jollies by themselves. And remember, what gets rewarded gets repeated. Reward heavily, loudly, and often for decisions you like.

Keep adding on

Keep adding bottles until you’ve reached the number you want to keep in the game. Standard bowling is 10, but you can use as many or as few as you like. Your own patience and the space you have available will determine the answer. Remember that you’re the one who has to reset all those “bowling pins” when you play.

Unless, like Hope, you teach your dog to put away the pins when your dog is done with the game. The problem with that – Torque cronches the plastic pins and Hope has to spend just as much time unsquishing them.

Train your dog to stay

Does your dog “Stay!”? Can you walk around your dog? Most people assume they can and don’t expect any problems with it. Most people would be wrong. But you can train your dog to “Stay!” and take it to the next level with the “Walk Around.”

If you tell your dog to “Sit!, Stay!” and try to walk around her, if she’s like most dogs she’ll either get up when you move or swivel on her butt to follow your motion. Few dogs can stand the idea that they can’t see you and what you’re doing.

When we introduce this in our dog training classes, people kind of say “Huh, that’s interesting. I never noticed before.” But they don’t really see the need to teach their dogs to stay in place. Having tripped over numerous dogs over the years, especially in the kitchen, we know it’s a useful skill to have. Especially when you’re trying to carry a pasta pot from the stove to the sink to drain.

“Stay!” with benefits

The foundation for being able to walk around your dog is the “Stay!” And the key to teaching your dog to “Stay!” is setting the rules and sticking to them. Remember that dogs are binary creatures – off/on, yes/no, black/white. There are no shades of gray, no understanding of “maybe.”

To teach your dog to stay, you must decide what “Stay!” looks like. For us, that means only the dog’s head or tail moves. Paws do not move. Not an inch, not an iota. We stay laser-focused looking at their paws and haunches. As you practice “Stay!” you’ll start to recognize the signs that your dog is about to move. Drag out your non-reward marker and prevent it. Or, if you’re too late and your dog’s already in motion, just start over.

Don’t fix anything in dog training. Ever. The “fix” becomes part of the routine that surrounds whatever it is that you’re doing. If you want your dog to “Stay!” for 30 seconds and they get up at 22 seconds, start again, don’t try to continue where you were. It’s busted, start over. Otherwise, your dog will accept that you rushing over, adjusting them, and leaving again is a normal part of “Stay!” And that’s what they’ll do, because it’s just another mystifying thing you play together.

Remember your dog doesn’t care about any of the games, exercises, behaviors, or dog sports. Your dog only cares about playing with you, and being happy together. They do the “stuff” because we ask them to and it’s fun. From a dog’s point of view, they’d just as soon roll around in a trash pile with you as be your obedience competition partner. As long as it’s fun, and they’re with you, they like doing it.

Teaching “Stay!”

With your dog sitting in front of you, hold a treat at about your eye level and slowly and steadily bring it down to your dog’s mouth. If your dog doesn’t move any part of their body other than head or tail, give them the treat when you get there. Immediately start again with another treat at your eye level. If your dog moved, jerk the treat back up to eye level and start over.

If your dog is having a really hard time staying, move the treat towards them faster. You can slow it down as your dog learns the game and what to expect. And always have a second treat ready to go as soon as you deliver the first one. If you don’t, your dog will be “one and done.” We want to sustain the stay.

That’s really all there is to teaching “stay!”. To be able to walk around your staying dog, add motion one step at a time, always rewarding to your dog’s front. Work a gradually increasing arc until your dog is okay with you circling around her. Deliver rewards to the dog’s front so you don’t pull them out of position accidentally. You’ll know when your dog is truly starting to understand the exercise when you see her head flip from one side to the other to watch you as you go around.

Use what your dog knows

Once your dog knows the “Stay!” and you can walk around them, take advantage of it! Remember to say “Stay!” while you’re carrying that pasta pot across the kitchen. Or when you’re opening the hot oven to turn the batch of cookies. Invariably, when we trip over our dogs, it’s because we’ve neglected to tell them what we want them to do. And if your dog is anything like ours, they always have to be where the action is in the house.

Stay / Walk around your dog is behavior that’s absolutely counter to every instinct your dog has. Their natural inclination is always to be in the middle of the action. Always watching everything that’s going on. Many people don’t understand that “Stay!” is difficult work for a dog. A “Stay!” is never “doing nothing.” It’s active work for your dog, so be sure to appreciate and reward the effort.

Being a good dog boss

In all the ways that count, you actually are the boss of your dog. You decide pretty much everything about your dog’s life – when they eat, sleep, go out; where they go, who they see. Doesn’t it just make sense to want to be a good dog boss?

Think about all the jobs you’ve had and the bosses you enjoyed working for. We’d bet big bucks your favorites weren’t the micro-managers who hovered over your shoulder. It was probably the ones who respected your abilities, left you alone to do your job, while being there for support, clarification, and feedback. Those were the good bosses. Follow their lead and be a good dog boss.

Decisions, decisions

It’s really hard to let go and trust your dog to make good decisions. But the alternative is having to be there every moment. Telling your dog what to do all the time. That works for some people. One Obedience person we know simply can’t find the patience. She’s been competing for decades, and for all those years she’s pretty much told her dog how to spend every moment of every day. She’s used to it, and doesn’t really want to change. We think it sounds exhausting.

Once your dog knows the rules of the house, does it mean they never misbehave? No, of course not. But when you yell “knock it off!” at whoever’s hooliganizing at the moment, it has more effect.

Firm foundation

Your dog craves your attention and approval. Once they know that being “good” comes with approval and treats, that’s what happens. They’re good dogs. Because what gets rewarded, gets repeated. Your dog will become a better-thinking companion when they know you encourage them to use their brains.

Having a well-trained dog leads to a more balanced life for everyone. We know several people whose lives with their dogs are completely off-balance. They can’t have people over, they can’t get deliveries, they can’t take their dogs anywhere, and their rooms have a strict system of gates and doors. These people have let their dogs dictate the rules of the house and have let the dog become boss. As a result, no one’s happy.

At the other extreme, we’ve met a few people who treat their dogs like possessions. These dogs are kept in “storage” away from people, and are allowed limited access to family life. They may not have started out there, but the people may have become overwhelmed by the demands of having a dog. No one’s happy here, either.

We’re not sure why these people have dogs at all.

Big, beautiful life

Every moment you spend training your dog, every training game, pays off in the quality of your life together. The cost / benefit ratio is overwhelmingly in your favor. Just a couple minutes at a time, a couple of times a day, can make a huge impact.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could carry the heavy, hot pan to the table from the oven without worrying about where you step? Answering the doorbell, knowing your dog is safely in their “Place!” is priceless. (Ebook / course #1: Clicker and Place) These little things are quality-of-life moments you can achieve. Taking your dog’s good behavior for granted is the ultimate goal.

The best dog training advice ever

The absolute best dog training advice sounds simple. Only two parts to it. And you don’t need any special tools, no particular gear. To really elevate your dog’s understanding, grow your relationship, and open up your dog’s best life, there are two things you need to do:

1: Wait
2: Shut up

We know that sounds rude. But it’s really hard to get people’s attention. And adhering to the best dog training advice isn’t easy. Just this morning, Hope was practicing some heeling with Torque and came to a stop. He sat, as he should. And then he flopped into a “Down.” He was trying to push Hope into whatever “next” would be. It didn’t work. She just looked at him and asked “What were you doing?” He stared back at her for at least 15 or 20 seconds before he got back up into a “Sit.” Hope said “Thank you!,” rewarded her dog for a good decision, and got back to her training game.

How long is a minute

We know how hard it is to just wait and say nothing. The temptation to repeat a command, or give a new one, is sometimes overwhelming. Resistance is not futile. It pays big dividends if you try it.

Think about having a two-legged teenager in the house. Mom says “Junior, please take out the trash.” Junior either ignores Mom or grunts some kind of acknowledgement. 15 minutes later, Mom repeats herself. And Junior grunts and/or waves again. After another 10 minutes, Mom’s lost her cool, and says decisively, “JUNIOR TIBERIUS TEENAGER – TAKE OUT THE TRASH!” And Junior finally does it.

Your training space does not have to be large.

If you keep repeating the same thing to your dog in the same way, that’s the pattern you’re training your dog to know. Say it once, clearly. Then shut up and give your dog time to think. For as long as it takes, if they’re still with you. If they’re not disengaging, they’re thinking, processing, and coming to a decision. It may seem like the time between word and action is forever – you could have said “Sit!” hundreds of times while you were waiting. That’s the point. You don’t want to have to say it a hundred times.

Trust us. We’re pretty certain your dog heard you the first time. Now they’re trying to figure out if you meant it, and what they’ll do about it.

Easier isn’t better

We know it’s easier to just say it again. Just don’t. Don’t deprive your dog of the opportunity to make a good decision. Believe in your dog. We’ve said it before: Wait for your dog!

The only way you can really find out if your dog knows something is to trust them to do it. You don’t know if your dog knows “Down!” unless you can say it once, from across the room, and your dog does it. We practice heeling quite a bit in our dog training classes. Randomly, we’ll call out “Down your dogs!” to our students. It’s really kind of impressive to watch a classful of dogs suddenly drop.

They don’t all start out that way. We’ve said “just wait” more times than we want to think about. And when people wait, their dog puzzles it out and does the right thing. Sometimes you can almost see the hamster-wheels in their brain spinning while they think. Some dogs will look around, see what the other dogs are doing, and copy. But given the chance to choose, dogs almost always choose wisely.

What if they don’t get it right?

By testing your dog’s knowledge of any skill, you gain valuable information for future training games. If they’re acing it, it’s time to move on. You can tuck that behavior into the drawer and air it out once in a while, just to keep it fresh. Now you have time to play a different game.

Nobody likes doing the same task over and over, without end. Not people. And not dogs, either. You can have a particular time and place that you play training games. If you do, your dog will learn the schedule and probably dash off to your special training area when it’s time. You’ll both have more fun if you play different training games, rather than just drilling something you’re “working” on. We want our dogs to be letter-perfect in the very specific exercises for competition obedience. That doesn’t mean we’re always hammering away at them. It means we treat them like all the other, silly, fun training games. Playing those maybe once a week. Maybe not. But always keeping it new, fresh, and fun for us and our dogs.