You’re the doggie sheriff; so let’s make some rules. Remember these are always rules, and they’ll always apply so think about them carefully, because you’ll have to enforce them. Here are some suggested rules that you can choose from to get started.
- No jumping up on people
- No getting on the furniture
- No soiling in the house
- No chewing on people objects, furniture, clothing, shoes, etc.
- No barking after I say “quiet”
- Come when called
- No biting people
- Lay down when I say so
- Sit when I say so
- Leave things alone when I say so
- Stay where I’ve put you when I say so
All these rules have to be taught, but are easily learned. They’re all useful and some of them could save your dog’s life. We’ll cover most of them in our class. But teaching them is your responsibility.
Dog Rules
1. The big dog makes the rules (that’s you). As ‘sheriff’ you control:
- Where your dog goes and when (control of movements)
- What objects your dog gets or not (control of possessions)
- When and if your dog gets to eat (control of groceries)
2. If a dog breaks a rule, the reaction from the ‘big dog’ is immediate and appropriate
3. Once it’s over, it’s over (dogs don’t hold grudges)
Do I Get A Six Shooter?
We know that dogs need and expect us to set the rules and enforce them, but how are we going to do that? Dogs have their own ways of expressing displeasure, giving warnings and enforcing rules. They can grow, snarl, bare teeth, bite, or knock someone over and pin them to the ground. I don’t know about you, but none of these work for me.
Correction Tool Kit
I need a different set of tools and for puppies we need some gentle tools because they’re young and small. So here’s your correction tool kit:
- Verbal noise or noise maker like a shake can
- Removing the puppy from wherever he shouldn’t be, or take away what he shouldn’t have
- Timeout
This short but very effective list includes one sound warning, and two physical ‘corrections’. The sound warning can be any sudden sound noise, even the clap of your hands. If used with an unpleasant facial expression and verbal disapproval, it’s a good enough correction for some sensitive puppies.
To remove your puppy from someplace he shouldn’t be, just pick him up and move him. To take something he has, if he won’t willingly give it up, gently squeeze his lips against his back teeth, and generally they’ll open their mouths to relieve the pressure on their lips and you can get whatever the puppy has when he opens up. For information on Timeout click here(Link Timeout article).
Happy Trails
Ideally, you’ll use training and restrictions to keep your puppy out of trouble in the first place. But puppies are puppies, so you can use these techniques when your puppy does something he shouldn’t. By acting as your puppy’s sheriff, you’ll be giving him a lifetime of security.
Links to Helpful General Knowledge Articles:
Links to Puppy Class 101 articles:
You learned in class this week how to ‘sit’ your puppy by directing his head with a treat. ‘Trainer speak’ for this teaching method is “Luring”. It’s called that because your puppy wound up sitting while his nose was following the treat or the ‘lure’. He didn’t make a decision to sit, it happened by accident while his attention was on the treat.
The Accidental Trainer
You can train your dog to do almost anything by luring and treating, but you need to practice often. That’s because your puppy is sitting by accident, and he doesn’t understand yet it’s the sit you want. He didn’t make a decision to sit, so how would he know? It’ll take a little time for him to fully realize the sit is want you really want, and the more you practice the quicker he’ll learn because he’ll have more opportunities to connect the sit with the treat.
Competing Inputs
Dogs can’t think about some things because they lack frontal lobes, but the trade off is they perceive an amazing amount of detail, at all times. Dogs include this ‘situational detail’ in their learning processes. We don’t know for sure everything they’re taking in, but your dog is noticing all kinds of extraneous sights, sounds, and smells when you’re training your dog. To help your puppy focus on what you want, good timing is critical.
It’s All In The Timing
If your puppy receives his treat at the exact instant his tushy touches the ground, he’ll be better able to connect the two events. The longer the delay between the sit and his reward, the longer it will take your puppy to learn the two are connected. If you wait even a few seconds to reward your puppy his attention will wander to something else. He’ll eventually get it, but the better your timing, the faster your dog will learn what you want.
I Think I’m Getting It
Over time, you’ll be able to stop luring your puppy into position. He’ll begin to recognize the sit word and sit before you get the treat over his head. If he stops, or hesitates, lure him all the way into his sit, then give him the treat. Don’t accept a half sit, or that’s what he’ll offer you forever. If he gets ahead of you and sits before you finish luring, give him the treat immediately. Always deliver the treat when he sits, not before and not after.
You need to go through the motions of luring for as long as it takes for your puppy to automatically respond to your dog hand signal or verbal command. If he appears to forget or be confused, help him out.
Learning Roller Coaster
We’re trying to set your puppy up for success, so you should do whatever it takes to make him successful. Learning for dogs, and especially puppies, isn’t a straightforward process. They will occasionally forget what they learned. Just give him whatever he needs to remind him what he’s supposed to do when he gets ‘stuck’.
A Whole Different World
After you teach your puppy to sit in class, you’ll also need to teach him at home. Your puppy learned to ‘sit’ in class, and he understood it there, but only in that context. But it’s a whole different ballgame at home or out on the street. He needs to be shown that sit means sit everywhere. You should train him in the house, in the yard, on the sidewalk, and at grandma’s house. The more places you go together and practice your skills the better he’ll remember them.
Easy as 1 – 2 – 3
Now you know why timing and repetition are the keys to your puppy training success. If you’ve read my article on “Vision The Dog Language” you have all three ingredients you need. And you can follow these three easy steps to success:
- Lure your puppy into position
- Use hand signals
- Treat and repeat in various locations
Links to Puppy Class 101 articles:
Links to Helpful General Knowledge Articles:
Dogs don’t have spoken language capability. They naturally read body language. They can tell if we’ve had a bad day, if we’re stressed, happy or anxious by looking at our faces or the set of our shoulders. I expect they can read tiny changes in our expressions that even other people miss. But we train our dogs to respond to verbal commands, because we’re verbal.
What Comes Next
Fortunately for us, dogs are experts at ‘predictors’, which is trainer speak for connecting the dots or figuring out ‘what comes next’. So when we say “Sit” and the puppy sits, it’s because he’s learned that when he hears that sound and he sits, he gets a cookie. It wouldn’t matter if you said scratch or sniff instead of sit, if you pared those words with a sit and a cookie, he’d sit. But he doesn’t understand language, so you have to teach him specific words.
Don’t Be Deceived
Your dog may love the sound of your voice, but don’t confuse interest with communication. Explaining things in words won’t get the message through. But because they seem to understand our words, and we’re so dedicated to language, it can be hard to understand what really happens when we try to communicate with our dogs. I’ll make up a story to illustrate how dogs trick us into thinking they’re know what we’re saying.
Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
Let’s say, for example, that a student and her puppy are learning the sit command. The puppy has been lured into the sit position 5 or 6 times and has made the connection between sitting and getting a treat. The student says “Sit” and the puppy responds and receives the treat. It seems obvious that the puppy has very quickly understood both the concept of “sit” and the word his Mommy used to ask for the behavior. That’s pretty good for a creature that’s been on the planet for a few short weeks, eh?
Not So Fast
After class, our intrepid team goes home to show off their new skill, “sit” says his mommy and the puppy jumps up for the treat. They try again and the puppy leaps for joy. ‘What’s wrong with my puppy?,” the student is now wondering. He’s already forgotten his lesson! He understood it an hour ago, what happened?
What Really Happens
The puppy had been watching his mommy and the treat and he wasn’t listening to the words she’d said. His mommy stood and held the treat in exactly the same way each time they’d practiced. He’d noticed her movement and body position, but his mommy thought he was listening.
At home, he’s in a different place and mommy is holding the treat differently so he doesn’t recognize the signals. At class he’d tricked his mommy into thinking he understood her words, but he earned his treats by watching her movements. Now that’s dog smarts!
The Biggest Hurdle
We don’t have to train silently, but it’s easy to talk too much. Ideally the only words we would speak while training would be our dog commands, or better yet we’d use dog hand signals.
You may have noticed that while I’m talking to class I use hand signals to communicate with my dogs. I use hand signals because they offer my dogs a clear sign they can read without sorting through the mountain of words they don’t recognize and because hand signals are a language they innately understand.
Vision, The Dog Language
Dogs do learn to respond to words, with time and repetition. But the fastest way to teach your dog is with visual clues because his brain has the ability to recognize and remember them. Vision is the language of dogs, and offering a visual signal with your verbal command will help him to learn faster and remember better.
Links to Puppy Class 101 Articles:
Links to Helpful General Knowledge Articles:
I’d like to you keep in mind for the duration of our puppy class that your puppy has ‘puppy brain’. This may seem obvious, but let’s talk about it for a moment. How many weeks has your puppy been on the planet? On average it’ll be 20 weeks or less.
Holy COW! When we were babies, we couldn’t even crawl at this age and they’re already left their homes and families. They’re living with an alien species and learning that there are places you’re not supposed to pee.
That’s Amazing!
Talk about amazing! They’re adapting to life in a human household and they’re doing it without the benefit of frontal lobes. That’s the part of our brain that allows us understand concepts like ‘fast food’ and generalize similar things into categories like ‘chair’. We’ll get to more info on how puppies DO think in the Puppy Math article. For now, take my word for it, they’re amazing little creatures, and they deserve a lot of respect.
What Was That Middle Part Again?
As amazing as they are, they’re still just little tiny puppies and just barely out of their mother’s womb. Keep in mind that they’re doing the best they can, and they’ve got an awful lot to learn in a very short time. Don’t be surprised if all of a sudden they appear to have forgotten something you thought they knew.
I Forgot
It happens, they forget stuff because they’ve got a lot to learn and remember. He isn’t ‘blowing you off’ or being disobedient. If your puppy forgets something you taught him, it’s your job to remind him by going over his lessons again. Even when dogs are grown, they’ll occasionally appear to forget some things they’d previously learned. Don’t be concerned, it just happens.
Patience Is The Key
You’re going to be amazed at how quickly your puppy learns in puppy class, and he’ll learn even faster still if you keep in mind that “Puppy Brain” means:
- Your Puppy is a baby
- He’s adapting to an alien environment
- He doesn’t have frontal lobes and can’t generalize
- He is trying to please you, but he’s not very smart yet
- Making him smart is your job
Keeping these points in mind will ease your process by helping you to:
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Understand your puppy’s actions
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Stay calm in the face of occasional frustrations
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Give you the perspective to appreciate what amazing creatures they are.
Remember, we’ve been on the planet for more years than they’ve been here weeks or days, so the thinking and the understanding is up to us. We’ve got mental and size advantages over them (not to mention opposable thumbs) and we’re going to use those to our advantage, while we teach your puppy everything he needs to know.
Links to Puppy Class 101 articles
Links to Helpful General Knowledge Articles:
An open letter to my Puppy Class students at the Dog Training Club of Tampa..
Thank you for bringing your puppy to my puppy training class. I know that you’re here because you want a happy and successful relationship with your puppy. My goal is to give you everything you need to build a solid foundation for a wonderful life together. I’m going to tell you all kinds of things about dogs that you probably didn’t know. We’ll cover everything from canine brain structure to dog behavior issues to feeding and nutritional information. You’re going to have a great time learning about your dog and you’re going to have a ton of fun with your puppy. So lets get started.
Communication Is The Key
Our first lesson is about communicating effectively with your puppy. Communication with your dog is easy once you understand how dogs perceive information and how to get your message through in a manner that your pupster can understand. Here are a few things I’d like you to keep in mind while you’re learning about how your dog learns:
- Your puppy has ‘Puppy Brain’, be patient
- If you use Dog Language your dog will learn faster
- Your dog is constantly learning whether you’re teaching or not
- There is only one equation dogs can do, 1 + 1 = 1
- You have the right and the responsibility to make and enforce rules
The Short List
This short list of basics, applied on a daily basis, will provide a foundation big enough and strong enough that you can build on it for the life of your dog. It’s this simple. When you get stymied or stuck for an answer to your dog training issues, you can always come back to these basics to solve your training problems. Please follow the links below for more info on each of these concepts and the links at the bottom of the page for more general knowledge.
Puppy Class 101 Articles:
Links to Helpful General Knowledge Articles:
I grew up in a small town in Michigan. I was the daughter of a businessman and a stay at home mom who took good care of us and baked cookies.
I was like most Midwest kids that grew up in the fifties and sixties. We roamed are neighborhood freely. In the summer time, we went home when the streetlights came on, we played in the vacant lots and made forts and staged plays in our neighbor’s garage. My dad had hunting dogs, Springer Spaniels and a Beagle, but I didn’t interact with them much. They were hunting dogs and not to be played with.
Early Experiences
Surprisingly, my earliest dog memory was the day the neighbor’s dog bit me. Fortunately I was bitten on my hand and it wasn’t severe. Equally fortunate, another neighbor witnessed the entire series of events leading up to the bite. Initially, I was frightened because the bite was so unexpected. I knew this dog, I visited and petted him often and he was on my short list of things I did regularly. But suddenly, he had changed and now hated me, which confused and frightened me.
Now For The Rest of The Story
My neighbor explained that another group of kids had been teasing this dog right before I came along. He was still in an agitated state and didn’t recognize me as being different from the kids that were tormenting him.
I have a dim memory of him barking at me as I approached him, but being young, I didn’t recognize the warnings that I’m sure he was giving me. Fortunately, I had my hand out to pet him and he had the restraint to only bite once and to regulate his bite. It could have been much worse because I was frightened more than hurt and I was very little.
Understanding Is The Key
I lost my fear of him once I understood what happened and why his dog behavior changed. The understanding took the fear away. My relationship with him was cautious after that, and I suspect it was clandestine as well. I’m sure my parents forbid me to go near that dog, but well, kids don’t always behave and I’ve always been a bit, shall we say, self determined.
Natural Born Dog Lover
If I hadn’t had a natural affinity for dogs, or given the opportunity to understand what had happened, I probably wouldn’t have gotten over that event. I would have been like many others that have been bitten – fearful.
On one hand, it seems funny that a dog bite could lead to a lifetime of loving dogs. But it turned out that the important part was the understanding that I’d gained. I decided that in many ways, dogs are a lot like us. Their dog behavior is a natural consequence of what had happens to them, and this dog was a victim. He was reacting to his circumstances in the only way he knew.
A Lucky Life
I was lucky to get this understanding at a very early age and I’m still lucky today. I’m lucky to have dogs in my life, I’m lucky to be able to share my love and my understanding with my students and I’m lucky to have people in my life who care about their dogs and their relationships with them. And finally I’m really lucky because I have the opportunity to share all this with you.
I don’t believe there is any such thing as a devil dog. I’ve always had good dogs, really good dogs. My dogs come when they’re called. They don’t get into the trash or onto the counters or the furniture. I can walk them without dog leashes with good control and recall. I believe in dog training, and I enjoy it. It’s no accident that I make dog training toys for a living. I think dog training is play and I do it for relaxation.
The Wild Side
I know dogs have untamed and natural instincts which lurk in all of them. It’s only a matter of perspective and circumstance to be able to see the devil in our furry ‘kids’.
It wasn’t a surprise that when I saw the devil in one of my dogs, it was Rocket. He’s my bad boy, lover dog.
Mr Tough Guy
Endlessly frustrated with his position in life, he maintains a sweet and compliant attitude towards me while holding a bit of a grudge against the rest of the world.
His grudges appear to be born of frustration and attitude miss-alignment. It seems to irritate him that he is not the top dog in this household. He constantly picks at Annie who is dominate by virtue of being the oldest and largest and female. As such, she is naturally top dog. But she’s so relaxed in her role, she doesn’t discipline Rocket. She leaves that to me.
Plenty For All
My floor looks like a kindergarten gone berserk; dog toys litter the floor like trash in a trailer park. When Rocket takes a toy another dog has, they just let him have it and a pick up new one. Mr Mean Streets is the only guy who thinks toys are a precious resource. He seems to delight in taking things away from the others. I know it’s all about climbing that social ladder.
Social Climber
Status matters to Rocket, and it always has. Ever since he joined us, rescued from the mean streets of a bad neighborhood, he has tussled over objects with our other dogs. Finally they gave up and now they just let him have his way. He’ll walk up to another dog and take a dog toy, just to take it. Then he goes to his bed and lies down on the toy. The other dogs just watch him, kind of quizzically, like they don’t get him. Then they go back to whatever they were doing before Mr Grumpy showed up.
Enough Love To Go Around
My other dogs don’t seem to care about status any more than they care about which dog toy they have. They work things out; they share resources and share space.
They all get treated equally in our house; they all get the same treats and walks. They all get the same food, and obey the same rules. I have my favorite of course, but I don’t let it show. I don’t treat them differently and I think that’s the important thing. And maybe someday that’ll be enough for Rocket too.
For many of us, learning about dogs isn’t boring or difficult. It comes easy because we’re fascinated by our best friends and competition companions and also want to understand them better. And for many of us, they are a complete mystery – a bit like aliens living among us.
Those Aliens Among Us
Here in the train category I’ll give you some tools that you can use to communicate or train your dog. I’ll give you step by step instructions on how to use some of the most effective dog training methods we have today and information on why those tools work.
In the learn category, you’ll find articles that will enhance your knowledge about our lovable little aliens in general, what they think about and react to and what they know and don’t know. I’ll tell you stories about my dogs, my students and their dogs and all sorts of fascinating facts – as well as lots of hints and tips gleaned from my 40 years of training dogs.
Agility Training
I quit training dogs for competition dog sports years ago and even though I know a lot about motivating dogs with toys, I’ll leave the specifics of dog training for sports to those who are current in their fields. I will post entries in the TRAIN category outlining training help and procedures for beginning trainers, dog owners, and anyone who desires general dog training knowledge.
Easy Training Rules
I will be posting articles here with easy dog training rules for common dog problems, which I hope you’ll find easy to follow. I’ve reduced each training problem or dog behavior modification (which is another name for training) to just a few simple rules that are easy to remember.
For example, here are my first two rules for training any dog to do anything.
- Your dog wants your attention and wants to please you, even if he sometimes has some pretty funny was of showing it.
- If your dog isn’t doing what you want, it’s because he doesn’t understand what you want.
It’s All In What You Know
I expect to get some argument over rule #2 from people with badly behaved dogs. Even though you may think that your dog doesn’t care about what you want, and is deliberately flaunting or taunting you, the truth is that the two of you are having communication problems and your message is NOT getting through to the other side.
Dogs have their own methods of communicating between themselves and for deciding what’s going to happen and who’s going to do what. If we tell them what we want in terms that they can understand, we’ll get what we want.
Earth to Major Tom
If you understand how your dog perceives your communications, it’s easy to get your message across to him or her. Because almost 100% of household dog behavior problems are a result of faulty communications, you can solve them if you clear up the communication channels. It’s like talking to a space ship; you just have to get the right frequency.
The Bigger Picture
In the LEARN category, I’ll be explaining the man/dog communication process in more general terms, with articles on how dogs learn and what they perceive, which will help you to understand more fully how to communicate with your dog.
To The Club
Here in the TRAIN category I’ll go into detail about how to use my training rules, answer specific dog training questions, and detail how to train specific behaviors. Please send me your questions and dog training issues so I can illustrate how easy it is to understand your dog’s behavior, and get what you want.
Try To Be Serious
Forget it. Try talking about “Dog With Issues” T-shirts and “Tunnel Snuggers” and keep a straight face. Not possible. Sorry. What a silly collection of dog products, nothing about this grouping makes sense. I wonder what I was thinking?
Now For The Good News
The good news is that everything in this silly category of dog products is practical and the Tunnel Snuggers are innovative. Think of them as seatbelts for your tunnel. All you have to do is stake the yellow loops to the ground and buckle the strap around your tunnel. It’s a super safe and super secure tunnel system, assuming that you have some dirt to sink your tent stakes into. Or that you were a girl scout or boy scout and know how to set a tent stake. If you’ve got that going on, then you’re good to go with the Tunnel Snuggers.
Forget The Back Brace
The best thing about the Tunnel Snuggers is the weight you don’t have to carry. If you’ve ever moved a set of sandbags to secure a tunnel you know what I’m talking about. And you’ve probably got the number of a good chiropractor, don’t you?
I can carry a set of Tunnel Snuggers in one hand with room left over for the tent stakes. In the other hand I can carry a twelve pack for me and my friends. Is it 5 o’clock yet? Maybe beer :30?
DWI
Speaking of drinking, it’s almost happy hour so, I’ve got to go. But before I do I want to tell you about the lady who came up with the “Dog With Issues” idea. Her name is Cindy, last name withheld to protect the innocent. Well, not exactly innocent.
Anyway, when I told her I was going to make a T-shirt with her expression, I don’t think she believed me. When they were printed up I gave her one. I asked her if she wanted me to sign it. She politely declined. I wonder why?
Texas Ts
Like I said, it’s happy hour so I have to go, but check out the ‘Lead The Pack’ Texas themed T-shirts as well. And if you want me to sign your shirt, I’ll be happy to do so. Just purchase the shirt on line and drop me an email asking for my autograph, I’ll be happy to oblige.
This dog leash was the first and it’s still the best! Sorry for blowing my own horn, but it’s true and if I didn’t tell you, how would you know? Originally intended as tug leashes for agility and obedience training, these leashes quickly gained popularity with people who needed some shock absorption or a soft and forgiving handle on their leash. The braided leashes are among our most loved products and rightfully so.
What’s in Em?
These dog agility leashes are made with either polyester fleece or the new miracle micro fiber fur, braided with a strong and pliable tubular nylon webbing for softness, durability and resistance to stretch.
Please ignore all the big words here, I don’t mean to be pompous, but I do want you to know that you can trust me to get the best for you. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make these leashes, and even more time researching materials and designing these leashes.
Designed With Care
Research is important to me; I don’t just follow the crowd and accept the norm or the status quo when it comes to our products. I use our products with my dogs, and of course my friends and family have our products so getting it right is a big deal to me. Our dogs aren’t just pets, they’re family members and I take their care very seriously.
I’ll give you an example of the kinds of information I uncover in the process of designing new products. Did you know that one of the reasons dog leashes are made out of nylon webbing is that it’s safe if ingested?
Skip This Part If You Don’t Want To Know
How do you suppose that we know that? Stop right here and skip to the next paragraph if you’re the queasy type. We know that because researchers fed nylon webbing to dogs over a period of years to see the effects on the dogs. That’s right, fed the material to the dogs. I won’t recount the exact details except that the study went on for several years, and the dogs were fed a substantial amount of nylon with their food.
Who wants to think about such things? Nobody who loves dogs, that’s for sure. The good news is the dogs were unharmed and the nylon deemed safe for pet use.
That’s A Lot of Love
So how would I know that nylon webbing is safe if I didn’t care? You’ve got to ask the questions if you’re going to get the answers, and I’m the kind of person that asks those questions.
I’m the kind of person that goes to a lot of trouble to see that my dogs are fed correctly and when I first heard about this study, I almost puked. But it illustrates my point. I care enough to do the research because I love my dogs that much, and I believe that you love your dogs that much too.
Trust Me
All of this info is my way of telling you that you can trust that our dog tug leashes are the best and the safest on the market because behind each and every one of them is me. With every dog leash, you get me. Testing, asking questions, asking why, how do we know? What’s good,
what’s bad, weighing the options, weight vs. safety vs. durability, and making my choices based on the safety of my dogs and yours too.
Bulldog Inventor
If I were a dog, I would want to be a Labrador retriever because they’re always happy. But if you wanted to describe my business style, I’d probably be a bulldog or terrier because I’m dogged, persistent, and I dig for the facts. I make my material providers answer the questions that you would never think to ask. I do it because I want to know and because that’s the way I am.
I wouldn’t be happy if you weren’t getting the best possible product I can make, so you can take my word for it. These are great dog leashes.
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