basic training principles

/\lt(
l't,tt llr,tl ( riltrlil lil Itilll
lt,tlililtll
:.nr('lls il trntl, inlll'rrt'rl, llrslt's il, Yrrrrrnry, sirll.y, irrtclcslirrg, lltis wlr.tltttls ltttlltt't ittvcsligitliott. llc tirli.cs it irr lris nroutll lrnrl sturls to walk
rrrorrntl llrc loorrr. Mls..loltcs sccs tlris tncl says to Bulbrcl, "Bufbrd,
Iront'.y, tkrrr't chcw tlrat. (-'onrc. Comc to utolnmy." Bufbrd ignores this
rrrrrl sl:rrts to walk out ol'thc rclom carrying the sock. Mrs. Jones follorvs slying, "No BLrlorcl, corre. Come. Come. Come here right now."
'l'lris lras irbsolutcly no ell'ect and Mrs. Jones moves quickly toward the
rkrf i', lul attcntpt to grab the inappropriate object out of Buford's
rrrorrllr. Ullon sccing what, from the dog's perspective, is a large creaIrrrt' rrrovirrg toward him, Buford reacts instinctively by darting away.
lirrrrlct'rr '"veck-old Basset puppies are not exactly renowned for their
',pct'rl. lrrrl llrcy can be wicked around corners, and Buford manages to
I't't lrrllrvrry lctrss the house before dropping the sock. He continues
trr 11111 rurrl is strcccssful in avoiding capture. Mrs. Jones stopped chasrrrl' lrrnr rrltcr hc clropped the sock anyway, but Buford doesn't under,,lrrrrrl lrrr_y ol'that. Hc simply knows he ran and got away. Mrs.
Jones
prt l.s rrp tlrc sock and thinks to herself, "Gosh, this is going to be work.
llrrl I yqrrr.:ss lrc lcarned I don't want him to chew socks."
Actrrally. it is extremely unlikely that the Jones'dog learned anyllrirrg lilic not to chcw socks fiom the above scenario. What the dog did
It'lrrr (or will lcarn if this scenario is repeated) are a number of things,
rrorrt: ol thcnt good.
l;irst, thc command "come" was given six times and the dog not
orrly tlidn't colne, but ultimately ran the other way. Let's look at this
lir' :r sccond. 'fhis interaction took place off leash. This type of interrrcliorr coulcl rcoccur l0 times a day for a month or longer. This means
llrrlirnl would hear the "come" command 60 times every day and never
lisle rr. Sixty tirnes a day for a month is roughly 1,800 times that Buford
Icrrlrrctl not to comel Is it any surprise that after 1,800 repetitions of not
lislcning to thc "come" command off leash, when Buford is taken to
t'llrss, givcn thc "come" command on leash and then consistently
lirrrglrl to obcy it on thc leash, that he will only learn to respond to
"corno" on lcash'/ Hc's trlready learned not to come off leash. This is
llrt' t'r'rrx ol'thc problcrn.
Sccontl. lJulorclalso lcarned that running away was successful. Not
ir vcry goorl lcsson lol any rklg to lcarn.
ll \'(,lt Il,rvr,,r I)o1', 1i,,,Arr,,r lt,utrr,l
BASIC TRAINING PRINCIPLES
So what carn owncrs do about this? A number of things. First, continue
to rcacl this book, because many of the principles and methods found
will learn how to
prevent problems and how to redirect, focus and reward your dog
for conect behavior, rather than just react, yell and give ineffective
commands when you're confronted with unacceptable behavior.
Hopefully, you will also learn the crucial principles of training, so you
can teach your dog what I call "foundation level" off-leash training,
and, very importantly, teach this type of training whenever possible
before you start on-leash work. Will this be easier to teach if you've
just obtained a puppy? Yes, but dogs of any age can benefit from these
training principles.
Here are some basic principles that all dog owners need to learn
and follow:
here can be started from day one. As you read, you
1. Be consistent. A behavior is either acceptable or it isn't. It can't
be acceptable on alternate Tuesdays when you're in the mood. For
example, it can't be OK to allow your dog to jump all over you
on the weekends when you're in casual clothes, but not during the
week when you're dressed for work. That's an obvious one,
although you'd be amazed how many people I've met who do
exactly that.
Here's one that's less obvious. It can't be OK for your dog to
chew fabric toys but not to chew "inappropriate" fabric items. In
other words, if you give your dog an old sock and say, "Here,
chew this," don't be surprised when she eats your shirt.
Consistency is a bit easier for singles or couples, and toughest for families. The more people who interact with the dog, the
greater the likelihood of inconsistency. I strongly recommend that
families conduct a few meetings to discuss and agree upon what
will be universally unacceptable behavior on the part of the dog.
Everyone needs to clearly understand what the rules will be for a
training program to be most successful. That being said, we live
in thc rcal world and I recognize how difficult consistency on the
2t
/\lt( l't,tr ltr,tl ( rilt(lr,lll I l('ll lt,tilililll
2.
l)iul ol ir six y('iu oltlt'lriltl will lilicly bc. l)llcrrts ol'youngcrchiltlrcrr rvill rrct'rl to pltrclicr: a llir irrrount ol'prcvcrttion and understarrtl th:rt thc tkrg's trainirrg proccss may be a little bit more
clil'l'icult lncl pr'olongccl.
4. Learn basic training techniques and then tbllow rules one and
two. All owners need to undcrstand the principles of prevention,
Ile consistcnt. Ycs, I know I already said this, but consistency
Now that you have an understanding of some of the challenges,
let's discuss a little bit about behavior, so that everyone can be clear
What terms SUCh aS "preVentiOn," "maintenance," "fedireCtiOn" and
,,reward" really mean. Once you understand how a dog learns' we can
get on to the business of training. Please proceed to Chapter 3!
also cxtcnds to obedience commands. If you want your dog to
learn to listen to obedience commands the first time they're given,
you need to be prepared to properly teach your dog to obey them
the first time. This is most effectively accomplished if the initial
fbundation-level obedience you teach around the house is done
maintenance, redirection, reward and corection. And they need
to use them consistentlY'
off leash.
I have sometimes run into problems
when discussing how
important it is for dogs to obey commands consistently. In my
opinion, this is an area where attitudes have gone downhill in the
last 30 years. Decades ago the idea that a dog needed to obey
commands the first time they were given would not have drawn
comment. Today, there are many owners who are uncomfortable
with the idea that their dog should be trained to respond so predictably. I've had owners object, based on the idea that they did
not want their dogs "to become robots." It is important for these
owners to understand that, first of all, if training is primarily done
with compassion and reward this will not happen; and second of
all, you might not care if your dog listens on the first command
until the very first time she runs out into the street. Then, as cars
are barreling toward her, you will pray she listens on the first
command, because you may never get a second one.
The specifics of how to teach foundation-level obedience off
lcash can be found in Chapter 7 of this book. However, the principlcs of consistency really need to be understood here.
llrrrlcrstand why behaviors take place and deal with problems
b.y <lcaling with the cause. When owners learn to do this, they
rvill not.just be reacting to what are often symptoms of an underlyirrg problcm.
2l