Monday, April 13, 2009
Training Tip - Patience, Consistency, and Repetition - How Dogs Learn
Patience is a virtue and it very much applies to dog training. Just like with children, dogs do not come into this world knowing how to behave. We must show them through obedience training. Just like with children, dogs do not come into this world understanding the English, French, or German languages, we must teach them, except with dogs, they do not learn the language, they learn to associate sounds with actions. In order to teach them we must be patient in our instruction, we must be consistent with our commands, and we must be repetitious in our teachings. Children are not born knowing how to read. We must be patient in our teachings. Dogs, especially puppies, will learn in small incremental steps. They will have their good days, and they will have their bad days. It is during these up and downs that we must be patient. While on one day, pup may show great aptitude for a given skill, the next, it will be as if it were the first time you have worked with him on this skill. Losing your cool with pup will get you nowhere fast. If anything, it will only set you and pup back. Pup will not have any idea what it is you are upset about, and it only takes one time, to cause a serious issue that will take lots of time and even more patience to overcome. I have heard it said many times, that the fastest way to train a dog is to make haste slowly. While working for Wildrose Kennels, I heard Mike Stewart preach this to his clients, especially the new puppy buyers. To rush a dog in training is to have no patience. So take your time, be patient, and the dog will quickly be on the fast road to success.
Consistency is vital in teaching a dog any given skill. Consistency in the method, consistency in the command used, and consistency in when and where the command is given or the behavior expected. If you take pup to a local obedience class, and during this class, drill pup on the various obedience commands, then you and pup come home and you let pup run wild, where is the consistency. Pup must learn that he is expected to obey any given command anywhere that you are. Pup must learn that you expect a certain behavior where ever you go. In dealing with Pack Mentality, we teach that a leader goes first. Anytime you are taking pup outside on a leash, we teach pup that we expect him to sit at the door while we step out. It is not until he is invited out, that he may walk through the doorway, and then sit while you close the door. You must be consistent with this, every single time you take the pup outside in order for pup to learn. Otherwise, you are sending pup mixed signals and he will quickly just go off on his own not knowing when or where you expect this behavior, and you end up losing patience with him, and pups’ training is set back. Using the same commands is also vital to being consistent with pup. If you choose to use the word “Here” to recall the dog to you on Monday, then on Tuesday you use the phrase “Come Here”, then on Wednesday you use the phrase “Get Over Here”, there is zero consistency. You have to use the same word every single time, no variance allowed. It is best that all commands be single word commands or at most a two word phrase command. Having too many sounds in a multi word phrase, will only slow pups progression because it is harder for him to learn in this way. Another aspect of consistency in Raising Pup is that every single person in the house has to be reading off the same page. Everyone that interacts with pup has to do it in the same exact way, or they should not be interacting. Again, sending mixed signals to a pup will only slow the learning process and possibly even set the pup back a bit. Everyone has to use the same command. Everyone has to show pup exactly what they expect and do it in the same exact manner. Everyone must be consistent in enforcing known commands. Apply consistency in everything you do with pup, without all the mixed signals and you will find that pup will be on the fast track to learning much quicker.
Repetition is the method by which dogs learn. By repeating a command/task over and over, pup will relate a sound to an action. Just as we said earlier, that when we are taking pup outside and we teach pup to sit at the door and remain at sit until invited out, then pup sits again once outside. By doing this every single time, repetitively, pup learns. The next thing you know, pup is automatically sitting when you get to the door, and sits patiently awaiting his invitation to come out. When teaching the command “Sit”, it is by doing it over and over every day that pups learn. Please note that in teaching a young pup, or any dog of any age for that matter, you can over-do the number of repetitions and burn a pup or dog out. With young pups, make all sessions of obedience or retrieving short and sweet. Short frequent sessions will yield far better results than longer, less frequent sessions.
So remember, be patient with the pup in everything you do. It is not the pup’s fault that you had a bad day at work or school. Be consistent in your commands, actions, and expectations and repetitious in your teachings and pup will be on the fast track to becoming a great hunter, but more importantly, a great companion dog that you can take anywhere and he not be a nuisance.
Consistency is vital in teaching a dog any given skill. Consistency in the method, consistency in the command used, and consistency in when and where the command is given or the behavior expected. If you take pup to a local obedience class, and during this class, drill pup on the various obedience commands, then you and pup come home and you let pup run wild, where is the consistency. Pup must learn that he is expected to obey any given command anywhere that you are. Pup must learn that you expect a certain behavior where ever you go. In dealing with Pack Mentality, we teach that a leader goes first. Anytime you are taking pup outside on a leash, we teach pup that we expect him to sit at the door while we step out. It is not until he is invited out, that he may walk through the doorway, and then sit while you close the door. You must be consistent with this, every single time you take the pup outside in order for pup to learn. Otherwise, you are sending pup mixed signals and he will quickly just go off on his own not knowing when or where you expect this behavior, and you end up losing patience with him, and pups’ training is set back. Using the same commands is also vital to being consistent with pup. If you choose to use the word “Here” to recall the dog to you on Monday, then on Tuesday you use the phrase “Come Here”, then on Wednesday you use the phrase “Get Over Here”, there is zero consistency. You have to use the same word every single time, no variance allowed. It is best that all commands be single word commands or at most a two word phrase command. Having too many sounds in a multi word phrase, will only slow pups progression because it is harder for him to learn in this way. Another aspect of consistency in Raising Pup is that every single person in the house has to be reading off the same page. Everyone that interacts with pup has to do it in the same exact way, or they should not be interacting. Again, sending mixed signals to a pup will only slow the learning process and possibly even set the pup back a bit. Everyone has to use the same command. Everyone has to show pup exactly what they expect and do it in the same exact manner. Everyone must be consistent in enforcing known commands. Apply consistency in everything you do with pup, without all the mixed signals and you will find that pup will be on the fast track to learning much quicker.
Repetition is the method by which dogs learn. By repeating a command/task over and over, pup will relate a sound to an action. Just as we said earlier, that when we are taking pup outside and we teach pup to sit at the door and remain at sit until invited out, then pup sits again once outside. By doing this every single time, repetitively, pup learns. The next thing you know, pup is automatically sitting when you get to the door, and sits patiently awaiting his invitation to come out. When teaching the command “Sit”, it is by doing it over and over every day that pups learn. Please note that in teaching a young pup, or any dog of any age for that matter, you can over-do the number of repetitions and burn a pup or dog out. With young pups, make all sessions of obedience or retrieving short and sweet. Short frequent sessions will yield far better results than longer, less frequent sessions.
So remember, be patient with the pup in everything you do. It is not the pup’s fault that you had a bad day at work or school. Be consistent in your commands, actions, and expectations and repetitious in your teachings and pup will be on the fast track to becoming a great hunter, but more importantly, a great companion dog that you can take anywhere and he not be a nuisance.
# posted by Clay Black @ 6:14 AM 
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