Canis lupus familiaris

Fri, 20 May 2011 21:20:31 +0100

Canis Lupus Familiaris:

The animal known as the dog. When we bring one of these into our lives and homes we are taking on a special set or responsibilities that we do not have even with our own children. This is a totally different species from what we see everyday, a species different from ourselves, but not totally unfamiliar to us.

Being as general as possible when describing a dog we would be forced to classify them as “Animals”. As our description gets more complex we would move to “Dog” as our description of our family pet, more complex he becomes “Breed” and then finally “Personality”.

This is also how we should look at our “Mans best friend” when it comes to interacting with, training or conditioning, working with and playing with.

We connect with our dogs on the animal level as we are both animals. We then train them on the dog level for this is ultimately what they are. We work with them on the breed level as this is where their special skill sets come into play. Then finally we play with them on the personality level as this is where their fun “genes” reside.

Three secrets to training dogs

Tue, 17 May 2011 23:11:10 +0100

Today people spend $1000's of dollars a year on dog training books or professional trainers. Don't get me wrong, I being one of those aforementioned trainers am not adverse to having someone pay me to help them train their dogs. However, a lot of the time they don't really need a trainer they just need to adhere to the three secrets to training dogs to have a wonderful canine companion. Below you will find these secrets, and you will discover they are not really secrets, we all know these things whether we have studied dog training or have simply lived more then 15 years of life.

Secret #1

Simplicity: Dogs do not have a college education, nor do they sit around all day contemplating Life, the Universe and Everything. They spend their lives in the moment. They see the world in simple terms; food, not food, pack member, not pack member, comfortable, not comfortable, sit, stay, down, up, etc.

When teaching your dog a new command, keep it simple. The more sounds associated with the command the more likely that command is going to become confused with other commands and the dog will not know what you want. "Sit" as apposed to "sit down rover", "Stay" as apposed to "Rover, you stay here"

Another thing to keep in mind when teaching a behavior is, never attach your dogs name to the command. The name should be taught as a separate command to draw the dogs attention, then a 2 second pause before giving the command. "Rover = Attention" "Sit = Directive" and there should always be a pause between the two words so that the dog does not associate his name to a given directive or you could end up with the dog sitting when you need him to down, or downing when you needed him to sit.

One more thing with commands, a big problem people run into is rapid fire commands. The command "Sit" is not the same as the command "sit sit sit sit". If you get frustrated and start rapid firing the command at your dog, he will quickly associate the multi-word command with the action and then will not sit until after he has heard it a few times.

Secret #2

Consistency: Dogs live in a hierarchical world, and those in command need to always say and do the same things all the time or the dog becomes confused. You can not give the dog total freedom today and strict rules tomorrow then freedom the next day. He will see this as unstable leadership and will stop following, or worse yet, he will try to lead you. Just like a small child, dogs need consistent structure to follow, unlike children, as they grow older we can not let them start deciding for themselves.

Secret #3

Patience and Repetition: Conditioning does not happen after one session. You might get your dog to do a perfect sit in the first session on the first day but it is the patience and repetition that makes it a part of your dog. Consider our own experience in learning things as children, take for instance tying ones shoes. We see it now as a simple act, a one step action "tie the shoe, tie the other shoe" but in reality it is four steps, make the cross, make the bunny ears, cross the bunny ears, pass one under the other and pull tight. And we did not learn this in one sitting, it may have taken three or four or more to consistently get it right. So understand that even if your dog seems to master the sit on the first day, by the second day his level of proficiency will likely have diminished and will need to be strengthened through patience and repetition.

Good luck with your training, most of all have fun and make it fun for your dog.

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Canis lupus familiaris

Three secrets to training dogs