Set Structure in your Home

Adding Structure and Rules to your dogs daily life can help make the world of difference.
If you teach obedience but let them get away with ALL of the following things this is probably why you are still having trouble.
Remember dogs are pack animals and in their world someone has to be in charge. They would always much prefer it is us but they do things to test us to make sure we are still in charge. In their world we can't just be buddy buddy with no one in charge. If we show we are in charge through little things in their life they feel more comfortable and are better behaved around new people, they are more confident overal knowing if there were a problem we would take care of it. I see dogs every day that have nervous energy from lack of structure.

Furniture
- By invitation only.
I have no problem with my dog cuddling on the couch with me or sleeping in bed but I want it to be by invitation only. Your dog should not feel it is their right to be on the furniture.
I let them up on my terms not because they are sitting begging to come up.

Attention
- On my terms.
Invite your dog over for attention. Don't give in to the nose bumping your arm while you are sitting down. Just ignore it... after your dog gives up you can then invite your dog over for attention.
Remember that negative attention is still attention to most dogs. If your dog jumps up and you push them down that often becomes a game. Turning away from them, standing up or using a leash to correct the behavior is far better than talking to them or just pushing them down.
If your dog jumps on the couch do not pick them up to set them down a little tug on the collar towards the grown will work.

Food
- Feed Set Meals
Instead of free feeding your dog feed set meals at morning and night. Give your dog 10-20min to eat anything they don't eat should be taken up and not returned until dinner.

Crate
- Crate training is huge and helps to give them more structure and it helps to manage behavior to create new habits instead of allowing your dog to continue practicing bad behavior.
Crating the dog even when your home for short periods of time helps.

Doorway manners
Having your dog wait at doorways before they go through. I am not worried about every doorway in your home but the major ones like
Front Door
Back Door
Side Gates
Garage Door
Car Door

Place
Teaching your dog to go to a dog bed and wait there until released. Place is nice to create calm in a house with multiple dogs. I use place for front door manners. When someone comes to the door I have the dogs go to place and I decide if or when they get to say hi to guests.

Your dog only mirrors you

This week I read and shared a facebook post by Sean O'shea can be seen on his business page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=687645261259678&id=133978373293039
"Remember folks, what you pet is what you get. 

If you pet a nervous, fearful, insecure dog, you get more nervousness, insecurity, and fear. If you pet a pushy, disrespectful, bratty dog, you get more pushiness, disrespect, and brattiness. If you pet a hyper, overly-excited, manic dog, you get more hyperactivity, excitement, and manic-ness.

If you pet a calm, relaxed, respectful dog (and do it in a calm, relaxed fashion) you'll create more of that too.

Learn to become super aware of your dog's true state of mind, and use your affection and interactions to cultivate the behavior you want - not what you don't want!"

This is VERY true. I wanted to post about this and add a little more. 

Save your praise and affection for what you really want. Make your praise and touch valuable to your dog. Not something they get all the time. 

We are setting a leadership role for our dog to follow.

If you aren't calm and consistent how to do you expect your dog to be? 

The calmer, clearer, and relaxed we can be... the more your dog will be. Your dog is a direct mirror for what you are doing and teaching them. If you don't like the dog you are looking at in the mirror. It's us that needs to take a closer look at we are or aren't doing that we can change to get our desired results in our dog. 

Praise

• Physical touch or pet
• Calm, slow, soothing
• Eye Contact
• Can be praise in itself
• Don't give eye contact to a mis behaving dog
• Play with a toy
• Verbal "Good" / "Good dog" / "That's it"
• Reserve for awesome - make it special not expected

Verbal

• Calm voice - don't raise your voice
• Say a command once and follow through with it
• NEVER give commands that you have no intention or way to follow through with. 
• When your dog is holding a command try not to say anything additional until you release them from a rare and occasional "good". 

Attitude

• Relax! Be positive and confident about your ability to work with your dog. 
• The calmer more confident you are about working with your dog the more comfortable your dog will be to follow your lead. If your nervous and unsure your dog will be too. 

Etiquette for greeting people

Elsa waits politely before going to "Say Hi"

Your dog should ALWAYS wait for your command to "Go Say Hi"
I use this at the front door, out in public, anywhere except with members of the family who live in the home.

When dogs have no rules for greeting people they are...
a.) Excited, Rude and overly exuberant in the greeting
b.) fearful / anxious / not sure what to do
c.) Reactive / Aggressive
d.) Aloof and just don't care about people

What are these Rules?

1. When someone approaches and wants to pet or see your dog. Stop the person 1st and tell them your working on training or manners and to wait just 1 sec. Tell them you will have the dog come to them. You are having the dog go to them so that your dog has a choice if they don't want to, much more comfortable than having this person come at them tower o
   
   ver them and corner them. Even if you have the friendliest dog in the world there will be 1 person your dog may be unsure of and its not fair to force your dog in a position where they cant get away or back away if they feel the need to. 
2. Get your dog to settle. Ideally you have the dog in a calm sit next to or even behind you. Your dog is holding their sit here on a loose leash you do not need a death grip on the leash, you are not just restraining the dog the dog is required to practice impulse control and hold the sit on their own.
3. IF and ONLY when your dog is settled down and in a calmer state do you make the decision to allow them to greet a person. If your dog is still overly excited and not able to sit on their own, do not allow your dog to go greet the person.  *Straining at the leash... you give in.... dog gets what they wanted... dog is learning tight leash gets me what i want you are reinforcing your dog pulling on their leash and now they are more likely to pull next time*



Io is shy so her owner hands the stranger a treat.

4. Tell your dog to go "Say Hi" / "Make friends" / "Visit" allow your dog to go forward and greet. Correct for any jumping on people. If your dog is meeting children I HIGHLY recommend getting down with your dog and holding on to your dogs collar so that you have extra control. 

Io greets and allows petting. Although this person is petting on the head when at all possible try to encourage people to pet from under the chin and on the chest. Also notice she is bent down next to the dog not hovering over the dog. Io's owner is also engaging and making sure Io knows this is a team effort shes not just out on her own greeting this person. 

By making the dog wait and then putting a command to go say hi helps with general greeting manners as well as showing the dog you are in charge and making it clear that you have already checked it out - now they can go say hi. Almost all dogs start off friendly and happy go lucky and we encourage them to socialize when they are young but the problem we run into is as they get older it turns into a habit of running up to people and as they get old and turn into teenagers and mature... they are running up to a person out of habit but then trying to make their own decision if this person is ok or not. Do not let your dog decide who is and isn't ok. That's up to you. 

Stewie is very well behaved as the kid pets him but his owner holds his collar.

For a Shy dog while you get your dog calm beside you, you can hand the stranger a treat and ask them to "Please offer this treat out to my dog, Please DONT pet him, hes shy" This will help to make positive associations with people without anything negative or scary like a hand reaching out too. 

Wait to feed the dog!

Quick training tip:
DON'T FEED WHEN YOUR DOG WANTS TO BE FED. If you get in the habit of feeding your dog every morning as soon as you get up many dogs start anticipating you getting up means that they get breakfast as a result lots of dogs over time will start trying to wake you up earlier to get fed earlier. I know of a number of dogs whose owners wake up at 4 or 5am to feed their dog then go back to bed. This is NOT necessary.
Instead:
Get up, start your day, Feed your dog on your time. Don't feed them at a set time every day so that they aren't expecting it at any particular time. My dogs get fed twice a day and every day is different. Some days they eat at  5am some days 7 or 8am. In the evening same plan... sometimes its 4 or 5pm sometimes its closer to 7pm. If you take your dog with you on a vacation or to a friends house it will be alot easier for you to enjoy your vacation or for the person taking care of your dog if they are ok with eating at any time and not demanding to be awake and fed at 5am.

With these tips your dog will still get fed but you can enjoy a morning to sleep in once in a while.

Respect, Leadership, Teamwork in dog - human relationships

I was recently invited by a great trainer friend Brittany Robinson who owns Desert Dogs in Arizona to an online facebook group for dog trainers to connect.
There was a great post today by many wonderful trainers discussing these words and what they really mean.
Some of the wordage is credited to the trainers that are members of "Rational, Reasonable, Respectful dog trainer discussion" I can't take credit for all of the wording but I can agree with them and do run my business based on these ideas.
I wanted to share some of the ideas and what we believe these mean.
These truly are the fundamentals that all of our training is based on and it is important to have a good understanding of it.
What do these words really mean when it comes down to working with our dogs.

I want to take away some of the myths about these words first then we will dive into what these words mean and what they mean to us while we are working with you and your dogs.
MYTHS about these words

• Nothing is earned by who can scare the dog or who has the loudest, deepest voice - that is fear nothing more nothing less
• It's not about Dominance or "showing your dog who's boss"

RESPECT

• Respect is earned! 
• Respect = Trust 
• You have to be a safe place.
• Respect is returned after its given.
• I've heard someone say "be someone your dog wants to follow"
• In training I will point out when a dog is showing a lack of respect in a behavior 
• example: jumping on the owner can be excitement, play or it can be to try and take control there is a big difference in these 3 things and this is a time when I will point out lack of respect.
• Think about it... Think about the people you respect... What made you respect them?
• Was it because they were calm and consistent in their behavior? Reliable? Trustworthy?
• Just be those things for your dog and you will earn your dogs respect!
• Here's another great example for respect and leadership

LEADERSHIP

• How you carry yourself
• How you and your dog interact.
• Calm shows confidence
• Example:
• Think about the best boss and the worst boss you've ever had. The guy who yelled and ranted and went on a power trip, v.s. the guy who wanted you to succeed, helped you to do so, and who workers wanted to work for and not disappointing. 
• Giving your dog direction
• Perfect example of this is for a dog like "Io" a shy little chihuahua mix in littles playgroup will sometimes observe and stand off to the side I will call her over to me - giving her a form of direction something to do instead of shutting down in a nervous unsure situation for her. She then appreciates the direction because I helped her in a situation where she didn't know what to do. These little simple things help to build a bond. 
• I have never met a dog that did not appreciate fair, decisive calm assertive leadership.

TEAMWORK

• It's all about building a bond with your dog and working as a team. 
• But someone has to be team captain and that should be you the owner.
• The more balanced the dog the more we interact as buddies the more problems or behaviors the dog has the more I guide to help with leadership so the dog can get or move to being more comfortable.

Think about how dogs interact and work in a pack showing leadership and gaining respect among each other.

They are calm and confident. They do correct each other but are always fair. 

The quality and timing and energy behind the correction is more important than the force of the correction itself. Corrections can be half of respect the other half is the ability to step up in situations that dogs need leadership and successfully manage the situation calmly and quickly.

I hold the same true of when I work with dogs.. sometimes correction is necessary, but it needs to be fair, the dog needs to know why the correction is being implemented and their is no emotion behind the correction just calm confident and quick and no lingering emotion or upset. You want your dog to admire you and start to WILLINGLY cooperate and follow you. 

What do these words mean to you?