I’m planning on getting a dog soon and would love some tips and tricks.
My tip is that when you take your dog for a walk, before crossing any street make them sit and wait for you to tell them to cross.
It helped when my dog got out a few times he would only walk around the block and never cross streets or run into traffic.
Dogs learn words. When your puppy pees, say out loud, for example pee-pee and praise the dog. Do this consistently a few times when the dog urinates. After a while they learn what it means, and you can tell them to go by using the command pee-pee. The same with pooping, of course.
This technique applies to all kinds of actions. One of the more useful ones are the directions: when on a walk and you turn to the left, say “left” and “right” when taking a right turn. The direction commands can potentially save the dog’s life in case they get off leash in a high traffic area.
A friend and I did a clicker training class with our dogs. Both dogs had come from a shelter and the trainer gave a discount for rescues. We paid about $100 for five lessons. Well worth it!!
Yeah, professional training can be really helpful. Especially if they’re interactive with you as well so that you learn how to train while the dog is being trained. Imo a training course is only as good as the owner will be after, if that makes sense.
Ours was a cute little class with about 7 people/pups and we had weekly homework. It was really fun!
Socialisation is the most important thing you’ll do with a dog, even if they’re an adult you need to get them used to as many things as possible so they can live a calm life.
Learn dog body language, so many people get into issues because they can’t tell their dog is stressed, or in pain, This is my favourite guide, but you can also learn for free online.
If you’re causing your dog pain then you’re not training their minds and setting you both up for failure. Find a different way to get what you want.
Most issues people have with their dog is because they’re not getting the correct physical or mental exercise.
Understand the breed you have as it will teach you how to make your dog comfortable.
My last dog was a bichon, maybe a mix since he was a bit big for the breed. I used to take him to the dog park and walk around, but he never wanted to play with other dogs. Even if we were alone in the whole place all he wanted was to sit on my lap with the biggest grin on his face. He loves going places and taking drives, but no matter where we went he only wanted to sit on my lap.
I miss him so much.
I 100% agree about the importance of learning doggie language, after all studies have shown domesticated dogs are extremely adept at learning human body language and are excited and motivated to learn human body language far past the point really any other animal gives a shit about doing. We owe them the same curiosity and interest in their language!
Simple things like a yawn usually means “hey I’m just here not trying to start anything” or a playbow is actually an invitation into playful energy most of the time, or how dogs evaluate how nervous to be about the threat of a nearby unfamiliar dog or person by whether the dog/human’s hips/shoulders are aiming towards them or not (a dog has to “aim” it’s shoulders at something it is about to attack, so aiming your hips and shoulders to the side is a form of de-escalating an immediate threat of violence for dogs).
Knowing how to differentiate the stress/pain pant from a normal pant is also CRUCIAL to picking up when your dog is suffering.
Making a big effort on improving their impulse control in general
One thing I read once and applied to my last dog and my friend has done with his: use as the hand gesture for sit bringing both your hands up to your chest, like kids do when afraid. Dogs tend to respond to visual commands as much as or more than vocal. This way if someone is scared of the dog and makes that scared gesture, the dog will (in my experience in most cases) sit.
And in general, consistency is the most important thing. In the end, teach your dog whatever commands you want with whatever cues you want, but consistency is the key across the board. This includes initially how anyone interacts with your dog during the initial training phases, if possible. This helps reinforce the specific training you’re doing and that not just you should be able issue commands
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Train your dog with a wait command before going through doors, big dogs that try to barge their way past you out of excitement to get out the door are sort of cute but also incredibly annoying it can honestly hurt someone who is frail.
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If it is a young dog you trust and you are raising them, touch their paws lots. Pick their paws up and shake em like a hand, don’t be rough but just handle their paws so they become comfortable with humans handling them as dogs can be really nervous about this and it makes it extremely hard to inspect your dogs paws for a cut that is making them limp or something.
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similarly if you are raising a dog and it is too small to hurt you, when you feed your dog hang out next to their dish, put your face near theirs (ONLY with a dog you trust), give them pets, make your dog used to the fact that humans might come near their food but that humans won’t take away their food so they don’t need to be defensive.
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the more dog time you give your dog (where you do dog stuff with your dog) the more human time your dog will give you (where you both do human stuff and behave according to human norms). Going on walks, throwing the ball, rough housing, all of these things give your dog the mental stimulation they need to relax and behave
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a good dog park where your dog can socialize with lots of different dogs and learn their doggy language is not only a fantastic way to get your dog exercise it gives your dog the opportunity to practice interacting with other dogs.
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periodically (gently) surprise your dog by nabbing their tail and giving a tiny tug, or poking them a bit on their rump when they aren’t looking. BE GENTLE and always transition to pets and praise after the initial surprise moment for your dog. If you have a large dog and some kid gets loose and runs up behind it and yanks your dogs tail for no reason and entirely takes your dog off guard, your dog will be used to this kind of bullshit and simply be surprised it is a tiny human annoying them rather than a full grown one. This can be a really dangerous moment if you have a huge dog like a german shepherd, because even if the dog isn’t normally aggressive towards kids, if the dog isn’t already well used to its owner frequently low leveling annoying it with boops, it might react in fear and self defense. If you extract enjoyment out of mildly annoying your dog for the goofs sometimes, you know tease them in a loving way…, they just aren’t going to react in fear and self defense when they are surprised by a human coming out of nowhere and abruptly surprising them.
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if you are raising a dog and you can figure out a way for your dog to meet cats, it can be helpful so that they don’t meet one in a situation you need them to behave and they go “WAIT WHAT IS THAT”. Same thing with human kids and babies.
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going away for the weekend and leaving your dog with a friend or someone else’s care is actually a really good thing for dogs that tend to get super attached to their owners (german shepherds are a classic example) as it stretches their mind a little bit encouraging them not to see their owners as the only thing in the universe, it gives them experience trying to relax without needing their One Human.
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get a collar that helps with walking better than a normal collar that just chokes out dogs when they pull, if you get the right collar/harness it will feel like you are walking an entirely different dog
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big dogs can absolutely learn how to “be mouthy” while also being incredibly gentle even though they have a mouth full of knives that can crunch through bone. Remember, dogs will carry puppies by their scruff. Dogs like humans have to learn the language of play, and they have to learn when they are being too rough with their mouth when they play with you. Many people train their big dogs to NEVER be mouthy which is understandable but if you know what you are doing your dog can absolutely learn how to play wrestle with you on the ground with their big scary mouth “chomping” (extremely gently) on your arm and both of you going at it having fun and being careful not to hurt each other. A dog can also be easily trained to get the signal for “ok playtime is over now, let’s wind down this energy” or “this is not the correct social situation to go nuts and want to play”. I tend to use the loose command “gentle” with my dogs, and I say it with a calming intonation. I have found practicing playing with a dog and then giving the command/signal that playtime is over is extremely effective over time at getting dogs to learn to become aware when they can be crazy tornadoes of chaos and when they need to chill the fuck out. If you do this right, your dog won’t ever play too rough with anybody because they aren’t going to be getting the right body language signals from those people that now is supposed to be playtime and they are invited to play,
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all dogs love it when you scratch just above their tail on their rump, it is like a cheat code for making a dog stop worrying about who you are as a stranger
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have friends over to normalize humans coming in your house, if you don’t your dog can easily fall into the habit of barking like a maniac every time friends come over and it can be scary and disorienting for guests
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the way you keep your dog from barking way too much (and jumping up on people) is literally just making the commitment to be more patient than your dog in making sure to always give feedback to your dog when they do those things (whatever your training style is).
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take your dog for dumb trips in the car to the store and back sometimes, definitely try to make it fun for them (and definitely don’t leave them in your car in the sun when it is hot for really any amount of time) but your dog will likely enjoy the stimulation of all the sights even if it is just a boring car trip and assuming you don’t have to go in wherever you are going for too long they will see it as a fun adventure. This helps train your dog to be chill about car rights and not loose their damn mind every time you are actually going on an adventure with them.
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if you have a big dog it is worth getting them used to being picked up in a bear hug occasionally as this can make dogs really nervous if they aren’t used to it and you don’t want to try to make them used to it in an emergency where they can’t walk or you need to lift them onto something. Make sure to support their rib cage (and back legs if possible) when you lift.
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Dogs are like people in that most of them want a job, they want something they can do for the pack that they are good at. Understand dog tricks from this perspective, you are giving your dog a job that they can do that gets them praise from you and other people and stimulates their brain.
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Be consistent.
Positive reinforcement of the behaviour you want to see is way way better than punishing behaviour you don’t like. If you consistently redirect bad behaviours, and reward good ones, then you don’t need to be around for the dog to choose the better behaviour.
In addition to this, building up a behavior by shaping is much more powerful that luring into the behavior or capturing it. Everything I’ve taught my dog by shaping she enthusiastically loves to do, to the point where it’s hard to get her to stop. It’s like solving a puzzle for them, so they associate the behavior with something fun.
Pretty much anything that can move runs on intermittent reward vs consistent consequence. Intermittent reward because sometimes in the real would things don’t work every single time, and an inconsistent negative consequence is just a high risk (and therefore more enticing) reward. Negative consequences are great short term safety solutions (one of the few things I’ll yell at a dog for is trying to run into traffic), but you need to work on teaching and rewarding a replacement behavior ASAP, because its almost impossible to create the kind of consistency needed to create an effective long-term negative consequence.
It also helps to understand extinction bursts. You know when you press a button on your computer or phone and it doesn’t work and you suddenly get the urge to hit the button harder and faster to try to get it to work? Prefect illustration of an extinction burst: when an action that typically produces a reward fails to produce that reward, the organism tries the behavior more and with more intensity. It follows naturally from the concept of intermittent reward; you know that it usually works, but that sometimes it might not, and your brain is programed to accommodate for that by encouraging you to try harder. Just remember this when you need to switch things up to curb a specific behavior; it might actually get WORSE for a short time, even if you’re ultimately doing the right thing to get the behavior to stop.
Actually, when trying to prevent “extinction” (which is a behaviorist term for when a learned behavior stops happening), ie when trying to get a new behavior to stick, randomly inconsistent reinforcement prevents extinction better than consistent reinforcement.
Consistent reinforcement is ideal for initial learning of a task, but to make the behavior stick when you’re not around, or when you don’t have treats in your pocket, you want to start slowly taking the reinforcement away.
Basically you follow a decaying probability curve of reinforcement, where at the end you’re only giving a treat once every five or ten times they do the behavior.
Don’t drag your ass on starting something like housebreaking or leash training because you want to go easy on them. They won’t understand that you’re trying to be nice because they’re little, they’ll just think that’s what they’re supposed to do. You don’t have to be mean about it or anything, just decide what behaviors you’re going to expect and what you’re going to do if they don’t and start expecting and following up as-needed as soon as possible. Also head-halters are a godsend if you can’t get your dog to stop leash pulling.
I had a rescue greyhound, an ex-racer, and how I leash-trained him was to transform the leash into a brake. When he pulled on the leash, I stopped. When he stopped pulling, we carried on. At first we stopped every few paces, it was agonising. But eventually (he was not very bright) the penny dropped and he realised he was controlling the brake. All he had to do was walk at a steady pace without pulling and we would get to the park quicker. It was funny seeing him try to hurry me along by exerting the most exquisitely tiny bit of pressure on the lead.
“I know not pulling gets me there faster, BUT GODDAMNIT, THAT HUMAN AIN’T MOVING, DO YOU HAVE MOLASSES ON YOUR SHOES OR WHAT, LET’S GOOOOO.”
I know that exact state of visible infighting in my dog’s head.
This is exactly what we do with our half husky. She LIVES to pull.
Recall training is so much easier if you get them started early. Once your puppy has had all his or her vaccines and are good to get off the lead at ground level you can get started.
Let them off the lead wherever you’re in a safe space and won’t meet any hazards like traffic, up to about 6 months old they’re still in puppy mode and will never stray far from you. Every time they run back to you just repeat your recall phrase like “[name] come” and when they get to you lots of praise and a tasty treat. In no time at all they’ll be bounding straight back to you as soon as you use your recall phrase and all the other dog owners in the park will be saying how well trained they are.
According to behaviorism research, reward is a much faster path to training than punishment.
Honestly though, just doing some basic reading on the concepts of classical and operant conditioning, as well as the concept called “shaping”, is excellent for training dogs and anything else.
Puppy classes, they teach you how to train your dog with treat positive reinforcement.
Consistency is honestly the only thing that really matters. You can use any key words/gestures/noise whatever. But stay consistent.
ALL household members MUST do the same commands, same time etc etc etc…
Professional puppy training is really good, especially if you have a nervous dog, as a lot of conventional dog advice doesn’t always work perfectly for a nervous dog.
On a similar note, learn and respect your dog’s limits. Dogs, like people, come in a huge range of personalities and so there are some things that your dog just will never be comfortable doing, ranging from tolerating children to doing agility and so on.
Oh and avoid elite dog training social media. It seems tempting because they show off all their impressive dogs, but it’s full of extremely opinionated, unreasonable, judgemental people that believe their way is the only way, a select few going as far as telling people to basically put down their dogs if their method doesn’t work… It’s a toxic community, don’t subject yourself (or your pup) to that stuff.
I do the same on walks. Other than that, using consistent positive reinforcement and avoiding punishment (ie ignoring Cesar Milan and others like that). And if the dog won’t sit, pull up on the collar instead of down on the butt to guide them. It makes them uncomfortable for a sec but usually they instinctively go to sit.
That’s always come a bit natural, well, usually in training unless it’s hand signals I’ll use both a lift on the neck and a down on the butt. Almost like correcting posture for someone.
You will find a more reliable sit by leading a dog into it rather than trying to move their body for them. The dog needs to move its own body in order for the movement and the word to join together in their brain.
Think about your own learning, is it better for you to learn a task by someone guiding your hands into position or is it better for them to model a behaviour and you to do it yourself? Which method means that you’ll remember tomorrow, next week, next month, etc?
You realise thats a punishment?
It’s not, no. Punishment is generally defined as inflicting something hurtful, not a fleeting discomfort, as reprisal. You still reward the dog when they comply with the “sit” command. Most dogs I’ve trained get “sit” after like 10 tries anyway.
Punishment in behavioral science is even more specific of a term.
A punishment is something unpleasant that creates the reaction you want. You’re saying you’re causing discomfort to your dogs neck in order to make them sit, that is by definition a punishment.
Pushing on the butt is also uncomfortable. You have to do one or the other to get them to sit. I’m not saying to yank the collar and strangle them lol. It’s a gentle little tug
