Positive Dog Training Improves Our Lives.
Positive reinforcement dog training is hard to do. It’s asking a lot of your dog, and it asks a lot of you. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.
There isn’t a whole lot you do for your dog that you shouldn’t be doing for yourself anyways. Between the consistency and the time outside, training your dog with positive reinforcement makes you a better person with a more full, engaged life.
There’s a lot of ways to train a dog but it pretty much comes down to carrot vs stick.
Some people are all carrot some are all stick but most dog trainers are on a sliding scale in between. The point is to find out where you are and find a dog trainer that aligns with you.
Positive Reinforcement training is where you praise the dog a lot when they do what you want, and try to redirect them when they do wrong, instead of hitting them
Other Methods involve tools like prong collars and electric collars which are used to punish the dog if they do incorrectly
If i make it sound cut and dry, i promise it’s not. Despite what people may scream at you on the internet. Positive methods can be cruel and punitive methods can be kind. Dog Training is about the person training the dog.
(If you want to use tools or gear i ask you to check out Larry Krohn or The Monks Of New Skete for the kinder side of tool use.)
Positive Reinforcement Dog Training works for me, my personality and my world view. If the idea of punishing your dog in order to get them listen creeps you out, then you don’t have to.
Outside of a well trained, well behaved dog there are the benefits of positive reinforcement training that extend to all areas of your life.
About The Author
Tim Cornett is a Positive Reinforcement Dog Trainer and stand up comedy veteran who owns Life Coach For Dogs. A Private Dog Training Company teaching well mannered dogs and happy families in Cleveland, Ohio
For Down To Earth, Tool Free Dog Training In-home or Online, Schedule your FREE consult here today
Patience
Buford Showing a great deal of patience while my brother put a saddle on him.
In dog training and in life some things will come easy to your dog and some things will not. Sometimes (especially with puppies) you are doing the right things, and in the right way and it just needs time to work.
If I were to have a criticism of a lot of dog training materials out there, they treat patience as a skill you’ve already got locked down.
potty training, barking, destructiveness..just get over it because your puppy is learning
Which sounds great but while you are being nipped at and you are guarding your spaghetti while trying to stop a pee you will get frazzled. It’s ok to have limits. Sometimes having patience is really just having a plan in place before you freak out. The crate, a walk or even a visualization of a better day are all things you have at your disposal. Training a dog can be a humbling experience but with consistency and resolve your dog will learn and so will you
How to lead
Dogs are kind of Jerks in the way that they are not patient with push over type of personalities, If they see a need to “take Control” they will. To alleviate their own anxiety. Their version of take control can be pretty destructive.
Oh great- I’ve just adopted my high school bully, kind of
Your bully probably felt out of control about something, and picking on you was a way for them to have a sense of control.
The difference is, you are now in the position to give a bully a different path. Imagine your high school bully if someone swept in and made sure they had consistency, activity and love? If you can be that person for your dog you can be that person in other areas of your life.
Being a leader to your dog is about more than showing them how tough you are. I’ve never had someone go super aggro on me, and I thought. This guys a winner
I think we assume great leaders are born, that someone will step out of the mist, speak directly to our hearts and show us the way. I don’t think it works that way.
I think leadership just falls on the person in the right position at the right time, and if we get really lucky that person is competent and fair.
As a dog trainer, I don’t love talking about wolves, because people take the information and run too far with it and end up seeing everything their pomerainian does as an assault on their authority. There is a lesson to be learned about your relationship with your dog from watching nature shows on pack animals. Being a leader isn’t a fun activity. The pack leader is stressed out, the survival of the pack is your responsibility and you are always on the lookout for danger. Leadership is not a reward for the strongest member of the pack, the strongest is burdened with being leader. Bring this back to reality and your house, the strongest one is you. You are the one who stands, thinks, buys food and gets to go to the bathroom in the house. Not being the leader in the pack your job is clear, and you don’t have anxiety about it.
Have you ever had a bad supervisor at work? It’s the worst
To your dog, the better leader you are the easier their job is. they trust you to take care of the big stuff so they can focus on their dog stuff. I believe being a good leader is about building trust and clear direction. In a pack, in a family and probably in an office. (I’m guessing, I work with dogs not in an office)
How to be confident
Or, really. How to look confident. I would never think of myself as a confident person, I know too many of my secrets. I am surrounded by people a lot more nervous than I am. I have no clue how to not constantly nitpick every decision ive ever made and agonize over mistakes from when I was 12.
But I can like fake what a confident person would do. It mostly boils down to speaking clearly and standing up straight really makes a difference in covering whatever damage your parents did to you.
With a dog in your household, It’s really helpful if you learn to expect respect, and then maybe you can learn to expect it from other species too.
Look for results/ ignore mistakes
Mistakes happen in dog training, you make them, dogs make them.
The nice part about dogs is that time is meaningless. So holding on to a mistake your dog has made ( a growl/ an accident) is useless.
Other trainers might disagree But I believe that dogs aren’t trained by avoidance.
Mistakes happen, Dwelling on them, avoiding them or over correcting can cause more damage than just moving on.
Learn, adjust and be safe.
I think dogs (and you) deserve as many chances to get something right as they need. If a dog keeps making the same mistakes, adjust as you support them in making the right decision.
Self control
The basic idea behind positive reinforcment dog training is that losing your cool does no good.
Your emotions are what they are, but your responses are under your control.
Bringing an animal into your house can be challenging. Dogs don’t have the language skills we do to avoid our personal failings. You get your self thrown in your own face sometimes and it’s infuriating.
The likelihood that your dog will understand what they did to make you rage out is very, very low.
It’s not realistic to say you never get mad at a dog, it’s reasonable to say don’t scream at the dog.
If you are a person prone to raging out dogs can teach you to have a plan in place when you feel your blood boiling.
Dogs will push your buttons to get a reaction, they will test your resolve and take advantage of weakness.
it’s one of those things they need to learn not to do.
More exercise
Life Coach for Dogs In Cleveland Ohio
If I didn’t have a dog I wouldn’t move.
I’m not one of those gym people who eat salads with no dressing.
One time I had a Fitbit rust off of my hand.
Dogs make me walk 30 minutes every day.
The worst dog to walk is still probably saving you from a heart attack.
Teach them consistency!!
Follow through/consistent
When you say something, IT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING
Dogs don’t really understand words out of the box. You really have to teach them what individual words mean. Otherwise they watch you for for cues, body language, daily subconscious habits and overall “vibe”.
If you want your words to have any impact at all they have to followed by some sort of action
Which is true in life. People love to talk with no follow through. We do the same thing to each other (and ourselves) that dogs do to us.
Debt, wieght, health, not eating trash, no jumping on people
nothing happens until you decide to make decisions.
Conclusion:
The things that you do for your dog are things that you should be doing for yourself,.
Positive Reinforcement works in dog training and it works in life.
We don’t have to punish ourselves to get results, it actually tends to get in the way of any real progress
be consistent, take walks, let things that bother you go
Why don’t we like ourselves enough to do these things for us but will summon the inner strength to do them for our dog?
I have no clue. I can only tell you about dogs.