100% Free Dog Training Online Guide
Among the many misconceptions about dog training is the belief that puppies should be taught discipline through the use of punishment. In this website, we follow a different approach, one that does not involve punishment for “mistakes” or “bad behavior.” Instead, we have found that it is far more beneficial and effective to reward the correct behavior. This approach will enable you to build the right relationship with your puppy because it involves understanding the way dogs think. Our methods show how to interpret your puppy’s behavior, so that you can give him the proper training that he needs to become an obedient, responsive, and happy adult dog.
The key to a happy, well-behaved dog is regular, consistent, systematic puppy training. By devoting time on a daily basis to your puppy’s training, he will grow into a well-behaved, obedient, contented dog that is a pleasure to own. Poor or inadequate training, on the other hand, can lead to behavioral problems – such as willfulness, disobedience, moodiness, or aggression – that can be extremely disruptive to family life. The reward based training methods explained in this book are non-punitive – they do not rely on punishment to get your puppy to learn. They are highly effective primarily because they take into account canine psychology – that is, the way dogs think.
Many behavior problems concerning dogs come about not because of some innate “wickedness” on the part of the dog but because the owners have failed to understand the fundamentals of canine psychology. All dogs are, at heart, pack animals that need to conform to a strict social hierarchy within their group. The modern domesticated dog lives in a mixed canine/human family, but he still retains his social instincts and quickly learns to recognize his place in the family, or pack, hierarchy.
A puppy inherently wants to follow “the rules” of the pack and to keep to his place. In the wild, puppies do not need to be bullied into conforming by other pack members. The rewards that come from being in a pack are sufficient incentive in themselves. These rewards are: a sense of belonging, security from danger, the affection and companionship of the other members of the pack, a place to sleep, and a regular supply of good food. Puppies just need to learn what the rules are. This is true of the domestic canine/human “pack” too.
Decide carefully about house rules, and then be clear and consistent. This is especially important when it comes to whether or not puppy is allowed on your furniture!
Establishing the right relationship with your puppy is as important as teaching your puppy basic obedience. It may seem an obvious thing to say, but your puppy does not speak English. Yet, even though we know that, we often expect puppies to understand us. Canines belong to a different species with a different way of thinking. Because of our close relationship with dogs, we like to imagine they think and react as we do, but they don’t. If your pup is behaving in a way that you might describe as “being naughty,” it is probably because he is behaving like a canine and hasn’t understood what you want. Shouting at him and – far worse – hitting him, won’t help him to understand what you require of him. He won’t know what the problem is, and all you will teach him is that you are not to be trusted because you become aggressive for no reason.
To a dog, there is no such thing as right and wrong – just canine instinct. It is unreasonable to expect a dog to understand our concept of right and wrong because he can’t – it’s as simple as that. So it is our responsibility to find ways to teach him what we require. Decide your house rules and work out how best to teach them to your puppy. Unless you teach him, he will not know the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
Always be consistent
Give your puppy clear consistent house rules. If on one occasion you allow the pup to get onto your best armchair – because he looks so cute sleeping there and he’s not doing any harm – then the next day you shout and scream at him for doing the same thing, because this time it’s a wet day and your best armchair is now smothered in mud – you are being very inconsistent. It is unreasonable to expect the pup to understand when he is allowed on the chair and when he isn’t. if you decide your puppy is allowed on the furniture then, if he is wet or muddy, don’t let him have access to a chair until he is dry. BUT, if you do allow him on the furniture, make sure you teach him that he must get off if you tell him. If you have a problem getting him to jump off when you want him off, then it is best to make it a rule that he is not allowed on the furniture at all.
Food: Yours, not his
It is important for your relationship with you puppy that he respects your eating times. When you are sitting down to eat, never feed your pup scraps from the table. Some people think giving their dog these “extras” will make him love them more. Quite the reverse, in fact. If you are in the habit of sometimes eating food off a low table or TV tray, then continue this habit once the pup arrives. It is good for his discipline and very easy to teach him that this is your food and he is not to touch it. Usually a stare, or sometimes a growl or words said in a “growly” voice will suffice. On rare occasions, you may even need to push him away gently, if the pup is very persistent. However, remember that dogs are opportunists and natural scavengers, so don’t leave the food unattended at a low level. It would be very foolish to expect the pup not to take the opportunity literally handed to him on a plate! If he learns to steal, it’s your fault for having left food unattended where he can reach it.
Never feed your puppy morsels of food from the dinner table, or he’ll become a pest every single time you sit down to eat.
Dinner Time
Still on the subject of food, we can also affect our relationship with our pup by what we do at his feeding time. Some people seem to think it is necessary to give the dog his dinner and almost immediately remove the bowl, just to prove they can take it away. Then when the dog growls, they adopt the “No dog’s gonna growl at me!” attitude. If you just think about this from your viewpoint, you can see that it is an unreasonable thing to do. If someone put a plate of delicious food in front of you and almost immediately removed it, wouldn’t you at least say, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Well, that’s exactly what the dog is doing in the only way he knows how – by growling. This has nothing to do with rank or dominance. This is really about survival.
There are much easier ways to make sure your puppy is relaxed about his food bowl, provided you start as soon as the pup arrives in your home. If there are children in the family, they can do this too.
• Stay with him while he’s eating – don’t put the bowl down and leave the room.
• Without taking it away, handle the bowl while he is eating. Sometimes talk to him quietly and very calmly and gently stroke him.
• Occasionally, put only part of his dinner in the bowl and while he is still eating, gradually add some more food.
If you then need to remove the bowl for some reason, there will be no problem, because he has learned to trust you around his food.
If you stay with your puppy while he is eating, it will help him to relax and trust you around his food
Scolding your pup
There may be rare occasions when you will need to scold your puppy, but make sure you are always fair. The dog (puppy or adult) has an associative memory of only about three seconds. So, in order to associate a reprimand with an act, it has to come within three seconds of the misdemeanor. For example, if your pup chews the priceless Persian rug while you are out, there is no point in scolding him when you get home. He will have no idea why you are so angry and all you will teach him is that you become aggressive for no reason and are not to be trusted. You were the one at fault for leaving the pup where he had access to something valuable.
The dog is a highly aurally and visually oriented animal, so he quickly notices anything “odd” about you, such as your tone of voice, body language and mood. If your voice is angry or he reads anger in your body language, then he is likely to adopt an appeasing body posture, which is often misread as guilt and punished accordingly. Please don’t fall into the trap of misunderstanding your puppy in this way – it will spoil your relationship. The only time it is reasonable to scold your puppy is if you have caught him in the act of doing something you don’t want him to do. Tell him off in a growly voice and as soon as he stops whatever it is, change your attitude and your tone of voice. Never reprimand more than three seconds after the event.
If you are always consistent and fair to your puppy so that he knows he can trust you, he will feel secure and relaxed and will be much easier to train. Conversely, if your puppy learns that you cannot be trusted, he will be insecure, tense and anxious and training him will be much more difficult. So be fair to your puppy! It makes for a better life for you both!
Through play, puppies learn the social structure and body language signals of canine behavior which are necessary for good relationships with other dogs.
Learning through play
The dog pack hierarchy is mainly established through play, and we should remember this when we play games with our puppies. Young puppies learn a tremendous amount from each other through playing together. It begins when they are siblings in the litter and continues when puppies meet up at puppy school. Through play, they learn about “bite inhibition” – that is, the ability to control the biting instinct; they discover how to manipulate each other; they continue to learn about how the pecking order is established; and they also learn about the calming signals (canine body language) so necessary to ensure good relationships and avoid conflict with the other puppies and dogs they will meet during their life.
In puppy school, pups come from different backgrounds and initially don’t know each other. So it is important that play times are properly supervised. Without this supervision (and—sometimes—intervention), it is only too easy for a confident, boisterous pup to turn into a bully, or for a shy, insecure pup to decide that play with his own species is no fun, possibly making him more shy, nervous, and/or aggressive.
With proper supervision, a confident, boisterous pup will realize that his “crash, bang, wallop” approach brings no reward, and he will try different, calmer tactics in order to achieve what he wants: to have fun playing. And, because of the calmer approach, the shy puppy gains confidence to play.
In the same way, your puppy will learn a tremendous amount by playing with you. It is best not to play rough-and-tumble, wrestling-type games with dogs of any age, as it tends to give them the wrong idea of their status. It is far better to play games that make the pup use his brain rather than his brawn—such as hide and seek, and fetch. Tug o’ war-type games with a toy are also best avoided until the pup has learned complete bite inhibition. Even then, it is important that you win the game and trophy the toy more times than your pup, otherwise, again, you could give him the wrong idea about his status.
Manipulation
Like most animals, including humans, puppies and dogs quickly learn to manipulate their environment to their advantage, so try to make sure that, in your relationship with your puppy, you are the one who gives the lead and makes the decisions. If you play with your puppy every time he pushes a toy at you, you are teaching him that he can get you to play whenever he wants. Play with your puppy often, but make sure that most of the time it is at your instigation, not at the demand of your pup.
Give your puppy lots of attention, but make sure it’s on your terms, so he is not confused about his status.
The same applies to attention. If every time your pup comes up and nudges your arm for attention, and you oblige him, you are teaching him that he can get your attention whenever he likes. Give your puppy lots of attention and fussing, but make sure that most of the time it is at your instigation, not his.
Praise that puppy!
Make sure that you let your puppy know, on a regular basis, when he is doing something right. If he is just lying down quietly, tell him, in a quiet, calm voice, what a good dog he is. He won’t understand the words, but he will understand the praising tone. If you let him know you are pleased with what he is doing, not only will the behavior you want occur more often, but it will help him to feel more relaxed and secure.
Rewards
When teaching your puppy how to behave, the type of reward you give is likely to vary according to the circumstances and, sometimes, according to the temperament of the puppy. Some rewards, such as a treat, or verbal praise, involve little physical contact. Others involve a lot of physical contact in the form of fussing and petting—in other words, stroking your puppy and being generally affectionate toward him. If your puppy is very excitable, then praise and physical contact will usually need to be much lower-key than if you have a more placid puppy.
The type of relationship you have with your puppy will affect all aspects of his life, including how well he is able to learn from you when you try to teach him obedience exercises. The human needs to be the pack leader. However, within the hierarchy of the dog or wolf pack, the pack leader rules with a benevolent authority, not a punitive regime. We need to do the same. As you will see, punishment does not play any part in our training methods. A puppy will learn much more quickly if he is praised and rewarded for doing right, rather than punished for doing wrong. On this website, we have recipes for “puppy treats” that your dog will love. Give a treat and lots of praise whenever your puppy has behaved well and followed the rules, and give extra treats and praise when he has behaved especially well.
The time and effort you put in now, during the puppy’s early, formative months, will quickly pay dividends. Very soon you will have a highly responsive puppy who is eager to learn and to earn your praise—a pet who is a joy to own and a pleasure to take with you whenever you visit friends and neighbors. Perhaps more importantly, he will grow into an adult dog who is well behaved and responsive to commands, not out of fear but out of choice, because he is happy, contented, secure, and—above all—he knows the rules.