Dog Training Expectations

I love teaching my dogs new things. The excitement of doing their new behaviour, whether a sit, a trick, or some agility work, is priceless to me. But whatever we are learning, I always approach the training in the same way.

Give them a reason to do it

What is the payment for the behaviour? Honestly, if you didn’t get paid would you still go to work? Probably not. Your dog needs a reason to do the thing. Especially if the behaviour is against their nature or desire. For example, recall vs sniffing, walking with a loose lead vs greeting the dog walking by. This is why it is essential to build your dogs motivation for food or toys. It does make training a whole lot easier.

Know the criteria

You need to know what you expect of your dog in the long term, what your dog is capable of doing right now, and what the goal is by the end of this training session. If you don’t know, how on Earth will your dog know? Your dog needs to understand perfectly what is being asked of them, otherwise your dog will become confused and frustrated, (and so might you!).

Minimal failure

Finally we need to make sure that the dog is getting the behaviour correct 90-100% of the time. Sure there will be some failures, it is inevitable. However, we need to minimize the failure rate otherwise the dog may lose motivation. With good repetitions, the dog should then be able to transfer the training to new places, with new distractions.

Remember, the most important thing is to have fun with your training.