When starting with any dog, we find it best to start with the sit, stay and break commands in conjunction. Without the stay command, sitting has little relevance to a dog and without sit, stay is a difficult command to lead with properly. Start this with food. Some use treats but we like to advise doing it with meals on non-food aggressive dogs. A dog should be fed once in the morning and once at night. This way you're not really going out of your way to train your friend since you'll be feeding them anyways.
We found this method to be the easiest while still very effective. Always feed you pet after your meal to show dominance. No other actions are required here other than to commence your usual eating habits and times. Afterwords, bring your dog his/her food in a scooper (easier than using the bowl to scoop in this training exercise) however, don't pour it yet. Tell your dog to sit. If she/he doesn't do as told repeat the command while making them sit. Don't hurt your dog just gently yet assertively put them in the sitting position. After this tell them stay. This may take a little time the first try, but most dogs pick it up quickly. When sitting calmly and staying tell your dog break to let them know they can get up. In the beginning the dog will just know you said something and they get up but repeated use of this command will get them accustomed to the word break as a releasing command. I have heard some use okay, free, or just get up but we use break because we don't usually use it in everyday conversations (Whereas okay is used frequently by most people in conversation). Continue this and your dog will begin sitting and staying automatically when you bring their food. Dogs love consistency in leadership. We only did this for a few weeks until our dog would just sit in front of her food until we said break. This same technique can be used in fetch.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Basic Training Pt. 1 : Animalistic Behaviors
While Lily was a particularly obstinate dog in her training, Labradors in general catch on quickly with many basic training exercises. As I mentioned before, she had trouble with even the most rudimentary doggy obedience exercises. To start I will go over some basic animalistic behaviors of dogs dating back to their wild and misunderstood ancestors.
In the not too distant past, and a reoccurring present thanks to modern conservation, there roamed pack of wolves and wild dogs. One of the most basic but often overlooked traits in dogs (as well as humans) is a hierarchy system in which there is a constant passive assertive "battle" to be the top dog or alpha. I say passive assertive because while sometimes fights do breakout between a pack, most of the hierarchy stays in place through body language and a passive assertive dominance. Every canine in a pack has his or her place. There is nearly always a dominant alpha dog or an alpha mating pair (however one always still has the top position) in a pack either wild or domesticated. The leader provides for the pack, eats first, and leads the pack to food and water. Lower dogs will avert their gaze, lick the leaders face, lay on their backs, and/or even wet themselves in a preservative submission.
Humans have a similar hierarchy. In most households there is a leader. Not usually an actively proclaimed leader, but look at any family and one can tell who is in charge of the final decisions. Most families it is the father who is in charge. Sometimes if the father cannot fulfill his purposes the mother may take over running the household. In even worse situations, which I plan to come back to in future posts, if the parents cannot advocate their leadership, the children will take over through instinct. This creates little controlling monsters that fight desperately to keep their power. Thus why some children are far more difficult to reprimand.
Having an alpha dog in one's household can be very difficult to break. This is, in my opinion, the number one reason a dog will act out in bad behavior. Dogs are happy to have rules in their lives. It's natural. The whole "wild and free" idea about wolves is true in the state of location, yet every dog in the pack still follows the leader's rules.
In a human to dog relationship, you MUST be passive assertive in all facets of interaction. As stated earlier, a dog is always competing to be the leader. A better way to say it might be, a dog will take over leadership if they think they can do a better job than their owners. Signs of this would be food aggressiveness, direct disobedience, uncontrollable hyperactivity, excessive chewing, and ferocity toward other dogs or animals.
In the not too distant past, and a reoccurring present thanks to modern conservation, there roamed pack of wolves and wild dogs. One of the most basic but often overlooked traits in dogs (as well as humans) is a hierarchy system in which there is a constant passive assertive "battle" to be the top dog or alpha. I say passive assertive because while sometimes fights do breakout between a pack, most of the hierarchy stays in place through body language and a passive assertive dominance. Every canine in a pack has his or her place. There is nearly always a dominant alpha dog or an alpha mating pair (however one always still has the top position) in a pack either wild or domesticated. The leader provides for the pack, eats first, and leads the pack to food and water. Lower dogs will avert their gaze, lick the leaders face, lay on their backs, and/or even wet themselves in a preservative submission.
Humans have a similar hierarchy. In most households there is a leader. Not usually an actively proclaimed leader, but look at any family and one can tell who is in charge of the final decisions. Most families it is the father who is in charge. Sometimes if the father cannot fulfill his purposes the mother may take over running the household. In even worse situations, which I plan to come back to in future posts, if the parents cannot advocate their leadership, the children will take over through instinct. This creates little controlling monsters that fight desperately to keep their power. Thus why some children are far more difficult to reprimand.
Having an alpha dog in one's household can be very difficult to break. This is, in my opinion, the number one reason a dog will act out in bad behavior. Dogs are happy to have rules in their lives. It's natural. The whole "wild and free" idea about wolves is true in the state of location, yet every dog in the pack still follows the leader's rules.
In a human to dog relationship, you MUST be passive assertive in all facets of interaction. As stated earlier, a dog is always competing to be the leader. A better way to say it might be, a dog will take over leadership if they think they can do a better job than their owners. Signs of this would be food aggressiveness, direct disobedience, uncontrollable hyperactivity, excessive chewing, and ferocity toward other dogs or animals.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Rest of the Story
Well now we live in Portland. Many people who meet Lily for the first time are surprised at how obedient she is. How she walks beside us without pulling ahead, plays fetch and drops the stick and follows full sentence commands instantly. Over the next couple of weeks my wife and I will be going over some basic dog training patterns we followed that turned our friend's behavior around in weeks. We hope it will help you as well.
The Story of Lily the Flower.
My wife wanted a dog. Don't all great story's start with blaming someone? We lived in Roseburg, Oregon at the time; I was working at a local retail store out of the city. (Not much of a city though at only 21,000 population). We we're loving the outdoors but she needed a companion when I was at work. So, I asked around until someone told me of the Saving Grace shelter near Winchester.
It was a weekday and as we neared the building it was pouring down rain. To our surprise, the entire parking lot was filled with cars and we had to park the old Lumina in the slick mud on the side of the hill. We entered the facility into a line of 7-10 families dropping off every stray cat in the city. Fortunately, Saving Grace doesn't euthanize animals so there was little emotion except for the the rains depressing drizzle. We we're shown to the back of the facility to the "Large Dog" section. We looked through the remarkably indiverse selection of sad dogs and found the one. Lily came forward to the front of her cage and gave that look that screams "Take me home, I'm a cute, smart, cold and lonely dog that will love you forever."
She was 3-years-old, making her less expensive than the puppies, micro-chipped, something we will never go without again on an animal, and spayed so we could take her home immediately. Another couple was looking at her and discussing buying so we had to act fast. We managed to get her purchased, licensed and all signed over in a snap. Let me ask you, have you ever had that feeling that some things are too good to be true? Well, lesson learned. When we got her home she became the worst dog ever. She peed on the carpet, destroyed her chew toys, ate a tennis ball, would fetch a stick but never bring it back and if she did she would never release it. She also loved to jump on the furniture, guests, and into the garbage. Everything imaginable for a bad dog to do, she did it. We definitely had our work cut out for us in the coming weeks.
It was a weekday and as we neared the building it was pouring down rain. To our surprise, the entire parking lot was filled with cars and we had to park the old Lumina in the slick mud on the side of the hill. We entered the facility into a line of 7-10 families dropping off every stray cat in the city. Fortunately, Saving Grace doesn't euthanize animals so there was little emotion except for the the rains depressing drizzle. We we're shown to the back of the facility to the "Large Dog" section. We looked through the remarkably indiverse selection of sad dogs and found the one. Lily came forward to the front of her cage and gave that look that screams "Take me home, I'm a cute, smart, cold and lonely dog that will love you forever."
She was 3-years-old, making her less expensive than the puppies, micro-chipped, something we will never go without again on an animal, and spayed so we could take her home immediately. Another couple was looking at her and discussing buying so we had to act fast. We managed to get her purchased, licensed and all signed over in a snap. Let me ask you, have you ever had that feeling that some things are too good to be true? Well, lesson learned. When we got her home she became the worst dog ever. She peed on the carpet, destroyed her chew toys, ate a tennis ball, would fetch a stick but never bring it back and if she did she would never release it. She also loved to jump on the furniture, guests, and into the garbage. Everything imaginable for a bad dog to do, she did it. We definitely had our work cut out for us in the coming weeks.
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