When a dog takes a food reward, if he doesn’t take it gently, it’s no fun for the person giving the food. I think we’d all agree it’s important that a do takes food gently from our hands, and most importantly, leaves our fingers intact. No toothy indentations on the palm or fingers is also a good thing. Generally speaking, if we deliver a food reward from the palm of our hand instead of with our fingers, the do is {Read More}
Dog Training – Consistency Counts
When training a dog of any age, what is important, above all, is to be consistent. Let’s take an example. You want to keep Pooch off the furniture. Twenty-three out of twenty-four hours, you enforce the rule. But somewhere in the 24th hour, you’re watching TV and decide to invite Pooch up on the sofa with you while you watch your favorite TV show. You have entered a gray area while dogs have a black-and-white understanding. So when Pooch decides {Read More}
Testing Dog Obedience Cues
Once you’ve taught your dog a behavior, add distractions slowly, so the dog can perform the behavior when faced with a better option. For example, my two Dobermann and our boarder Doodle were out for exercise this afternoon, and my girl, Emilie, was the first to notice one of our marauding gopher tortoise friends along the fence line. She went into stealth mode and slowly crept up on it. This was a hard maneuver to watch without breaking out into {Read More}
Food Rewards From The Trainer and The Sky
When you are working on eliciting a certain behavior from your dog, you’ll want to reward it around the clock. For example, the dog who jumps up for attention. When he approaches and keeps four paws on the ground, that’s big news and time to praise and reward. But we can’t always have food handy in our pockets, so make sure to keep small, tightly sealed containers of dog training food around the house. When your dog is offering a {Read More}
Use a Variety of Food For Training Dogs
When training your dog, or maintaining the training when your dog comes home from a customized Love Wags A Tail board-and-train boot camp, be sure to have a wide variety of food rewards at your disposal. Why? Because when you are competing against bigger distractions, you need an outstanding food reward your dog will focus. Otherwise, his focus will wander off on the distraction. He will work to get the reward that appeals to him at any time: whether it {Read More}