- Come to class early – Be at least 15 minutes early to give your dog a chance to sniff and relieve themself. Do not allow them to play with other dogs during this time as it will be very hard for you to compete with that type of rewarding experience and get your dog’s focus back on you.
- Bring a hungry dog to class – a hungry dog is more easily motivated by treats. Bring a variety of treats and/or toys – save the high value rewards (i.e. meat or cheese) for exercises your dog finds the most challenging. As the class environment can be very exciting, you may find your dog will not work for the treats they will normally do back flips for at home.
- Don’t compare your dog’s progress to that of others – all dogs (and owners) learn at different rates.
- Be aware of your dog’s body language – watch your dog for any signs of conflict with another member of the class. One of the key signals is if your dog is ‘eyeballing’ another dog. In the dog world this is a challenge so encourage him to break it off by calling his name or moving away. Also watch for signs of stress such as refusing treats, and excessive yawning or drooling.
- Only cue a behavior once – repeating a cue can disrupt your dogs thought pattern and also result in them ignoring it the first time. Give the cue and wait, count to 10, remember that dogs don’t generalize (they have to go back to their memory bank) so it might be necessary to lure them or use your body movement for the first few times.
- Make training part of your regular routine – have your dog sit and wait before supper; have your dog down and sit on a walk; have them heel intermittently on their walks.
- Put aside toys for training – training toys should be kept under lock and key and only taken out for training. Don’t let your dog have them any old time they choose or it will become less of a reward.
- Be Consistent – encourage everyone in the household to use the same words and have the same expectations. If you dog doesn’t perform a behavior when cued, consider why…do they understand the cue? Are they physically able to perform the cue at this time? How much reinforcement have they received for this behavior in the past? Rather than assume the dog is being stubborn consider that they might not know what is being asked at that moment in time.
- Pay Attention to Your Dog – if you expect your dog to pay attention to you while you are training, give them your full attention. They may be performing all kinds of great behaviors and not getting rewarded for them!
- Enjoy yourself! Training should be fun for both you and your dog so use lots of positive reinforcement in the form of treats or toys. If you feel yourself getting frustrated with an exercise stop and play with your dog for a few minutes to release tension.
