As I’m writing this, Kevin (my golden retriever) is in place right now chewing on an antler. I remember when he hit 6/7 months I never thought I’d be able to have him do something like this. I thought I’d be subjected to never ending pacing for the rest of his lifetime.
Earlier today I had a client come over and he was over the moon and it’s very hard to contain himself, so of course, there’s still work to be done but I try to focus on the positives instead of hammering him 24/7. They are dogs after all, not machines.
Remember your dog is a mirror image of you. The things they do or don’t do is how much work you’ve put into your dog. I work with dogs all day, at all different levels, and sometimes my dog gets put on the backburner which results in him blowing me off the odd time.
As frustrating as that is though, it’s my fault. Training isn’t something that you should limit to 15 minutes a day, it’s something that can be taught through life lessons.
You know your delivery guy will be knocking at your door any minute? Perfect, that’s a training session in itself to test your dog to place or not bark or go berzerk!
You have company coming over? Sweet! This will test your dog to see if he/she will jump on them or greet them without permission!
I think we all sometimes forget and get caught up in our lives that we miss out on everyday life training opportunities. Putting on a remote collar takes a minute and 30 seconds to do. Putting on your treat pouch takes 15 seconds!
I see people complain (including myself) about what their dogs do and how they want it to stop. It can be stopped! It just takes a few minutes for us to distance ourselves from our everyday lifestyles and putting our dogs first to get the results we want. Our dogs don’t know what we want from them unless we tell them. We are the pack leaders. We brought them into our homes and had them mold into our families, right? This is all on us! Not saying dogs can’t be stubborn, I know they can, but it’s all about breaking through that barrier and rewarding for the behavior you want and disciplining the behavior you DON’T want!
Happy Training out there!
