Canine Hierarchy & House Rules
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1. Human / Canine Relationship
2. House Rules
a. Ignoring when arriving home
b. Greeting visitors politely
c. Attention on your terms or not at all
c. Work to earn
e. Non Reward Marker
3. Fading the Reward
4. Feeding
2. House Rules
a. Ignoring when arriving home
b. Greeting visitors politely
c. Attention on your terms or not at all
c. Work to earn
e. Non Reward Marker
3. Fading the Reward
4. Feeding
1, Human/Canine Relationship.
Although nowadays our dogs appearance and lifestyle is very different from what it was and further studies have shown that dogs do have a lot of differences in behaviour from wolves, one thing that has remained constant is that there has to be a leader, a pack parent, for lack of better wording. What happens so often in our canine/human relationship is that we, as pack parents do not always fulfil that position properly – and that is only because we do not know how to. What then occurs is that the dog will try to take charge which often leads to disastrous results including numerous behavioural problems.
The Alpha in a pack is the dog that is the strongest, most intelligent and best fitted dog all round to lead the pack. The Alpha dog is not the dog that barks, fights (unless with a rival) and creates havoc – he is the dog that is calm, respected, looks after his pack and ensures that his place is maintained by exhibiting these virtues. It is in the middle ranking of the pack that the ‘wannabees’ (I want to be the leader but have not learned how) are seen. These are the dogs that squabble amongst themselves; they would never dare show this type of behaviour to the Alpha unless they were issuing a challenge.
What then needs to be done is to show your pup that you (and the rest of your family) are higher up in the pack than the pup is. We do not achieve this by force (aggression breeds aggression), but by being a calm, confident example for our dogs. Once your dog realizes that you are in charge, it will stop trying to be in charge and become a much calmer, less stressed individual and realize that it can trust you to care for and protect it.
Although nowadays our dogs appearance and lifestyle is very different from what it was and further studies have shown that dogs do have a lot of differences in behaviour from wolves, one thing that has remained constant is that there has to be a leader, a pack parent, for lack of better wording. What happens so often in our canine/human relationship is that we, as pack parents do not always fulfil that position properly – and that is only because we do not know how to. What then occurs is that the dog will try to take charge which often leads to disastrous results including numerous behavioural problems.
The Alpha in a pack is the dog that is the strongest, most intelligent and best fitted dog all round to lead the pack. The Alpha dog is not the dog that barks, fights (unless with a rival) and creates havoc – he is the dog that is calm, respected, looks after his pack and ensures that his place is maintained by exhibiting these virtues. It is in the middle ranking of the pack that the ‘wannabees’ (I want to be the leader but have not learned how) are seen. These are the dogs that squabble amongst themselves; they would never dare show this type of behaviour to the Alpha unless they were issuing a challenge.
What then needs to be done is to show your pup that you (and the rest of your family) are higher up in the pack than the pup is. We do not achieve this by force (aggression breeds aggression), but by being a calm, confident example for our dogs. Once your dog realizes that you are in charge, it will stop trying to be in charge and become a much calmer, less stressed individual and realize that it can trust you to care for and protect it.
2. House Rules
All the following exercises are based on how dogs interact with one another and are really the ABC of behaviour modification. These will assist in raising your (and the rest of the family) higher in the combined human/canine hierarchy which will result in your dog feeling more secure as you are taking charge. The result of this is that the dog will relax more as the position of being in charge has now been filled and the end result of this will be that stress levels will decrease. This is vitally important in the case of a dog that has fear and/or reactive tendencies - the dog will feel that it can trust you more in any situation it perceives as being threatening, which will result in a further reduction of the fear behaviour. Please follow the sequence as shown - this really is important and is based on how dogs interact with one another.
During the pups first 16 weeks of life, in a pack situation, they are allowed to get away with inappropriate behaviour from the other dogs - they will be very tolerant of them. However, after this period has passed, the older and adult dogs will start to put the pups in their place and teach them what is and is not acceptable. This will be done by way of a stare, a growl, lifted lip and even an air bite.
Where we humans are concerned we do not have the facility to do this properly, so it is far better to bring in the House Rules that you do want, rather than change bad habits at a later stage.
a. Ignoring your dog when you arrive home. (done in silence for at least first week)
One of the most important exercises and for the first week at least, this exercise is carried out in silence. Why? We are using out bodies to communicate to our dog's what we do, and do not accept. think about it, have you every seen a pack of dog's sitting around having a bone party and discussing with one another what Zeus did to Fluffy? Of course not, dog's communicate more with their bodies that in any other manner.
To start this off you must ignore your dog when you come home, or if in the home, even moving from room to room or going outside to where the dogs are. The behaviour at present may be that you are jumped on, barked at, attention is demanded etc., and, every single time you give the dog that attention, you are reinforcing that you are not an adequate leader – an Alpha dog would not allow this! Remember that to a dog, attention is attention, whether it is negative or positive, so even shouting at the dog for jumping up on you is going to end up making the problem worse.
How To - Summary:
This exercise must take place the second you have your first interaction with your dog. Avoid all eye contact with your dog and if he/she jumps up, either turn away or gently put the feet down on the floor. No talking at all. You can even fold your arms and turn your body, as well as your eyes, away from the dog. This body language indicates - I am not interested and is based on the calming signals that dogs exhibit (as discussed).
Depending on how bad the situation currently is, it may take your dog a bit of time initially to calm down but it eventually will – either by giving up and going away or lying down etc. From this point of surrender you will time 10 seconds and then call your dog to you, ask for a sit - reward first with praise and then a treat (we always treat 100% of the time initially and then will fade the reward - notes supplied) . You are indicating to the dog that the demanding/OTT behaviour is not acceptable, but the behaviour of coming to you when called and sitting, or greeting you quietly, is the behaviour that you want.
b. Greeting visitors politely
Many dogs will easily and quickly change the behaviour when you make use of the ignoring exercise above, however, when visitors arrive, the dog's behaviour can revert to jumping up, over excited etc.
There are two main ways of dealing with this. Either you can let the visitor come in and instruct them how to do the exercise above, or you can pup the dog on lead and manage the interaction. If your dog is a bit fearful of people or really gets very over excited, then we do recommend that you bring in the management exercise and have the dog on lead. This is how it is achieved and the more it is practised the better:-
c.. Attention on your terms or not at all (done is silence for at leas the first week)
We are not always aware how often our dogs do demand attention from us; they often do it without us realizing. It may be a case of the dog jumping onto the chair and sitting on our lap or next to us, bringing a toy to be played with, insisting on a tummy rub, nudging us, mouthing us, pawing us etc. When your dog exhibits the demanding behaviour, ignore the dog completely whether you are outside or inside. From this time onwards, attention is given only on your terms.
If you are sitting on the couch and your dog either jumps up or demands attention, just put it back on the floor without saying a word. You may even have to move from one chair to another or in the extreme, leave the room. This is a form of what is termed negative punishment – you are taking away from the dog that it most wants – you! After the dog has settled for the 10 second period, you can call it back to you and again ask for a sit and give the attention you want too. Once the dog has understood what gains attention and what does not, then vary this exercise, sometimes ignoring the pup completely, other times calling it and at other times leave the room yourself.
This does not mean that you can’t have your dog on the couch with you any more, of course you can, but at your invitation only! If your dog normally lies on couches, there is no reason to stop this - the exercise above will only apply if the dog comes and jumps up onto you, or next to you.
We are not telling our dogs we don’t love them, we are showing them that attention is given only on our terms. Although this may seem to be extreme, what we are teaching the dog is that we are in control. As the dog becomes aware of this it will stop trying to be in charge – the stress will lessen, it will feel safe and secure and the behavioural concerns will lessen.
This is a sequence that is not to be done only for a few weeks, do it forever, and include every single member of the family. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways to have a well behaved dog and will go a long way to building the dog’s confidence in your ability to lead appropriately.
d.Work to Earn
Work to Earn If you think about it, with our 10 fingers we supply all our dog’s needs – food, walks, play, petting exercise etc. and together with our voices gives us excellent tools with which to control our dogs resources. It is always important to be consistent when working with dogs, the dog needs to learn that it can rely on you every single time to be its protector and pack leader. As we all have to ‘work for our living’ so too does your dog from now on. If we relate this to pack behaviour, every single dog has a job, or combined jobs to perform – looking after the pups, guarding the pack, cleaning the den (faeces), hunting for food etc. So if you look at it that way, why not have your dog working for its living? The more you take control of all the resources, the more your dog will view you, and the rest of the family, as the pack leaders and will be more likely to relax knowing you are in charge and not try to take charge itself. This will result in good behaviour, reduction of existing behaviour problems and less likelihood of future bad habits developing.
In the case where you have a dog that jumps up on people, you can incorporate the work to earn system by taking control of your dogs daily ration of food - simply call the dog, ask for a sit, take a few paces away and then repeat. Do this inside the home, in the garden and on walks. You will quickly have a dog that will sit immediately in front of all humans as it is rewarding to the dog. When you get to this stage, you can then start to fade the reward.
Here are some ideas you can incorporate. The list is really endless and the more you do the more your dog will listen and regard you (and all family members) as being in charge:-
e. NRM - Non Reward Marker
Very often, a dog has heard the word ‘no’ so many times that it becomes white noise and is totally ignored and this is why I prefer the use of a word that is not used in our daily conversation such as ‘uhuh’, poofy etc. It does not matter what word you use as long as it is not part of your daily conversation.
Additionally, it is very difficult to tell our dogs to do nothing! You may be able to say to your children ‘please don’t walk on the tiles, I just washed them’, but your dog would not understand a word of this. When you start using the NRM system, you tell your dog ‘uhuh’, I don’t like that behaviour, followed immediately with ‘good boy/girl’ the second the dog stops the behaviour. You are now opening up excellent lines of communication and your dog knows exactly what is acceptable and what is not.
I do not bring the use of the NRM when first teaching the ignoring and demanding behaviour exercises simply because the dog has no idea what I want, but it can be used for any other behaviour your dog engages in that you are not happy with.
The beauty of having a cue such as ‘uhuh’ is that you can control the volume of same and the manner in which you say it with your voice. It is always better to talk to a dog in a soft voice, and use the loud voice for when the dog has really misbehaved.
What is very important, is to bring in the use of the NRM while the dog the dog is engaged in the inappropriate behaviour, even a few seconds after the event is too late and the dog will not relate the NRM to the past behaviour. Remember to always praise (quietly) when the dog stops and do not use the dog's name.
3. Fading the Reward
One of the most common statement clients will make to me is “he only does it for food!” Now the last thing any of us want is for a dog to do what we ask only if we have food on us. How is this solved? Not at all hard, read below.
When you are teaching a dog a new behaviour you reward 100% of the time until the dog ‘get’s it’. You then immediately start to stagger the reward. When a reward is staggered (in behaviour terms it would be a varied reinforcement schedule) a dog will actually work harder for the reward, simply because it never knows when it will be forthcoming! If we relate this to human terms, why do we keep on putting money into one armed bandits? Simple, we get rewarded for doing so – or at least some of us do!
Don’t always have the treat in your hand either, pop some food into your pocket or even keep some titbits on top of a cupboard etc, throughout the house. This will stop the dog only working when it can see the food – be a magician!
So how then do you stager a reward? When the dog is performing the requested behaviour proficiently, then repeat the request and only offer a reward every second or third time. Mix it up, sometimes every fourth time, sometimes ever second time, until you gradually fade the reward almost completely and can use praise instead. I find that it is better to give the odd reward rather than cut it out all the time – think about it, would you work month in and month out for no pay??
Remember that instead of a food reward, you can also tell the dog ‘good boy’ or similar. Food is not always the be all and end all of rewards, as to some dogs praise is more important, to others a ball being thrown and to some a scratch is the best thing in the world.
A lovely exercise to do with both pups and older dogs to start fading is the ‘3fors’ i.e. the dog is taught to sit and rewarded, the dog is taught the down cue and rewarded, the dog is taught the stand cue and rewarded. When all 3 are in place start to ask for a sit and then a down and then reward. When the dog is proficient at all three exercises individually, then ask for a sit, stand, down and the reward. Using this 3 simple exercises you can practice lots of different sequences and start fading at the same time.
If you come across a situation wherein the dog knows the behaviour and suddenly becomes deaf and totally ignores you, stand silently for about 30 seconds to see if the dog will comply (if it does offer the treat immediately), if not, waggle the food treat in front of its nose and say ‘too bad’ and walk away. If there is another dog around, immediately ask that dog for behaviour and when it does comply, give it the treat – this has a great impact on dogs! If there is not another dog around, try the exercise about a minute later in a different location. If the dog complies, then do ‘jackpot’ it by giving two or three rewards very quickly. The dog will work out for itself what works and what doesn’t. If the dog comes back to you of it's own accord and sits in front of you - no NOT reward - rather turn and walk a step away, call the dog - repeat the cue and if the dog then complies, give what is called a jackpot (like a gold star at school) and offer lots of praise and a few treats.
Don’t only have training sessions, start to bring the behaviours, such as sit, down etc into everyday life by asking for a sit before playing, sit and wait before going out a door etc. Also remember to practice in different locations. You may have a dog that sits perfectly every time you ask in the house, but does that dog do the same in the garden?
What is important to remember is that when training in a different location i.e. in the garden or out on a walk, to go back to the beginning with the treating and again start to fade in that situation as well.
4. Feeding
For the first few weeks of your pup's life, feed the majority of food by hand. Not only does this immediately raise you up in the combined human/canine social structure, you can teach the pup to sit politely, have a soft bite, and avoid resource guarding.
Part of the food should be softened and then stuffed into toys such as the Everlasting Toys, Kongs etc. The chewing on these legal toys will keep the pup busy during the day, keep stress levels down and help with teething.
In further avoid resource guarding take the pup's food bowl in your hand and offer to the pup, adding in a piece of kibble each and every time and on occasion a treat as well. Get the pup used to people touching its bowl and it being a rewarding thing to have humans touching food. Once the pup is happy with this, bring in other members of the family to do the same thing. Include the children in this exercise, but always under supervision.
All the following exercises are based on how dogs interact with one another and are really the ABC of behaviour modification. These will assist in raising your (and the rest of the family) higher in the combined human/canine hierarchy which will result in your dog feeling more secure as you are taking charge. The result of this is that the dog will relax more as the position of being in charge has now been filled and the end result of this will be that stress levels will decrease. This is vitally important in the case of a dog that has fear and/or reactive tendencies - the dog will feel that it can trust you more in any situation it perceives as being threatening, which will result in a further reduction of the fear behaviour. Please follow the sequence as shown - this really is important and is based on how dogs interact with one another.
During the pups first 16 weeks of life, in a pack situation, they are allowed to get away with inappropriate behaviour from the other dogs - they will be very tolerant of them. However, after this period has passed, the older and adult dogs will start to put the pups in their place and teach them what is and is not acceptable. This will be done by way of a stare, a growl, lifted lip and even an air bite.
Where we humans are concerned we do not have the facility to do this properly, so it is far better to bring in the House Rules that you do want, rather than change bad habits at a later stage.
a. Ignoring your dog when you arrive home. (done in silence for at least first week)
One of the most important exercises and for the first week at least, this exercise is carried out in silence. Why? We are using out bodies to communicate to our dog's what we do, and do not accept. think about it, have you every seen a pack of dog's sitting around having a bone party and discussing with one another what Zeus did to Fluffy? Of course not, dog's communicate more with their bodies that in any other manner.
To start this off you must ignore your dog when you come home, or if in the home, even moving from room to room or going outside to where the dogs are. The behaviour at present may be that you are jumped on, barked at, attention is demanded etc., and, every single time you give the dog that attention, you are reinforcing that you are not an adequate leader – an Alpha dog would not allow this! Remember that to a dog, attention is attention, whether it is negative or positive, so even shouting at the dog for jumping up on you is going to end up making the problem worse.
How To - Summary:
- As you see the pup for the first time, stop, stand still, fold your arms, turn your head away, dont look at the pup - totally ignore the pup and do not talk to it. Make your body language stiff and uninviting i.e. stand ramrod straight, arms folded and stiff.
- Pup will either sit down or start to walk away . When either of these occurs, wait 10 seconds, then call the pup, request a sit, praise and give a treat.
- There after either go down to the pup if it is jumping up when greeting, or pick it up, or go to another area and give all the love you want.
This exercise must take place the second you have your first interaction with your dog. Avoid all eye contact with your dog and if he/she jumps up, either turn away or gently put the feet down on the floor. No talking at all. You can even fold your arms and turn your body, as well as your eyes, away from the dog. This body language indicates - I am not interested and is based on the calming signals that dogs exhibit (as discussed).
Depending on how bad the situation currently is, it may take your dog a bit of time initially to calm down but it eventually will – either by giving up and going away or lying down etc. From this point of surrender you will time 10 seconds and then call your dog to you, ask for a sit - reward first with praise and then a treat (we always treat 100% of the time initially and then will fade the reward - notes supplied) . You are indicating to the dog that the demanding/OTT behaviour is not acceptable, but the behaviour of coming to you when called and sitting, or greeting you quietly, is the behaviour that you want.
b. Greeting visitors politely
Many dogs will easily and quickly change the behaviour when you make use of the ignoring exercise above, however, when visitors arrive, the dog's behaviour can revert to jumping up, over excited etc.
There are two main ways of dealing with this. Either you can let the visitor come in and instruct them how to do the exercise above, or you can pup the dog on lead and manage the interaction. If your dog is a bit fearful of people or really gets very over excited, then we do recommend that you bring in the management exercise and have the dog on lead. This is how it is achieved and the more it is practised the better:-
- Have treats with you and ask the visitor to have treats with them.
- The visitor enters the home and does not look at, speak, or interact with the dog at all.
- You have the dog on lead and ask for a sit and reward the behaviour with praise and a treat a few times. This will help to calm the dog down.
- The visitor tosses a treat close to where you and the dog are standing and as the dog takes the treat, you praise the dog, ask it to sit again and again praise and treat.
- The visitor gradually tosses the treat closer to where the dog is standing and the above exercise is done repeatedly.
- When the dog is relatively close to the visitor, the visitor calls the dog (you are still holding the lead), asks the dog to sit, using both the verbal cue and the hand signal for sit.
- This exercise is repeated several times but instead of tossing treats, the visitor calls the dog and asks for a sit using the hand signal and the cue.
c.. Attention on your terms or not at all (done is silence for at leas the first week)
We are not always aware how often our dogs do demand attention from us; they often do it without us realizing. It may be a case of the dog jumping onto the chair and sitting on our lap or next to us, bringing a toy to be played with, insisting on a tummy rub, nudging us, mouthing us, pawing us etc. When your dog exhibits the demanding behaviour, ignore the dog completely whether you are outside or inside. From this time onwards, attention is given only on your terms.
If you are sitting on the couch and your dog either jumps up or demands attention, just put it back on the floor without saying a word. You may even have to move from one chair to another or in the extreme, leave the room. This is a form of what is termed negative punishment – you are taking away from the dog that it most wants – you! After the dog has settled for the 10 second period, you can call it back to you and again ask for a sit and give the attention you want too. Once the dog has understood what gains attention and what does not, then vary this exercise, sometimes ignoring the pup completely, other times calling it and at other times leave the room yourself.
This does not mean that you can’t have your dog on the couch with you any more, of course you can, but at your invitation only! If your dog normally lies on couches, there is no reason to stop this - the exercise above will only apply if the dog comes and jumps up onto you, or next to you.
We are not telling our dogs we don’t love them, we are showing them that attention is given only on our terms. Although this may seem to be extreme, what we are teaching the dog is that we are in control. As the dog becomes aware of this it will stop trying to be in charge – the stress will lessen, it will feel safe and secure and the behavioural concerns will lessen.
This is a sequence that is not to be done only for a few weeks, do it forever, and include every single member of the family. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways to have a well behaved dog and will go a long way to building the dog’s confidence in your ability to lead appropriately.
d.Work to Earn
Work to Earn If you think about it, with our 10 fingers we supply all our dog’s needs – food, walks, play, petting exercise etc. and together with our voices gives us excellent tools with which to control our dogs resources. It is always important to be consistent when working with dogs, the dog needs to learn that it can rely on you every single time to be its protector and pack leader. As we all have to ‘work for our living’ so too does your dog from now on. If we relate this to pack behaviour, every single dog has a job, or combined jobs to perform – looking after the pups, guarding the pack, cleaning the den (faeces), hunting for food etc. So if you look at it that way, why not have your dog working for its living? The more you take control of all the resources, the more your dog will view you, and the rest of the family, as the pack leaders and will be more likely to relax knowing you are in charge and not try to take charge itself. This will result in good behaviour, reduction of existing behaviour problems and less likelihood of future bad habits developing.
In the case where you have a dog that jumps up on people, you can incorporate the work to earn system by taking control of your dogs daily ration of food - simply call the dog, ask for a sit, take a few paces away and then repeat. Do this inside the home, in the garden and on walks. You will quickly have a dog that will sit immediately in front of all humans as it is rewarding to the dog. When you get to this stage, you can then start to fade the reward.
Here are some ideas you can incorporate. The list is really endless and the more you do the more your dog will listen and regard you (and all family members) as being in charge:-
- Sit
- Down
- Watch exercise
- Wait exercise
- Recall
- Bark/Silence
e. NRM - Non Reward Marker
Very often, a dog has heard the word ‘no’ so many times that it becomes white noise and is totally ignored and this is why I prefer the use of a word that is not used in our daily conversation such as ‘uhuh’, poofy etc. It does not matter what word you use as long as it is not part of your daily conversation.
Additionally, it is very difficult to tell our dogs to do nothing! You may be able to say to your children ‘please don’t walk on the tiles, I just washed them’, but your dog would not understand a word of this. When you start using the NRM system, you tell your dog ‘uhuh’, I don’t like that behaviour, followed immediately with ‘good boy/girl’ the second the dog stops the behaviour. You are now opening up excellent lines of communication and your dog knows exactly what is acceptable and what is not.
I do not bring the use of the NRM when first teaching the ignoring and demanding behaviour exercises simply because the dog has no idea what I want, but it can be used for any other behaviour your dog engages in that you are not happy with.
The beauty of having a cue such as ‘uhuh’ is that you can control the volume of same and the manner in which you say it with your voice. It is always better to talk to a dog in a soft voice, and use the loud voice for when the dog has really misbehaved.
What is very important, is to bring in the use of the NRM while the dog the dog is engaged in the inappropriate behaviour, even a few seconds after the event is too late and the dog will not relate the NRM to the past behaviour. Remember to always praise (quietly) when the dog stops and do not use the dog's name.
3. Fading the Reward
One of the most common statement clients will make to me is “he only does it for food!” Now the last thing any of us want is for a dog to do what we ask only if we have food on us. How is this solved? Not at all hard, read below.
When you are teaching a dog a new behaviour you reward 100% of the time until the dog ‘get’s it’. You then immediately start to stagger the reward. When a reward is staggered (in behaviour terms it would be a varied reinforcement schedule) a dog will actually work harder for the reward, simply because it never knows when it will be forthcoming! If we relate this to human terms, why do we keep on putting money into one armed bandits? Simple, we get rewarded for doing so – or at least some of us do!
Don’t always have the treat in your hand either, pop some food into your pocket or even keep some titbits on top of a cupboard etc, throughout the house. This will stop the dog only working when it can see the food – be a magician!
So how then do you stager a reward? When the dog is performing the requested behaviour proficiently, then repeat the request and only offer a reward every second or third time. Mix it up, sometimes every fourth time, sometimes ever second time, until you gradually fade the reward almost completely and can use praise instead. I find that it is better to give the odd reward rather than cut it out all the time – think about it, would you work month in and month out for no pay??
Remember that instead of a food reward, you can also tell the dog ‘good boy’ or similar. Food is not always the be all and end all of rewards, as to some dogs praise is more important, to others a ball being thrown and to some a scratch is the best thing in the world.
A lovely exercise to do with both pups and older dogs to start fading is the ‘3fors’ i.e. the dog is taught to sit and rewarded, the dog is taught the down cue and rewarded, the dog is taught the stand cue and rewarded. When all 3 are in place start to ask for a sit and then a down and then reward. When the dog is proficient at all three exercises individually, then ask for a sit, stand, down and the reward. Using this 3 simple exercises you can practice lots of different sequences and start fading at the same time.
If you come across a situation wherein the dog knows the behaviour and suddenly becomes deaf and totally ignores you, stand silently for about 30 seconds to see if the dog will comply (if it does offer the treat immediately), if not, waggle the food treat in front of its nose and say ‘too bad’ and walk away. If there is another dog around, immediately ask that dog for behaviour and when it does comply, give it the treat – this has a great impact on dogs! If there is not another dog around, try the exercise about a minute later in a different location. If the dog complies, then do ‘jackpot’ it by giving two or three rewards very quickly. The dog will work out for itself what works and what doesn’t. If the dog comes back to you of it's own accord and sits in front of you - no NOT reward - rather turn and walk a step away, call the dog - repeat the cue and if the dog then complies, give what is called a jackpot (like a gold star at school) and offer lots of praise and a few treats.
Don’t only have training sessions, start to bring the behaviours, such as sit, down etc into everyday life by asking for a sit before playing, sit and wait before going out a door etc. Also remember to practice in different locations. You may have a dog that sits perfectly every time you ask in the house, but does that dog do the same in the garden?
What is important to remember is that when training in a different location i.e. in the garden or out on a walk, to go back to the beginning with the treating and again start to fade in that situation as well.
4. Feeding
For the first few weeks of your pup's life, feed the majority of food by hand. Not only does this immediately raise you up in the combined human/canine social structure, you can teach the pup to sit politely, have a soft bite, and avoid resource guarding.
Part of the food should be softened and then stuffed into toys such as the Everlasting Toys, Kongs etc. The chewing on these legal toys will keep the pup busy during the day, keep stress levels down and help with teething.
In further avoid resource guarding take the pup's food bowl in your hand and offer to the pup, adding in a piece of kibble each and every time and on occasion a treat as well. Get the pup used to people touching its bowl and it being a rewarding thing to have humans touching food. Once the pup is happy with this, bring in other members of the family to do the same thing. Include the children in this exercise, but always under supervision.
