DOG TRAINING INTRODUCTION WORK SHEET

Hello and welcome to Bobs Pet Stop In-Home Dog Training Service. I hope you enjoy learning about the fundamentals of training your dog. This work sheet will be an over view of our lessons going forward, it will help you understanding the foundational principles of building a great relationship with your dog.

This program is designed to help teach people how to control, manage and communicate basic signal commands, to their dogs. My goal for you and your family is to educate you about your dog’s natural way of learning as well as ways to manipulate your dog’s behavior to perform good and favorable behaviors by introducing a dog training technique called “Operant Conditioning.” This style of dog training teaches your dog how to associate your messages based on Pavlovian theory. For example: If your front door bell rings and you respond by opening it, your dog observes your behavior and learns how to associate the sound of the chime and your reaction to the door to the company on the other side and so on. Another example would be, if your dog makes a mistake or performs a correct behavior and you respond to the behavior by “Marking” or labeling it as good or bad, this will create an association to the behavior which, in turn, will teach the dog to discern right and wrong behavior. The technique “Marker” training has been around for many years with complete success and reliability. I teach three basic components of this type of signal training, voice signalsbehavior signals and contact signals (e.g. petting your dog) which I refer as Sound, Motion, Touch. It is uniquely different than standard focus training, because the goal of the training is to teach the dog to be a good listener and respond to your voice commands rather than trying to get your dog’s focused attention to give a command.

In Home services provide the best possible way to build a dog’s listening skills, which I call “Foundational Learning.” Once your dog develops a sense of respect and trust toward you and your family, your dog will be ready to meet and greet the social world with confidence. When we start foundational learning we call this the “Learning Phase” which is learning a new task without distraction and repeating these tasks enough times or repetitions to allow your dog to fully understand your messages. This also means quicker learning experience and a great way to help prepare for more challenges ahead. Once you and your dog have worked through the learning phase, we will then progress to other types of distraction phase learning.

Example:

  • Low Distraction Phase –This means we train our dogs under low distraction scenarios.
  • Moderate Distraction Phase –This means we train our dogs under medium distraction scenarios.
  • High Distraction Phase –This means we practice with our dogs under high levels of distractions.

The best way to teach a dog to learn something is without distraction. Every dog (depending on the breed) needs between 25 and 50 repetitions of each exercise learned before they can move onto LDP. Once you and your dog have mastered the LDP of learning, you will be ready for MDP. Once you have completed this phase, you will be ready for company, walks and visits to the park. HDP or High Distraction Phase learning is the most difficult phase of training and will challenge you and the dog. Before you get to this step, this will require you to practice hundreds of repetitions of all the exercises and commands that you have been taught before trying this level of dog training.

Example:

  • A dog training class
  • A party at the house
  • A public event
  • A dog park off leash
  • A walk in town or the city
  • A visit to the Vet or groomer
  • A soccer game or social event

Your knowledge and understanding of how to lead and guide your dog will help integrate your dog into social situations more effectively and successfully. Even though each person’s commitment to practice training their dog each day may vary, it is my goal to help you understand the importance of taking control of your dog’s behavior and being a good leader.

If your dog has just arrived as a new 8 week old puppy or you have rescued your dog from a shelter, then it will be much easier to start laying a good solid foundation, without the concern of making mistakes from the past. However, if you have started trying to teach your dog without the help of an experienced behavior trainer, you may have been giving your dog mixed messages without realizing it. Not to worry! We will start with a clean slate.