By Bonny King-Taylor, the doggy lama, pet coach
The kids are back to school, the summer stuff is (hopefully) packed away and The Hill is getting back to work.
As we settle into our routines, you might notice just what we haven’t been paying as much attention to during the lazy daze of Summer.
Both as the doggy lama and at Saving Grace Petcare, we can generally tell when good leash walking habits have gone a bit slack while your pooch visited the beach, or stayed with grandma and grandpa for their own vacations.
It’s totally understandable, but can sometimes make your walks in the Fall air frustrating.
The truth is, the more consistent you are on a day-to-day basis, the less likely you are to need retraining, but in our busy lives, that isn’t always possible.
The best news about dog training is that you can always go back to square one and start again.
So, each year, when school is back in session, it’s a great reminder to refresh your training regimen.
That means managing frustration.
We ask our dogs to live in polite human society…a system whose rules and expectations are almost the exact opposite of canine culture. We are inconsistent, influenced by emotions connected to everything BUT our dogs, and we can be terribly impatient. Even worse, most of the time, we have no idea how to work with, rather than against, our dog’s instincts.
Any canine behaviorist will tell you that it’s something of a miracle that dogs ever actually do what we want!
It is no wonder that we sometimes get so frustrated with the training process that we want to either give up.
Please remember this above all things: your dog does not have the brain power to be conniving, or to try and be bad. When you aren’t getting the results you want, it is because either you, your dog, or both of you, are confused!
Just like in other learning processes, it is important to never do a training session when you are in a bad mood. If you are hungry, angry, tired or ill, do not try and teach your dog.
If your dog seems ‘out of control’, that means she can’t focus enough to understand what you want. Take a breath. Walk away. Try again when you feel more balanced.
Similarly, avoid these issues that make it difficult for your dog to pay attention to you.
Distractions
It is important to practice new behaviors away from distractions, and then add distractions slowly. If you are teaching your dog to walk nicely on leash, each step away from your home is filled with new sights, sounds and smells that can overload your dog’s already heightened sensory acuity.
Instead, work on getting a behavior rock solid inside your home, in your hallway, and by the front door, before you ask for it elsewhere. If the behavior falters on the street, go back to home base and start fresh.
If you are tempted to say, “But he SHOULD know this,” take a breath and say to yourself, “Square one is my friend” and start fresh.
If that doesn’t work, drop me a line. I can help.
Current Energy Level
Excess energy is the enemy of effective training. If your dog is high energy by nature or age, hasn’t had enough exercise to be able to see straight, or has not gotten enough appropriate rest to enter a training session calmly, don’t set the both of you up to fail.
Toss a ball, do puppy push-ups or do some hall running before a training session.
The opposite is also true. A worn out dog is unlikely to be interested in responding to commands. Make sure that your dog is getting adequate rest (in a cool, dark and quiet place), free from distractions. This will reduce BOTH your frustration levels.
Physical Well-being
Get to know your dog’s signs of soreness and digestive distress. Be sure to take these factors into consideration if your otherwise responsive dog seems disinterested in training.
Nerves and Fears
This is a dicey issue. It is very common for people to excuse their dog’s behaviors as fears from the paste or a nervous personality. Chances are VERY good that the reaction you are seeing is based in your own memory and expectations. If your dog responds in a fearful or nervous way, check your state of mind, take a deep breath and free yourself of struggle. If that is not possible, walk away.
Training should NEVER be done when either one of you is in an unbalanced state of mind.
