A large part of dog training is about letting go of control. Most of us want to make our dogs behave in a certain way to help create peace or to make us feel better. While training our dogs is a good idea, it is important to not delay gratification within ourselves until our dogs comply.
Dog Training Can Be Fun Too!
When you think of training your dog as an experiment it takes away the forceful energy of control and allows dog training to be more of game of exploration.
Have you seen a dog that is clicker trained and keeps trying to do random behaviors to see if the click will happen? The dog sits and waits. If the click doesn’t happen, the dog does a different behavior such as laying down. The dog keeps repeating different behaviors this until he hears the click.
Go here to learn more about clicker training.
Most of these dogs look like they are having fun. They like figuring out what they need to do to receive the click and treat! It’s like jig saw puzzle. We put in a piece and it doesn’t fit. We keep trying until we find the piece that fits. It’s a game.
When you train your dog from a game mindset it changes everything. You will feel more relaxed and will enjoy yourself more. What happens when I click this behavior? What happens when I treat this? What happens when I ignore this behavior? Does your dog behavior’s change towards what you want to create? If not, try something else.
Behavior Catching
I have two videos below that will show you how you can let go of control and come more from being a team with your dog.
The first one, involves behavior catching. The dog is jumping excessively. Many times we want the jumping to stop so we yell at our dogs or repeat “sit” over and over again. Your dog may keep jumping. You feel frustrated. You then think, if your dog stops jumping, you will feel better.
What if you chose to feel better now? Take a deep breath ,while, your dog is jumping on you. Then, come from the perspective of experimentation. “Hmm… I wonder what will happen if I ignore my dog for jumping and allow my body to relax?” Once my dog sits, then, I can click and treat that behavior!
You can still have goals and train your dog but you can be HAPPY WHILE you are training your dog instead of waiting to be happy until your dog complies. Do you see and feel the difference?
Behavior catching is waiting for the behavior you want, then rewarding that behavior so that it will happen again. Whatever you reward, will increase in frequency.
Here is another article on behavior catching.
Shaping
The next video is on shaping. Think about the behavior you want. Reward successive approximations of the behavior until you reach the terminal behavior that you want. If you are shaping your dog for going onto his bed, you could do the following:
1.) Click and treat for looking at the bed.
2.) Click and treat for moving towards the bed
3.) Click and treat for putting one foot on the bed.
4.) Click and treat for putting two feet on the bed.
5.) Click and treat for putting three feet on the bed.
6.) Click and treat for putting four feet on the bed.
7.) Click and treat when your dog downs on the bed.
Its Important for Both You and Your Dog to Enjoy Dog Training
Both options are letting go of control. They allow you to learn to wait and let your dog explore. Your dog receives mental stimulation from exploring and being able to use his / her mind to figure out the solution rather than just being told what to do.
We feel proud and a sense of accomplishment when we problem solve. Give your dog this gift too. While, you do give yourself the gift of enjoying the dod training journey. Find happiness, while, you are training your dog. You can be happy now and reach your training goals at the same time.
If you would like help with your dog, fill out the form below, and we can personally help you make dog training fun!
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