When it comes to living with dogs, relationship is everything. There are many ways to build a connection but one simple, yet effective activity is hand feeding.
Once you have taught your dog the position you would like them to walk in, you can start to develop their skills further.
One way to really supercharge your dog’s recall is by encompassing fun games. Once you have taught your dog to target your hand with their nose it can become an excellent alternative to your usual recall.
Teaching your puppy to walk nicely on a loose lead is really useful, whether you live in a busy city environment, or the rural countryside
Loose lead walking is a key skill when it comes to working with on-lead reactivity. It will help your dog to be calmer on their walks, more responsive to you and create a more comfortable experience for you both.
Teaching your dog to walk calmly beside you is often one of the most desired behaviors when it comes to dog training.
Middle is a great game that makes you a safe and fun place to be. It’s a simple trick where your dog moves around behind you before standing or sitting between your legs.
Teaching your dog to target your hand and other objects with their nose is great for keeping your dog’s attention around distractions and building more advanced behaviors later.
Teaching your dog to target your hand with their nose can be a fun and easy behavior to learn together. This can be useful in a stressful situation when you need to re-direct their attention or help move them along.
When teaching your dog a reliable recall, it is important to keep it fun. Having a variety of ways to call your dog back to you helps keep it interesting and exciting for your dog.
This is great because the lead can be a big distraction for some dogs who might find its movement exciting and other dogs who need careful introduction to unfamiliar equipment, so they don’t become frightened.
When it comes to building behavior one aspect which has a huge impact but is often overlooked is reward placement. Where and how you reward your dog will impact the final behavior you build.
For example, if you are teaching your dog to run to their bed and lie down, you might choose to reward your dog on their bed. This will help to build value for being on the mat and serve to build calmness and keep your dog in position for duration, particularly if you give multiple rewards one after the other.
Alternatively, you might choose to reward your dog away from the bed after getting into position. This has the benefit of setting your dog up for another repetition, but also results in energizing your dog, which can cause them to move more quickly into position.
There is no right or wrong way - both are perfectly valid and will teach your dog the behavior but the detail of how the finished behavior looks will be shaped by the choices you make.
Another example of reward placement shaping behavior is loose lead walking. Where you choose to reward your dog will affect how close to you, they walk, whether they are in front or behind and if they stay to your side or cut across in front of you as you move.
It is also possible to mark your dog for a behavior in one location but reward them in a different place. For example, when building up recall, you might as first mark when your dog turns to look at you, but then offer the reward by your side to further build the behavior. If you repeat this several times, your dog will start to move towards you as they check in, because the placement of reward drives the behavior of moving closer to you.
Improving your awareness of reward placement will massively help you when it comes to teaching your dog new behaviors
implementing a good schedule and routine is important from the moment you arrive home with your puppy.
There will be times when your dog gets into activities that you don’t want them doing. This might be digging in the garden, barking at the Neighbours or many other things. These are natural behaviors but that doesn’t mean you can’t give your dog alternative outlets.
Sometimes you need to interrupt what your dog is doing because it’s something you don't want them to practice, it’s escalating a situation or may even be dangerous.
When your dog is ready to go for walks closer to other dogs, choose your location and the dogs you walk with wisely.
