Dog Training for the Real World
Most of the people I work with don’t have a problem training their dog- they run into challenges when trying to apply the training to real world situations.
For example, your dog knows sit, come, leave, etc. but when there is another dog they ignore you. When they see a piece of chicken on the ground, they will ignore your ‘leave’ command. When they smell a squirrel, they can’t even think about sitting.
This can be really frustrating for us- our dog KNOWS what to do, but they aren’t doing it!
So here are my three top tips…
1. Your Dog’s Emotions
If your dog is overexcited, anxious or over aroused, they will definitely struggle to listen to you, especially if you’re asking them to do something they don’t enjoy or that is really tricky for them.
Focus on calming our dog down before you ask them to do anything in the situation.
Licking, sniffing and chewing are naturally calming behaviours for dogs. A treat scatter on the ground is a really easy way to get your dog sniffing and hopefully calm them down by doing so!
2. Get Space
The closer your dog is to a distraction, the less able they are to listen. It’s ok to get space from exciting things (e.g. dogs, squirrels, birds) while your dog is learning.
Use a lead or a long line to get the space you need and choose locations wisely. Try to choose locations where you can get space and set your dog up to succeed, without off lead dogs being able to run up to them uninvited or squirrels go across the path right in front of them.
3. Slow Down
We often end up rushing our dog’s walks. We have half an hour at lunchtime to get the walk done and ‘tire our dog out.’
However, if we are rushing, our dog will sense this and they are likely to be more aroused and less able to listen to us.
Keep yourself calm and take your time on your walks. Let your dog sniff. Give them time to think and process. Let them watch things.
Rather than thinking I have 30 minutes to do this walking route, forget about distance gone and think more about you having 30 minutes to spend with your dog, not worrying how far you get.
Your dog might even be more tired as they are getting more mental stimulation.
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