WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A DOG TRAINING PROGRAM
Congratulations! You have made the first step toward helping your dog become a well-behaved member of your family. Like most dog owners, you probably envision the well-behaved pet that will emerge from this six-week training course.
Did you know it is estimated that 95% of the dogs relinquished to shelters have never received any training? Too many people get dogs and expect them to know the rules as defined by humans. Without proper training, dogs don’t know how they are “supposed to” act. They will resort to natural, instinctive behaviors like jumping, digging, barking, chewing and more.
Before starting your training program, it is important to set realistic expectations for what can be accomplished and what training won’t be able to change...at least not right away.
WHAT TRAINING CAN DO
 Teach "Obedience" Exercises
Sit. Down. Come. Stay. These are all behaviors that you can teach your dog to perform on cue, whether verbal or visual (hand signal). If your dog is physically capable of performing a behavior you can train your dog to do it on cue.
Build Attention Around Distractions
Training can teach your dog how to be attentive to you in different situations. When your dog is giving you their full attention, they aren’t jumping on guests, they aren’t barking at dogs, or pulling on leash. When you don’t have your dog’s attention, it doesn’t matter what commands you use, you won’t get a response.
Teach Self-Control
Some training exercises are not about “obedience,” but about teaching self-control. This skill is just as important in dogs as in humans. Dogs who learn to control their impulses are better able to lower their arousal levels in exciting situations, making it easier to practice training.
Our training programs start with a foundation of attention and self-control before teaching “obedience” commands. None of the exercises taught in class will provide instant results, however. Daily practice is critical, and it will be necessary to keep your dog out of situations in which his behavior is still unreliable. the more you practice, the better he'll behave and the more activities you can do together!
Burn Energy
Training provides your dog with mental stimulation, which burns energy. Exercise is important, but a balance of varied forms of exercise combined with mental stimulation is what tires out young, high-energy dogs. Exercise, alone, only conditions the dog to become a more efficient athlete, requiring more and more exercise to reach the point of exhaustion. Mental stimulation, through training and environmental enrichment, burns as much, if not more, energy in less time than a walk around the neighborhood.
WHAT TRAINING CAN’T DO
 Too often, owner expectations of what the dog “should” do are clouded by memories of past dogs, experiences with older dogs trained by others and, of course, television. This leads to frustration with the dog or complaints that the methods aren’t working. So, to prevent disappointment, it’s good to know what training CAN’T do:
Change the Passage of Time
Depending on the age of your dog (see below), the training process could last as long as two years before you see the results you want. Nothing is going to give your dog perfect obedience in 6 weeks or less.
Professional and competition trainers know that dogs in service or competition go through up to two years or more of daily training before being expected to perform with any reliability. When I adopt a new puppy, I anticipate that it will take two years before I can expect him to work with me in classes and private lessons.
By expecting too much too soon, you run the risk of setting your dog up for failure. That failure could be something as innocent as jumping on a visitor, or as dangerous as running into the street.
Speed Maturity
 The average age of dogs that enter our adult classes is between 6-12 months. This is during the adolescent period (5-18 months), when dogs become more independent, unruly, destructive and overly energetic…and much larger and stronger than young puppies.
Too many dog owners expect their adolescent puppies to act like mature adults. They make comparisons to past dogs or mature dogs belonging to friends and family members.
You would never ask a child to run the family business, so don't expect your puppy or adolescent dog to behave like a mature adult. By considering the first two years of your dog’s life the “Training Stage,” you can focus on instilling behaviors that will all be part of the dog you want when he or she finally reaches maturity at 2-3 years old.
In the meantime, you will be learning how to prevent and manage unwanted behaviors while you and your dog go through the training process. It will be up to you to prevent jumping and pulling and all those other behaviors until your dog is more reliable.
Change Breed Tendencies
Every breed of dog was created for a purpose. Some breeds were created to work for humans, others were created to work independently. Some breeds needed to be very confident, others suspicious. Some breeds needed to be very quick to react to changes in their environment.
What was the purpose of your dog’s breed? Even in mixed breed dogs, breed tendencies will affect your dog’s behavior. Do some research and find out what others, especially breed rescues, have to say about typical behaviors that create problems for owners of certain breeds. It will help you better understand your dog.
High-energy breeds (Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, terriers, etc.) have greater training requirements than companion breeds in order to learn how to control their impulses and arousal levels which are important for the jobs they were bred to do. You don’t want a hunting dog to say “I don't want to get the bird. It's too cold and wet and I'm tired!” or a herding dog to say, “Huh. Is that one of my sheep? I’ll just wait and see if he comes back on his own.” No! These dogs need to have the alertness and energy to do their jobs quickly and efficiently and often for hours on end. These highly desirable traits in working dogs often lend themselves to the problematic behaviors in pet dogs when guests arrive or a skateboard passes by.
Training can help manage and minimize problems associated with breed tendencies, but nothing can turn a Border Collie into a Basset Hound. By having a good understanding of your dog's breed or mix, you can avoid the frustrations that may come with expecting him to be something he's not and learn how to adapt your training to work with those tendencies, rather than against them.
Stop Normal Dog Behavior
Trainers are frequently told that owners want the dog to learn to stop jumping, barking, pulling on leash, or one of many other behaviors that most dogs will exhibit at some point.
Here’s the problem. Stopping one behavior doesn’t mean the dog will immediately act in a more appropriate way. For example, the dog can stop jumping…and start pulling at visitors’ pant legs. The dog could stop barking…and bite instead. Stopping one behavior just leaves an opening for another problematic behavior to take its place. This is why training is not about telling the dog what not to do, it’s about teaching the dog a better behavior.
CONCLUSION
 Providing your dog with basic training is as much a necessity as annual vaccinations. Without it, your dog is at risk - it is estimated that 95% of the dogs relinquished to shelter have never received basic training.
But training is more than just an obligation, it is a way to build communication and trust, which will help your dog become the companion you imagined when you first brought her home.
By maintaining realistic expectations of what can be accomplished with training, you are less likely to get frustrated with your dog and more likely to give them the patience and coaching they need to behave the way you want in the future. |
