"Come on guys let's go for a walk."
Blank stares . . .
"Ranger, Trooper, Linus, Come."
Three furry friends come running.
I
realized that I never taught my dogs what "Come on guys let's go for a
walk" meant. That was many years ago, and since then I have taught them
that, but it reminded me of the importance of consistent teaching and
that . . . dogs don't understand synonyms! We talk this way all the
time and humans are able to fill in the gaps based on the context of
the situation or the sentence. Dogs might be able to understand based
on inflection, situation or body movement, but they need consistent
patterns to understand what we mean.
Try this: work for 30
seconds on your dog's easiest behavior -usually sit - rewarding each
behavior and then at some point say, "blah blah blah" and just look at
your dog. Most likely your dog will sit, but you did not ask her, did
you? What you did was create a pattern of:
- You say something
- Your dog does something
- Your dog gets a reward
Your
dog tried to fill in the blanks about what you were asking her. She
tried a behavior because it had been working for her in the past
because she was
motivated by
the reward. Motivation is the single most fascinating subject on this
planet because it drives all species every moment of the day.
So
now let's get back to the original topic of teaching Come and apply the
demonstration outlined above. You can use this information to be a
great teacher by following the simple pattern of:
- Say the cue (or make a visual cue with your hands) for Come
- Help your dog get it right by gently helping her come to you either by gently pulling on her leash, tapping your leg, running the other way, crouching down, etc.
- Reward
- Say the cue
- Delay the help just a bit to allow your dog to try and connect the dots
- Help, if necessary
- Reward
- Repeat
You
are creating a consistent pattern that will motivate your dog to do the
behavior when she hears the cue. That is dog training!
You can get even more step-by-step instructions including high-quality video and downloadable notes at my online
dog training website.
Happy Training!
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