We see it all the time: dogs running crazy through the house, owners trying their best to keep their sanity in the midst of the chaos. What if we could teach your dog one command that could eliminate the crazy energy when you need to?
The place command gives your dog a very clear boundary that they must remain calm on. This skill translate so well into the real world, which is why we teach it to every dog that comes through our programs. Watch the video to learn the benefits of this one command and how it can create sanity in your lives.
Are you struggling to teach your dog the down command? If so, check out this unique method that we use to help dogs understand exactly where we want their body to be.
Today we are working with Hershey on some attention skills. She is easily distracted on leash, and when you mix that in with being an anxious dog, it’s easy for her to get overwhelmed on walks and stop paying attention to the other end of the leash.
In this video, we’ll show you how we start building some engagement with her in a fun and rewarding way: every time she gets distracted, we turn and walk the other way, call her name, and praise her when she gives us her attention again. We repeat this over and over to let her know that giving us her attention is a great choice. As we continue, she’ll start to offer that attention on her own, and then we can slowly start adding in distractions as she’s ready.
There is a lot of information floating around regarding the best method to train your dog, the best and worst tools, the best x, y, z… We are here to tell you that if you are feeling overwhelmed with the mountains of information being thrown at you to take a deep breath, exhale all of the worry away, and just do something. Pick anything that you want to teach your dog, and you will be ahead of where you were yesterday.
It’s as simple as that. Start small, pick one thing to teach your dog, and just start doing it. It doesn’t matter if it looks sloppy or clumsy, it just matters that you try.
The double down is an incredibly useful skill for dogs to have. It requires the dog to be in a down already, and then you tell them to place their head on the floor. It essentially tells them “I know that there is a lot going on around you, but I need you to remain calm and ignore it all”.
This skill takes practice, and in a situation like this where he is very close to the vacuum (which he doesn’t like), it takes a lot of trust, too. He needs to believe that I will keep him safe from anything that makes him uncomfortable, which means making sure that the vacuum never touches him.
Like any skill, we teach this in a low-distraction environment, and slowly work up to something more challenging like this. With practice, your dog can perform a double down anywhere regardless of what is going on around them.
We have found a lot of value in the Mini Educator from E-Collar Technologies for training and working with dogs. This video is solely to demonstrate how the remote and collar function, and does not go into any training techniques, strategies, or methods.
Turn on/off • Remote: Hold On/Off button for 3 seconds. • Collar: Touch red dot on remote to red dot on collar. Flashing green light means collar is on, momentary red light then no flashing means collar is off.
Front display • Number in the middle of display: The current stimulation level. • 1D on top of display: There is one dog collar attached to the remote. • C on right side of display: Your remote is in continuous mode, which allows you to tap a button momentarily, or hold down a button continuously. Your dog will feel the stimulus for the duration that you finger is on the button up to ten seconds (safely lock will automatically stop stimulus after ten seconds).
Buttons • Black S: This will be the primary button that you use. When you tap or hold this button, it will provide a stimulus at the level shown on the front display. • Red S: This a boost button and will add 5 to the level shown on the display. • Black T: This will provide a continuous vibrating sensation until the button is released (up to ten seconds). • On/Off Light: In addition to turning the remote on and off (see above), pressing this button quickly will turn on the collar’s LCD light. One tap will make the light flash, two taps will make the light solid, and three taps will turn the light off. • M/C: This will change the settings of the remote from continuous (C), to either momentary (M) or Momentary/Continuous (M/C). This will alter how the remote’s buttons function, so we recommend leaving this programmed to Continuous (C) mode.
Charging • Collar: The light on the collar will flash continuously as long as the collar is on. A green light means that the collar has a full charge, orange means it have a few hours left, and red means an hour or less. • Remote: The light on the remote will only flash when the display light is on. The same colors will flash to let you know the battery’s charge level. • There is a dual charger included with your system, so that you can charge the remote and collar at the same time. It takes approximately two hours to fully charge.
What does a walk with your dog look like? Does she walk nicely by your side, or does she lunge and pull to get to every tree, squirrel, or piece of trash on the ground?
If you are having difficulty on your walks, I want to encourage you to slow down. The best thing that you can do with a difficult walker is to decrease the distance you walk and decrease the distractions that you encounter. The best way to do this? Stick to your driveway! You can teach your dog so much about how to walk politely on a leash from the garage to the road and back again. Here are a few tricks to get you started, and every one will encourage your dog to pay you more attention:
Change directions every time your dog walks ahead of you. This will make your movements unpredictable, and they’ll start to stay close to keep a closer eye on you.
Practice sits and downs as you move around. This will encourage your dog to stay tuned in with you because you are asking for more than just a mindless walk.
Slow down! Dogs naturally move at a faster pace, so slowing your speed down will force them to really think about how they are walking with you.
Switch up your speed. Speed walk for five seconds, then go to a crawling pace, then a comfortable speed, then… Changing speed is unpredictable (and fun) so your dog will want to stay close to you to watch what you’re going to do next.
Notice that every one of these ideas is fun, easy, and can be done in just your little driveway. The best part? Ten minutes of an activity like this, and your dog will be both mentally and physically tired, which will create a calm dog when you go back inside.
Yesterday was a tough day for me. I lacked any motivation to get work done, so other than my virtual workout with Crossfit Connex, I had a very unproductive day. Instead of staring at the computer forcing myself to come up with programming ideas (which I did for about two hours), I took the day off. I did a puzzle, I started a new batch of Kombucha, and I took my dog to a local park to goof around. Today I moved to a new spot in the house, set a goal to write two sections of my training manual, and found some new music to listen to. And I am feeling motivated, inspired, and excited to write today. All I had to do was switch it up when things weren’t working.
This is so true for training. If you are trying to teach your dog something and it just isn’t working, switch it up! Take a break, try using a different treat, try it in a different environment, ask someone else to help. Don’t struggle through something because you feel like you should. If you’re not seeing results, take a step back and figure out how to change it to make it fun again.
