Joan the Dog Coach
Did you know that January is the Association of Professional Dog Trainers’ National Train Your Dog Month? Of course, training and enriching your dog’s life should be a year-round practice, but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some resources related to dog training and behavior.
First, check out these previous training posts chockfull of tips to make training your dog a breeze and useful information for dog lovers! In a hurry? Treat yourself to some highlights:
Harnessing the Power of Motivation in Dog Training
- Look at what’s rewarding from your dog’s point of view, as opposed to your own.
- Reinforce behaviors you like and want, even when you didn’t ask.
- Capture (notice, then reward) and teach behaviors you would like to see repeated.
- Again, remember to also incorporate rewards other than food in your training. Playing, exploring, adventuring, and greeting friends can be powerful motivators for many dogs.
Insights into Understanding Dog Body Language
- If you’ve ever wished that you and your dog spoke the same language, a great place to start is simply watching your pup and noting what you see.
- If and when your dog shows any change from her baseline relaxed appearance -recall that mental snapshot from before- try to determine and note what the trigger might be.
- Remember, each dog is unique and different, so the more you get to know your own inquisitive canine, the better you’ll become at reading Fido’s emotional state – and the messages your pet is trying to communicate.
A Walk in the Park: Leash Walking Tips for You and Your Pup
- If you have a dog who pulls, lunges, or drags on leash walks, it can be helpful to walk a mile in their paws and think about why this might be happening.
- Sometimes dogs pull to escape something that scares them or that they don’t like. So, when we try to see things from our pup’s point of view, the question shifts from, “How can I stop him?” to “How can I help him?”
- A love-of-dog approach to teaching loose leash walking is a step in the right direction!
Make Training Your Dog Easier: Be Consistent, Be Clear, and Be Kind
- Your dog may eventually learn from context what you are trying to communicate…but why make training more difficult and frustrating for all involved? Dog training should be fun!
- Management is just setting your dog up so that the unwanted choice is impossible to make.
- Behaviors that are rewarded are repeated.
Next, ready to get training, but need some inspiration? Read Canine Enrichment for the Real World, from Dogwise Publishing, for tons of great ideas for expanding your dog’s brain via enrichment. You can also explore Kikopup on YouTube for a nearly endless supply of training videos.
If you’ve decided you’re ready to take your dog’s training to the next level, or you’ve resolved to tackle that pesky behavior challenge you’ve been avoiding, January is a great time to do it!
No matter how you celebrate National Train Your Dog Month, I hope the New Year is full of adventures and fun for you and your inquisitive canines!
The Inquisitive Canine was founded by Santa Barbara certified canine behavior consultant and certified professional dog trainer Joan Hunter Mayer. Joan and her team are devoted to offering humane, pawsitive, practical solutions that work for the challenges dogs and their humans face in everyday life. Joan offers coaching both in-person and online. If you are feeling inquisitive and have dog training questions, we invite you to contact The Inquisitive Canine for A Pawsitive Approach for Positive Results ™.
