Train Your Dog With The Right Voice

Posted by Deakster on February 27, 2009

Many people do not understand how their voice affects what their dogs do. When you are commanding your pet to do stuff, a loud squeaky voice is not the right one to use. Dogs don’t reply well to hesitant, pleading voices, nor to screaming, which might sound to the dog like threatening barking or scolding. Best is a firm, but not yelling tone of voice.

It’s also vital the word being used for the command and the pitch of the voice be consistent everytime the command is delivered so the dog can less complicated learn what the owner means ( siiiiiiiiiiiit does not sound the same as sit, for instance ). Using the puppy’s name before a command guarantees the dog knows a command is coming, that it is for him ( instead of for other dogs, youngsters, or folk ), and he should listen.

To reinforce the command, the dog always gets some sort of reward or reinforcement ( praise and usually a treat or toy ) when it performs the action in the correct way. This helps the dog to understand that he has done a good thing. Many working breeds of dog are no longer trained to a voice command at all, they are taught to obey a mixture of whistles and hand signals.

Deaf dogs are completely capable of learning to obey visible signals alone. A lot of obedience classes teach hand signals for common commands as well as voice signals, these signals can be helpful in quiet eventualities, at a distance, and in complicated obedience competitions.

The particular command words are now not critical, though common words in English include sit, down, come, and stay. In reality, dogs can learn commands in any language or other communication medium, including whistles, mouth sounds, hand gestures, and so forth. This can become a blessing if your pet refuses or has problem with one word, you can actually replace them if needed.

Remember that both HOW and WHAT you say to your pet will make a considerable difference in your pet training.

Breaking the Dog Training Myth of “# of Simple Steps”

Posted by Deakster on February 11, 2009

I am about to break a myth that has been around the dog training circuit for some time.

The myth is that you will “have a perfectly training pet in “X” number of Steps”.

The truth of the matter is that training your pet does require time, effort and multiple, repetitive training sessions.

Take a minute to think about the steps. Each step is one basic training lesson. Even washing your hair in the morning has several “steps”. Wet hair, lather, rinse and repeat.

I know that if training my dogs was as simply as saying “Sit, Stay, Good” and I was done, then I would have done so a long time ago. Even as a trainer I sometimes would rather be doing something else instead. Heck I like to watch TV, sit and read a book, or even post to my sites.

However, training a dog properly does take time. So do not get discouraged when you read headlines that claim your dog will be trained in a few steps. Just realize that each one of those steps does include sub-steps that must be performed.

If you think of “Sit” as one step, “Stay” and another step, “down” as a third, then yes you too will have a dog that is well trained once they have completed your version of the “x(1,2,5,12, whatever) step program”.