User talk:FlannandStella

How To Train your dog: Once you have a new dog the first thing you want to do is train it. Training is about training yourslef and your dog. One of the most important things in mind to train the dog is not to lose patcince with your og so rember your dogs learning and so are you! Here are some basic comandes: Sit Bond with your dog before training. He or she will pay better attention and will be more eager to please. 2

Understand that you are not teaching your dog to sit. Your dog knows how to sit and has been doing so for quite some time. What you are doing is teaching your dog to sit on cue (or "on command", if you prefer) so, if, in the process of training, your dog sits without being told - no reward!. In this case, you have two choices of how to cue your dog. You can visually cue your dog to sit, usually done by raising your hand in front of the dog's face, or verbally cue your dog by saying, "Sit!" 3 Make sure your dog is hungry when you teach this skill and use small, tasty, easy to gobble soft dog treats. 1/2" cubes of hot dog or cheese work very well, as does Cheerio's or inexpensive store-bought treats. Stay away from hard biscuits as they take too long to crunch down, and larger bones will break and crumble to the floor. But, if you are counting calories or if your dog has food allergies, hard biscuits are a good alternative - just be sure to choose a bone that has a small number of ingredients and that is small enough to eat in one bite (mini size or smaller). 4 To get the attention of your dog, say his or her name in a clear but normal voice, and coax the dog to you. 5 Lead him back into the sitting position with the treat by guiding his nose up and back until he has no choice but to sit. RIGHT BEFORE his bottom hits the ground say, "SIT!", then give the treat. If your dog won't follow the treat into the sitting position and just backs up, try doing this in a corner or up against a wall. You can also ease him into it by rewarding him each time he gets closer to sitting a sit. 6 Keep using treats until the dog knows exactly what you mean and sits every time you tell him. After that, you can and should give treats once in a while. Don't worry about his "expecting" them. You are just going to make him work harder to get them.

Focused, Attentive Down/Stay in High Drive – First things first – you teach your dog that they can still feel energized and in-the-flow even when stationary. This isn’t a reluctant “ho-hum I guess I’ll lie down” sort of down/stay, this is the kind of down where your dog hits the dirt, stays energized, and is completely focused on you. I teach how to get to this place with your dog in this article on teaching the down and this article on teaching the stay.

Heeling – By learning how to heel next to you, your dog is actually learning how to be in-the-flow and totally in synch with your movements. Heeling deepens the groove of the emotional connection between the two of you, and also prepares you for the next important step – which links heeling with an energized down. The Running Down – This step teaches your dog the transition between being in-the-flow and in motion (heeling next to you) and being in-the-flow and stationary (the down/stay). In brief, you have your dog heeling next to you, quicken your pace, say “Ready!” (to prep your dog that something is coming), and then, sharply, “Down!”. This “down” should be one of those “your life depends on it” kind of deliveries. Your dog will hit the dirt, and immediately you transition into praise, food (to feed the down position), and the “stay” part of your down/stay routine. You don’t want to overdo this exercise in any one session – just a few times, at most – and then some uninhibited running, pushing, and heeling to work out any stress that the exercise might have caused.

Down at a Distance – In this exercise, you teach your dog how to hit the dirt, energized, while they move away from you enticed by something (I usually use a tug toy). You start with very small distances, and then progress to larger and larger distances. You are teaching your dog how to be running, in-the-flow, in pursuit of something else, and to come to a complete stop. Importantly, your dog learns how to stay in the flow while doing it. In other words, even though your dog is hitting the dirt instead of pursuing that thing, it still feels good. You can release your dog to get the toy – or, even better, have your dog stay while you pick up the original toy and then release your dog from the stay with some tugging or pushing. Redirect Down at a Distance – This step is a modification of the exercise above. You send your dog off in pursuit of a toy and have them lie down at a distance from you. THEN you release your dog from the down/stay by calling your dog back to you, either to play tug with another, identical tug toy – or for some pushing. Since your dog is in a down/stay, and energized, and focused on you, this release is very easy for them to accomplish. To your dog it feels like “Pursue – in the flow. Down/stay – in the flow. Come back to my person for some pushing/tug – in the flow.” You see – the whole sequence is in the flow.