Training Tip of the Week

Dogs Do What Works!
Just like humans, dogs need motivation to come to work every day. Humans work for a paycheck, for security, for fun, for a challenge, or for prestige. Dogs work for bacon, chicken, sausage, hot dogs, liver snaps...well, we all know dogs. They'll also work for attention, walks, playtime, belly rubs, couch time with their favorite humans, and everything else they enjoy. If we pay attention to what our dogs really want, we can use that stuff to reward them for doing what WE want them to do--like sitting quietly by the door while we put the leash on, or going to a special mat to wait politely for guests to enter.

The most important component of teaching dogs appropriate behavior is probably the hardest one: to be 100% consistent. Imagine that starting first thing tomorrow morning, your dog can beg at the table as much as he wants, but he's never going to get another table scrap again. He'll probably waste a lot of energy figuring that out, and for a couple of weeks, the begging will probably even get worse while he experiments ("Hmm, maybe I just have to work harder..."). But if you stopped getting a paycheck, you'd probably stop coming to work after a while. And so will your pooch.

Meanwhile, if you teach him that he'll get something fantastic every time he settles down quietly, chews one of his own toys instead of the table leg, or does something else that you love and want to encourage, he'll start doing that stuff a whole lot more. Remember: be consistent, be generous, and be patient. Human children take years (sometimes decades) to learn to behave the way we want them to... and they're the same species! Your dog will get it eventually. He just has to learn what works.