Dog Training | pawsitivepetplace

Does your dog ignore you when you call her?

Did you know that yelling and screaming does nothing to entice our dogs to come back to us? Instead, we need to make ourselves someone who is consistently enjoyable to our dogs, someone that is worth running to. Dogs do not have a grand strategy to make you look like a fool in front of all your dog park friends. They just prefer to hang around wherever they find the most interesting stuff. You need to make yourself more entertaining to Fido than the pile of poop he is sniffing, or the neighborhood dog or the squirrel racing up the tree or any other distraction. This step may sound simple but at least half of dog owners are royally messing this up.

First, PLEASE say “Fido, come,” only once if your goal is that he comes the first time. Quell that irresistible urge to blabber his name and the cue word repeatedly. Don't repeat, don't repeat, don't repeat. Animals learn to ignore stimuli that doesn't have any significance to them. If you are calling your dog over and over or telling them to sit, sit, sit, you can bet that she is ignoring you because those sounds you are making have no meaning to her. Second, make sure your summons sounds like an invitation to play rather than a roll call on death row. Your goal is to teach Fido that running to you is more fun than a romp with fellow rovers not a sentence of doom! Become the place your dog wants to be!

Effective training should be fun for both you and your dog!

Imagine having and creating the dog of your dreams just by “playing” with your dog everyday. Focus on what you want from your dog rather than what you don't want. Dogs do not typically use fear or pain to communicate with each other and neither do I. My teaching is based on positive and reward based training. Positive-reinforcement teaching techniques use non confrontational methods without force or intimidation to work a dog’s brain. If you give your dog a reward (praise, play, food, toys, etc.) when he responds to you or offers an action or a behavior that you like, then that behavior is likely to be repeated. Your dog learns that good things happen to him when he does the thing you like.

Put simply, if your dog feels good about you, she will be happier, confident, better behaved, and more inclined to respond to you when you ask her to do something. And contrary to popular belief, positive does not mean permissive. The strongest relationships between dogs and humans are based on cooperation and kindness rather than on human dominance and animal submission. If you choose to use positive techniques when building a relationship with your dog, you will be on your way to establishing and maintaining a connection that increases trust and results in a stronger, healthier bond between you.

Training happens 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

It may not be what you want him to learn, but your dog is always learning regardless if you are actively training or not!

To find the right training program for you and your dog, contact:

Jody Christensen at 612-750-0573 and/or pawsitivepetplace@gmail.com