Happy New Year! Can you believe it's already 2022? Time flies when you are having fun. I hope you are enjoying your new puppy and also being kind to yourself with all this training stuff. It's a lot of work to train a puppy and I'm sure you are doing your best. Keep up the good work!
I've been thinking about training techniques over the holiday and what's considered the most important topics with new puppies. If I could sum training up in a nutshell what would I include? The more I thought about this the more I realized the vast amount of things there are to know! My brain goes crazy!
I know some of you are new to this dog thing and want to know the answer to this so today I'm going to help you out a bit. Sometimes we focus only on what we want our dog to STOP doing....stop biting, stop chewing, stop barking, stop jumping, etc. What if you turned things around and focused on what you want your dog TO do instead? This is a trick in dog training and it can work for you! For example, let’s say your dog jumps on visitors when you open the front door. Instead of thinking, I want my dog to stop jumping on people, think, “I wish my dog would sit when he greets a stranger.”
Now that you know what you want your dog TO do, you can start training that behavior. I taught my schnauzer to sit on a designated chair when the doorbell rings and he is not to get off of that chair (implied stay) until I release him. Now I can open my door, greet my guests, invite them in and not worry that my little dog will pester them for attention. It takes time and persistence but it can be trained. The trick is to focus on what you want your dog TO do instead of what you don’t.
So this week, if it's all you do, try to change your thinking to help your training. What do you want your puppy to do? Focus on that.
Be sure to check out our upcoming classes and courses. Also remember we host Group Q&A sessions three times a week as well as one-on-one phone or video sessions daily. We are here to help you on your training journey.
Happy Training!
Amy & Team