Training Tips

Training Tips

Sometimes everyone needs a little bit of help.

Four Basic Obedience Commands

The 'Sit' Command
The sit command is the easiest and most important in dog training. It's the foundation for all other training techniques.

Directions:
  1. Hold a reward treat in your hand and kneel in front of your dog.
  2. Put the treat to your pet's nose.
  3. Lift your hand upward.
  4. Tell your dog to sit.
  5. If your dog lifts its head to bite the food, use your other hand to guide his backside down into a sitting position.
  6. As it sits down, say, "sit."
  7. When your pet follows the command, praise it.
Repeat this command several times daily.

The 'Heel' Command
Training your dog how to heel is the second fundamental. It teaches your pet to walk next to you, instead of in front. Its head is even with your knee. This command will teach your dog how to walk properly on a leash.

Directions:
  1. Collar and leash your dog.
  2. Place your dos in a sitting position
  3. Hold the leash in your left hand.
  4. Put a squeaky toy in your right hand above the dog's head.
  5. Start walking with the toy in front while saying "heel".
  6. Get your pet's attention by squeaking the toy.
  7. If it gets distracted or pulls in front, stop walking immediately.
  8. When it pays attention again, praise your pet and give them the toy.
  9. Once your dog gives you 30 seconds of attention, begin walking again.
  10. Increase times before you reward your pet.
Repeat this process daily.
The 'Down' Command
This command is a difficult one to learn for dogs. The benefits, however, are amazing. It can help anxious or scared dogs relax.

Directions:
  1. Get a nice smelling treat and hold it in your closed hand.
  2. Place your hand up to your dog's nose and allow it to sniff the treat.
  3. As your pet smells it, move your hand to the floor.
  4. Allow your pet to follow it.
  5. After your dog is in the prone position, say "down".
  6. Give your dog the treat and praise it.
Repeat this training every day.

Note: Never push your dog into a down position. If your pet gets up, say "No," and take away your hand. Eventually, your dog will figure out the right action.

The 'Stay' Command
This exercise will teach your dog self-control.

Directions:
  1. Command your dog to sit.
  2. Open your palm and put it in front of you.
  3. Say, "stay".
  4. Step Backwards.
  5. If your dog stays put, give him the reward and praise.
  6. Increase the number of steps you take each time.
Always reward your dog for staying, even if only for a short time.

Housetraining

This method will get your dog completely housetrained within two weeks.
A chart explaining housetraining for dogs

Let's break it down for you

The green and red ovals are the most important part of this graphic. Read those first!


  • Lack of supervision is the most common cause of housetraining failure.
  • Supervision means watching your dog like a hawk. Like a toddler with a metal fork and outlet access.
  • When you can't be supervising, your dog should be placed in a situation that prevents potty accidents. This can be a crate, tethered to you, in a pen, or whatever works.
  • Every accident that is not prevented or interrupted will make housetraining take longer.
  • Follow the dog's natural cycle - their biology will create times when they will want to go and should be taken out regardless of an indicator-this is on the left hand of the above graphic.
  • We don't recommend using potty pads - having places where it's OKAY to potty indoors is confusing and will make housetraining take longer.
  • Potty breaks should be short; no more than 2-3 minutes. If the breaks take too long, the dog gets bored and can forget what they're out there to do. Long potty breaks will also teach your dog to hold it in while outside, giving them a nice, long amount of outside time to sniff and explore.
  • Potty breaks should be frequent if your situation allows it.
  • Potty breaks should be on a leash and supervised. No backyard exploring.
  • Watch for pre-potty routines - this could be sniffing, circling or restless behaviour.
  • Never punish a housetraining accident - especially if you didn't catch your dog in the act. This will teach your dog to sneak off to another room or wait to go when you're not paying attention.
  • Leave a leash on your dog while indoors so you can gently interrupt an accident and take your dog outside.
  • Heavily reward and praise any outside potty. We suggest high value treats - such as cheese.
  • Put the act of going potty on a cue - pick whatever word you're comfortable with and say it right before taking your dog outside.
  • Dogs do not generalize housetraining - this means they can be perfect in your home, but not realize housetraining means not pottying anywhere indoors.


Note: Punishing any poor behaviour after the fact does not teach the dog not to do this behaviour. They can't make those time-delayed associations between action and consequence. All this will do is confuse your dog and harm your relationship.



Leash Training

Crate Training in Four Major Steps

1. Going in the Crate
You want a dog to start to think crate = food/aka good things. Start by tossing in a treat and letting them get it. Once they are comfortable going in and out, start trying to "hold" them in the crate by offering another treat. Don't block them from getting out, but if they jump out then they get no treat. Once they are more or less going in every time, start using the verbal cue of your choice to get them used to this command.

2. Closing the Door
Once they are going in and staying in with no issues, you can start closing the door. At the start make it a quick close-treat-open, and work towards longer times with multiple treats. If at any point they whine or paw at the door, it is very important not to let them out. We don't want them learning that whining gets them out. Instead, just calmly wait for them to settle down, and let them out once they are calm for 5-10 seconds. This way they will learn the only way out is by being calm in the crate.

3. Staying in the Crate
This is where you really want to start adding time to the length of stay in the crate. We suggest doing this while cooking or watching TV, or something where you will be staying in the same room and will have time to pay attention to them. Start with a target time in mind, like around 5 minutes, and work up to about 30 minutes. As long as they are in the crate and staying calm, you can give them treats and attention as much as you would like. The goal of this step is to teach them that staying in the crate does not mean social isolation. Again, any whining or anything, just calmly wait and then reward them once they stop.

4. Leaving them in the Crate
Once they are staying in the crate for 30+ minutes without much of an issue, you need to start getting them used to you leaving. Start by just leaving the room for a few seconds, and then come back and reward them. Then start leaving the house for a few minutes at a time, and slowly build up the time that you are gone. In the early stages, wait outside the door and listen. If there is any whining or barking, wait for it to stop before going back in. Again, you don't want to teach them that barking brings you back or else they will never stop.

The "Leave It" Command

Imagine you've dropped a chicken bone on the ground at dinner time. Or perhaps you've spilled some medication. The last thing you want is for your dog to go running towards these perceived treats and scarfing them down. Cooked bones are a choking hazard and the pills could be toxic. Making sure your dog understands that everything on the ground isn't up for grabs could be potentially life-saving. But, how do you teach your dog to leave things be? The "leave it" command is the cue you'll need.

Teach your dog to leave it
Positive reinforcement training
Teach your dog to leave it
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