Motto for dog owners:

Be patient. Patience is required because dogs need many repetitions of a lesson. They do not learn a new behavior in one trial or try out.  Yes, dogs already know how to sit.  They don't need us to teach them how to sit or to lie down. But they do not know to offer the precise tucked-up sit we want in specific circumstances, nor do they mentally associate the verbal  cue "sit" nor the hand signal for "sit"  with the behavior we desire to elicit until we teach that association. Sit, as we humans want the behavioral response from the dog, is a skill to be taught.

In the past, I have sometimes quizzed folks with the question, "What makes a dog sit in response to the verbal cue, Sit?" 

Here's the answer: a dog will voluntarily sit in response to the verbal cue "sit" if that dog has a strong reward history for doing so.  The dog has received positive reinforcement for its behavior; the dog has earned a desirable consequence for sitting. Only after many, many repetitions do we begin to add  the verbal cue and/or the hand signal to the dog as the cue, the auditory or visual stimulus to the dog perform that behavior.

First we add those cues as the dog is beginning to sit anyway.  Then a wee bit later, after the dog has learned the association between cue and behavior, then we'll use the verbal cue or hand signal to stimulate the correct response from the dog.

We need to be patient because sometimes a dog may need about four weeks to truly learn some new behaviors, to generalize them sufficiently so that they are able to perform them in all new situations, and amid all kinds of distractions whenever we request. That information should not  come as a surprise at all. Sometimes we  humans need time to learn, too. I  think how long it  took me to learn about the  quadratic equation! (huge sigh) Lots longer than four weeks. I was even worse attempting on my own to learn to play the guitar about 30 years ago!

Be Fair:

To be fair means that we do not expect nor demand a behavior from a dog if we have not yet taught it that behavior step by step so that the dog could truly succeed. Thus, it  would be unfair to scold or reprimand a dog for some behavior if it had not been taught another desirable behavior to use as an alternative. 

Fair also means that we increase our expectations gradually, not all at once.

"He does it all right at home. I don't know why he won't do it in class."  He won't "do it" in class if the  distractions present there are a bit overwhelming at the moment. But the dog is able to learn to accept some distractions each time, each week, to become habituated to working in the class envronment.

Most importantly, being  fair means that owners need to set a reasonable criterion for each lesson so that during that lesson the dog is able to achieve, is able to meet reasonable, measurable, attainable objectives. Our aim is always to set up our dogs to succeed, not to fail.

Being a great teacher for our dogs means we seize the opportune teachable moments.

Being fair means that we understand that dogs are great at discriminating for some  things, but they are truly poor at distinguishing among some other things.

For instance, a  dog can tell swiftly at a quick glance whether a dog it spots a bit away is a familiar dog or an unfamiliar dog.  It can usually discern that information swiftly either by scent or by sight whether someone approaching is a known person or an unknown person. Yet it may not  recognize even a family member who  isdressed differently, wearing a  hat or a winter scarf over the head and standing about thirty feet away.

A dog's visual acuity differs from ours;  it may not always recognize family relatives from a distance nor perhaps in dim light. Sometimes the dog also may not be able to discriminate among people who present a slightly different silhouette, such as when someone carries an umbrella, wears a rain hat, wears a winter scarf over the head and  neck, or carries a rake or a garbage can over a shoulder, or pushes a wheelbarrow when walking from the garage.

My classic  illustration of that problem was a very sweet adult male collie who suddenly erupted with barking at its first sight of a lady pushing a baby stroller. He's never seen such a thing. At first, he reacted a if a Martian had just landed on Earth. I was easily able  to help him accept that sight once the lady with the baby stroller stopped moving for a second. Then the male collie behaved as though it has said, "Oh," in recognition.

Similarly, another dog was hugely startled, leapt up in the air with all four legs upon its first sighting on a horse-drawn Mennonite buggy.  Afterwards, he continued to react for some  time ot  the sound of horses' hooves on the pavement. But I was easily able to desensitize him to that sound.

Being  fair means that we have learned enough about normal canine behaviors to recognize that some behaviors, such as aggressive displays, may arise from a dog'sstartle reaction, and from its fears, anxieties, nervousness. Thus, we would seek to resolve the dog's perceptions of the provocative stimulus, rather than punish the dog for its fears/ its reactions.

We want the dog to begin to change its mind/ its perceptions about unknown dogs and unfamiliar people so that the sight of one will no longer trigger an unpleasant reaction.

We  would also teach the dog behaviors that are incompatible with aggressing. Those steps would then result in the dog itself modifying its behavior toward that stimulus. Success all around.  

Be Consistent:

Being consistent means that if we teach our dog a certain behavior, the whole family needs to get on board with the plan, support the effort. If we decide in advance that a dog leaping on one's clothing is an inappropriate behavior, one that we do not want from the dog, we will prevent that behavior, teach the dog an alternative, reward it mightily for standing with all four paws on the ground, or for sitting to greet instead of jumping to greet. We will not change the house rules when wearing grungy clothes on Saturday for working in the yard yet expect our dog to discriminate when we're wearing our best clothes on Sunday. Dogs cannot be expected to make that discrimination.

Here's an important reason for being consistent.  Random reinforcement of a dog's behavior, such as leaping up to greet, makes the behavior stronger, not weaker. Being consistent means we should not encourage our dogs to jujmp up on the couch when only family members are at home if we expect our dogs to "behave," to not jump up on the couch when guests are seated there.

Be Kind:

Being kind means recognizing that some of dogs' misbeahivors are from our own fault, lack of proper supervision, or our lack of prevention, not from the dog's fault. For instance, perhaps we did not sufficiently socialize the young pup to other people/other dogs when it was young, from age 3 weeks to age 13 weeks, the  very critical sensitive period for first learning to occur.

Or, we may have failed to prevent  the dog from sniffing food on the kitchen counter or putting its paws on the counter, called "Counter surfing." I'm not very patient with that particular misdeed. I've always aimed to prevent it.

Being kind to our dogs, though, means that  we truly will teach our dogs the behaviors they need to get along in polite society as valued pet dogs. We will not ask, "How can I get my dog to stop doing such-and-such?" Instead, we'll strive to learn, "How can I teach my dog to do any alternate behavior instead, one that are incompatible  with the behaviors I'm striving to extinguish?"  Being kind means that we will teach behaviors that are incompatible with the undesirable behaviors. We'll need to be consistent during that practice. But the results are quite astonishing as our dogs succeed.

Being kind also means that we strive first to meet all of our dog's real needs.

Hope this helps,

Barbara