In a nutshell, changing a established behavior or teaching a new behavior is difficult!
Think about how hard it is to stick to a New Years resolution, to eat better or get to the gym. Its even harder to try and teach a child, spouse or friend to listen! Things get even harder when it comes to dogs, because of the human attitude, "darn it! This is my dog and he needs to learn my rules!"
In our efforts to make an animal understand we may miss the importance of truly understanding our dogs and communicating with them rather than forcing our wills on them! At Zen Dog Training we focus on understanding our dogs first, then trying to communicate with them. Our focus is on teaching people how to be consistent and smart about getting their dogs to listen.
Why things get confusing is that dogs are not rational animals (like us?), instead they are still hard-wired to first feel safe in their environment before they we can expect them to want to participate in listening to us or obeying our rules. For what most certainly will become a future post on its own, its Pavlov vs. Skinner - first having to meet those primal dog needs of feeling safe and confident before expecting B.F. Skinner like Operant Conditioning. "Sit" and you will get a treat.
Whats so hard to understand is that when it comes to dog training and especially, new puppy training, just spending time getting our dogs used to the crazy, noisy world we live in is as important (if not more important) then teaching, sit, heel or come. At Zen Dog Training we call this "age-appropriate training". Focusing on the right thing at the right time. Puppy-hood is the ideal time to socialize really domesticate your dog to your particular lifestyle. Its surprises me how most people would never expect a wolf to be fine with living inside our homes but get a dog and dont put any conscious effort towards puppy socialization. Textbook "socialization period" is a stage of puppy development that technically ends at the 12-13th week!
The dilemma becomes: when to push your will on to your dog and when to listen to your dog and understand that at this very moment - your dogs natural instinct for survival (fight/flight) must be met before they can be in a place to listen to us.
Its difficult because it requires the human to not focus on instant results but rather take a look at what their dog needs. Training paths for dogs not yet comfortable with the world require counter-intuitive methods like, treating a dog when they are barking out of fear. Some say you would reinforce bad behaviors however, if the dog is barking because they are uncertain and feeling scared there is no evidence that you can reward or punish them since they are in no place to listen to you anyway. They are too worried for their survival.
Here is where true understanding is key to our success. Try to force a scared dog to listen and they may listen but become shell-shocked and skittish from the experience. Try to punish a dog by staring them in the eyes and yelling at them and you just might break that ever important dog-human relationship where they learn to trust and love humans.
More on this in future posts but as we learned in the dog training academy, the first question is is the dog upset from there you can determine if they are acting out or just being demanding or if they are coming from a place of fear and uncertainty (with dogs amazing sense of hearing, smell and who-knows-what-other kind of senses your dog has) Im often amazed at how well they cope with strange training techniques or just the sights and sounds of the world: trucks, busy intersections, construction noises, fireworks, traveling by car, traffic, etc.
The solution, do yourself a favor and research people like Turid Rugaas, "Calming Signals" to try and better understand what your dog is feeling and saying by reading their body language. Try and be more patient with your goals and try to determine the difference between "disobedience" and a failure on behalf of the owner to clearly communicate rules and expectations.
Think about how hard it is to stick to a New Years resolution, to eat better or get to the gym. Its even harder to try and teach a child, spouse or friend to listen! Things get even harder when it comes to dogs, because of the human attitude, "darn it! This is my dog and he needs to learn my rules!"
In our efforts to make an animal understand we may miss the importance of truly understanding our dogs and communicating with them rather than forcing our wills on them! At Zen Dog Training we focus on understanding our dogs first, then trying to communicate with them. Our focus is on teaching people how to be consistent and smart about getting their dogs to listen.
Why things get confusing is that dogs are not rational animals (like us?), instead they are still hard-wired to first feel safe in their environment before they we can expect them to want to participate in listening to us or obeying our rules. For what most certainly will become a future post on its own, its Pavlov vs. Skinner - first having to meet those primal dog needs of feeling safe and confident before expecting B.F. Skinner like Operant Conditioning. "Sit" and you will get a treat.
Whats so hard to understand is that when it comes to dog training and especially, new puppy training, just spending time getting our dogs used to the crazy, noisy world we live in is as important (if not more important) then teaching, sit, heel or come. At Zen Dog Training we call this "age-appropriate training". Focusing on the right thing at the right time. Puppy-hood is the ideal time to socialize really domesticate your dog to your particular lifestyle. Its surprises me how most people would never expect a wolf to be fine with living inside our homes but get a dog and dont put any conscious effort towards puppy socialization. Textbook "socialization period" is a stage of puppy development that technically ends at the 12-13th week!
The dilemma becomes: when to push your will on to your dog and when to listen to your dog and understand that at this very moment - your dogs natural instinct for survival (fight/flight) must be met before they can be in a place to listen to us.
Its difficult because it requires the human to not focus on instant results but rather take a look at what their dog needs. Training paths for dogs not yet comfortable with the world require counter-intuitive methods like, treating a dog when they are barking out of fear. Some say you would reinforce bad behaviors however, if the dog is barking because they are uncertain and feeling scared there is no evidence that you can reward or punish them since they are in no place to listen to you anyway. They are too worried for their survival.
Here is where true understanding is key to our success. Try to force a scared dog to listen and they may listen but become shell-shocked and skittish from the experience. Try to punish a dog by staring them in the eyes and yelling at them and you just might break that ever important dog-human relationship where they learn to trust and love humans.
More on this in future posts but as we learned in the dog training academy, the first question is is the dog upset from there you can determine if they are acting out or just being demanding or if they are coming from a place of fear and uncertainty (with dogs amazing sense of hearing, smell and who-knows-what-other kind of senses your dog has) Im often amazed at how well they cope with strange training techniques or just the sights and sounds of the world: trucks, busy intersections, construction noises, fireworks, traveling by car, traffic, etc.
The solution, do yourself a favor and research people like Turid Rugaas, "Calming Signals" to try and better understand what your dog is feeling and saying by reading their body language. Try and be more patient with your goals and try to determine the difference between "disobedience" and a failure on behalf of the owner to clearly communicate rules and expectations.
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