PHONE 480-890-0962 or 602-997-1433
Email: bob@animalattitudes.com
There are three phases of all dog training:
· 1- The Learning phase
· 2- The Correction Phase
· 3- The Proofing Phase
The best way to train any dog is to teach the dog an exercise in a distraction free environment. This is the "Learning Phase". Your neighborhood or your back yard are perfect for this because the dog lives in these areas and does not find them distracting. We teach new exercises through positive motivation, typically with praise. Once the dog understands an exercise and he refuses to perform that exercise when commanded, he learns that he will be corrected for not minding. This is called the "Correction Phase." To correct a dog before he knows and understands a command is unfair. That's why trying to teach a dog a new command with 20 other dogs running around is not a good idea. Every dog in the world would initially be distracted in this kind of an environment. You would never see the instructors for these classes taking their own untrained dogs into a room with 20 other dogs and trying to start training them there. They start their learning phase in a nice quiet place where there are no distractions. Dog training class require too many corrections to force a new dog to pay attention during the learning phase of training.
The best way to train is at home. When the dog learns that he will be corrected if he does not mind, he is then ready to perform the exercise in places that have more distractions. This is called the "Distraction Phase". Once the owner is confident in his dogs ability to mind under distraction at home, he is then ready for group classes.
There are 4 concepts of dog training that a new trainer must understand before he starts to work with his dog:
1. How to break a command or exercise into small component parts that the dog can easily learn.
2. How to effectively praise a dog during training. Dog training can be fun for both you and your dog, correct praise is the key to a happy working dog. In training you will not only learn to understand correct praise, you will see what happens when you don't praise enough, or just as
importantly what happens when you praise too much.
3. You will learn how to administer a proper correction. You will learn how strong a correction should be and when to apply it. Just as important, we explain when not too correct your dog and what to do if you make a mistake and correct to hard at the wrong time.
4. Consistency in a training program will produce a better trained dog. It will also reduce your training time. Not only are we training you to train your dog but we are constantly checking you and you training methods.
Once the "dog owner" understands these 4 concepts, we show how to break the following commands into their training parts:
THE SIT,
THE DOWN,
THE STAY,
HEEL, and
COME.
We start each command then we show you how to train each part. We explain when to advance to the next step of training and then what to do if a problem develops.
Once the dog and you have learned all this we go to group class. Group class is a very important part of any dogs training, because it conditions your dog to listen to you at all times. The main reason to go to group class is teach the dog to work under extreme distraction. How else could you get 10 or 20 nice people to bring their dogs over, just so you could proof your dog in training?
Animal Attitudes Dog Training
Phoenix, Arizona
PHONE 480-890-0962 or 602-997-1433
Email: bob@animalattitudes.com
