Your dog can only learn what you teach him. It's that simple - and yet so difficult. Your preparation, your knowledge and your mood influence whether your dog learns well and, above all, likes it. Here are 5 tips that will make learning easier for your dog.
You have to know what you want
Prepare the unit well by making sure you understand what the goal is and how you want to get there. Don't say “I want to continue working on the leash today”, but define as precisely as possible what the result and the path should look like: “I want Sammy to walk next to me on the slack leash to the bakery and back. We can do that by ... "
Make it short
Motivation is absolutely necessary for learning to be successful. But especially when something goes particularly well, we are quickly over-motivated. And then we tend to overdo it: Again and again we ask about the exercise - and don't even notice that the dog has long since lost the joy of work. Keep your practice sessions short. Many short, successful sessions are better than one that is too long and frustrating.
Cancel in case of frustration
Are you in a good mood, are you looking forward to the learning unit and do you have the time? Great! But if you are under stress yourself, that is a very bad condition. Then skip the training session today. Even if you notice in the course of the exercise that you are tense, for example because something does not work, you are under pressure to succeed in front of others and the famous “demonstration effect” wrecks everything, it is better to stop. Take a short break to become calm and serene, and only then continue. If that doesn't work, better leave it all for this time. The next day, you can go on with motivation.
Pay attention to your dog's abilities
Dogs like to learn because they are curious and love to interact with us humans. In order for them to be able to successfully learn new things, however, you have to adapt the training session to the physical and mental abilities of your pet:
- Your dog has to be in good health: For example, if your dog has an ear infection, he can of course move and play, but you shouldn't ask him to do difficult exercises.
- A bitch's cycle can also influence her concentration and willingness to cooperate, for example.
- Age, physique and constitution must match the requirements. You shouldn't neglect the breed-related characteristics either. B. the hunting method of a beagle not with that of a greyhound : one searches the ground with his nose , the other the horizon with his eyes.
Provide a suitable learning environment
When learning a new task, the first thing to do is to develop the basis in an environment with as little irritation as possible. Let's take the command “ Take a seat!” As an example . If this is a new task for the dog, start by practicing in an environment that makes it easy for the dog to focus. This works particularly well in your own four walls or in the garden. Minimize unnecessary distractions here: Make sure that there is no coming and going in the hallway or that the neighbor dog is barking loudly in the garden next door.
Only then do you have to consolidate what you have learned - even with distractions. However, these should only be increased slowly. Let's go back to the exercise “Place!”. If the dog remains reliably at home, there is now an additional distraction: for example on a walk when another dog can be seen in the distance. However, sending a raging pack of dogs around the lying dog would be too big a step. Measure the distractions with feeling and depending on how many stimuli your dog can tolerate. In this way, what you have learned is slowly consolidating in everyday life. And only when it is permanently available here, too, have you made it: the learning was a complete success!
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