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Dog Training Commands & Associations
How Dog Training Commands & Associations Help You To Communicate With Your Dog.
When it comes to dog training commands, most dog trainers or dog training videos usually only cover a small number of dog training commands. These commands usually consist of Sit, Down, Come, Loose Leash Walking or Heel, Leave it, and Drop it. Sounds like that’s all you would need right? Well, if you are the type of person who likes to take their dog places and do things with them, you need to train them to do much more than that. Some other good dog training commands are sit from end of leash, sit in the heel position, sit while heeling and walking, down from end of leash, down from the heel position, etc., etc. Here’s the reason why.
Dogs learn things through association. So, if we only ever teach them to do is sit in front of us, down in front of us, etc., then that’s all they will ever really know. Some dogs can learn to generalize over time, but that can take a long time for them to figure out, and sometimes it may never happen at all. That is why you would want to train them to do many different forms of sit, many different forms of down, etc. This way when you can’t have your dog sit in front of you, your dog will now understand that when you tell them to sit, that wherever they are at that moment, that is where they sit.
Dogs have been evolving with us as a species for over 15,000 years. During that time, they have learned to read our body language. Because of this, dogs actually learn better with hand commands than with verbal commands. Putting an association to a hand command can help your dog training go much faster and allow you to be able to communicate with your dog without verbally having to tell them the command. This way you don’t have to stop a conversation you are having with another person or when you are sick. This can also help later in the future if your pet ever becomes deaf.
Another thing you might want to do if you like to take your dog places and do things is also train them how to do their dog training commands on objects as well. Have you ever taken your dog to the vet, they have been trained to sit and proficiently, but you take them there in the early stages of training and they won’t sit on the scale or the table? The reason why they won’t sit on it is because they have never been trained to sit on an object before, only the ground. Over time they can learn to generalize on how to sit on the scale or table, but that does not mean that they will transfer that skill to other objects. That is why you want to train your dog to perform its dog training commands on many different objects. This way when you are out and about in public and need them to perform a command on an object, they will do it with ease instead of you getting frustrated and wondering why your dog doesn’t want to perform their commands on objects.
Dog Associations & Overcoming Fears
How Training Your Dog Can Help It To Overcome Fears & Build Confidence.
If your dog has overcoming fears and confidence building issues, adding a valuable association to the thing it fears will help them to overcome that fear. When training your dog to overcome fears and build confidence with thing it fears, it’s just like anything in dog training, you have to train it through repetition and conduct multiple sessions with the thing it fears. Training the dog to understand the things it fears is not something that can be done overnight. A lot of times, there are many things about the thing it fears that we also need to train.
For example: If I am kennel training my dog and they are afraid of it or don’t like it, I have to build up a valuable association with it that the dog actually wants to be in there. I would start out by doing a treat trail going into the kennel the first day of training. The second day I would want to toss treats into the kennel while using a dog training command, so they associate the command with going into the kennel. The third day I would now tell the dog to go into the kennel and close it while building time of the dog being in the kennel by giving them treats, then adding more time while giving less treats. Day four I would want to continue working on time with using more verbal and physical praise for being quiet and relaxed while giving treats randomly, maybe even adding an enrichment toy like a Kong toy stuffed with regular peanut butter to help with extending the time without treats. Day five would consist of getting the dog in the kennel and closing it while working on building distance of being away from the kennel. This can be done by going back and forth extending your steps away from the kennel and giving treats every time you come back to the kennel. Then day six would be like day five except using more verbal and physical praise with the occasional treat, maybe even adding an enrichment toy like a Kong toy stuffed with regular peanut butter to help with extending the distance without treats.
As you can see from the example above, it takes several sessions, several days, different environmental changes with the thing feared, to help the dog learn about it, understand it, and be comfortable with it. Each day adds a different element to the dog training while slowly progressing with it so we don't go backwards in training. This type of dog training also requires very high value treats. If the reward of the treat does not outweigh the risk of the thing it fears, it will not overcome that fear. This type of dog training is also good for dogs who don’t have confidence issues but need help understanding and being comfortable with things in their world. Some examples of doing this type of dog training are:
- Riding in the car
- Taking a bath
- Being comfortable around the vacuum cleaner or sweeping
- Being comfortable around bicycles, skateboards, scooters, strollers, etc.
- Putting on and wearing a harness, booties, collar, clothes, etc.
- Training in agility, scent dog, parkour, dock diving, etc.
- Riding on a surfboard, paddle board, kayak, etc.
- And much much more!
Now you can see how important it is to ensure you have good dog training commands and putting associations to things with your dog. The more dog training you do, the more they will be better at doing things at home and in public places. The more we build valuable associations to things, the better they will be at accepting new things or learning new things in the future. And last but not least, the better bond you will have with your dog.