Dog Training - Week 4

I've taken a good look at my dog training posts and realized I'm going into way too much detail and likely boring you all to tears! So, these posts will now be weekly and hopefully much more entertaining than what has come before. :)

I was able to watch an episode of "It's Me or the Dog" while upstairs (read: dogs not in the same room) over the weekend and got a good idea from the show. It was the top 10 most difficult dogs that Victoria has worked with and one was a boxer who looks like he hates other dogs more than Finlay! ;) Anyway, I realized that my timing is of utmost importance when Fin sees another dog and that I should give him a "jackpot" of treats when I notice him realize a dog is coming our way. Victoria mentioned in the show that the boxer should learn that seeing another dog means treats which means that seeing another dog is a good thing.

So, tonight we saw another dog and I kept watching Finlay to see when he noticed the other dog. As soon as he saw the dog, I gave him a bunch of treats. I kept treating him as we passed the other dog and while he turned around and pulled once or twice, I was able to get his focus back on me and he never barked...it was a little victory!

I mentioned timing and Victoria talks about this in the chapter, "Dog School, Basic Obedience Training." Timing is so important in dog training as the dog needs to realize that what he's just done is the behavior you want. Remember this when you train your dog and you may also want to look into learning how to "clicker" train your dog. I've done clicker work with the dogs and since I have small dogs, sometimes I can click faster than I can treat them because they are much further away from me than a large dog.