Understanding Dog Training & Behavior by Ryan Rivollier
Lots of people say that their dogs are dumb but then they never make the connection between their dog putting a paw up on your leg getting a treat. The dog is deliberately doing something to get himself a treat how dumb can that make him
One of the reasons why the thousands upon thousands of years of love between people dogs has lasted so long is because we communicate in a way that they understand. When a dog comes to you with his frisbee drops it at your feet you know without being told that he thinks it's time to play fetch.
These are just two examples of the way that your dog tells you what is going on in his mind you'll find that they are not the only way that they engage in complex behavior.
Just like humans do dogs relate to each other to us through body language posture but the way that we process it the way that we do is very different.
Just to start off with they see in low light much better than we do their eyes respond to color differently they can rotate their ears very quickly letting them figure out where sounds are coming from. Don't forget that famous nose either
These differences lead to a difference in the way that their minds work the way that they figure out cause effect is very different form way that we do.
First look at classical conditioning where a stimulus is associated with a response. We can get over stimulus like going to the doctor or getting in a wreck but associations like this are much more powerful for a dog can take a while to train out.
Then look at operant conditioning where cause effect are reinforced through positive negative means the differences become even larger.
Consider the fact that I always go out the back door with my Golden Retrievers when we are going to play fetch. Whenever we go out that door we play fetch. On the other hand when I let them out the side door I don't go with them; I just leave them for half an hour or so. Of course they always go to the back door when they want a game or see one coming.
When I train my dogs I always use a certain tone a unique hand gesture with every command this lets them learn a wide range of behaviors. They will lie down roll over release their jaws come sit fetch drop it even eliminate on command.
However remember that if too much time passes between cause effect they are going to lose it. For instance how many times can you tell them that eating something off the ground is bad for them The stomachaches that result have no connection in their heads to the food because it was too long ago
What you should take from this information is that your dog whether he is Shepherd a Retriever a Basset Hound or a Dachshund can learn a lot if only you remember that he is dog not a human
For instance look at dogs that can dance on command on the show circuit or search rescue dogs that can locate small children pull them from swollen rivers bad avalanches. Service dogs can do everything from opening a door to pulling a wheelchair to guiding a blind person.
Just keep in mind though that they are not people that there are some doggy activities that you cannot train out of them
With nearly 3 decades of involvement in the Dog Handling Training dogtrainingbasicsonline. com field Ryan Rivollier can also assist you with information about selecting the appropriate Dog Bedding dogbeddingstore. com index. php cPath=1 for your dog. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint. Understanding Dog Training & Behavior
