5 Things You’re Doing Wrong When Training Your Dog

Not Using High Enough Value Treats

Is your dog not listening to you when you ask them to do something? Feeling like they're being stubborn or obstinate when you give them a cue? Chances are you haven’t been using the right treats! Dogs want to get paid for their work just like you do. You wouldn't go to work if you weren't being paid, why should your dog? Dogs, much like humans, are motivated by the value of the reward for the task. If you're offering kibbles for a really hard job, (say recall outside) then the chances of your dog coming back to you are fairly slim. But use something amazing like freeze dried chicken or deli cheese, and suddenly they'll come running! This is because the reward was better than all the sights, sounds, and smells in the area. It is important that the reward is proportional to the task. For instance, if I give my dog cheese for sitting inside the house, when we go outside that cheese will be less effective because it was used for a lower stakes task. Make sure your reward fits the task!

Taking Treats Away Too Soon

Another common mistake dog owners make is taking away treats too soon. You may be thinking to yourself, “Do I really have to keep this dumb treat pouch on my belt?” The answer is yes! In order for your dog to want to offer you desirable behaviors they have to be sufficiently paid for it. Science shows that behaviors that are well rewarded are the behaviors that stick. Imagine for a moment that you went to work one day and your boss told you “your work here is highly valued but the position is voluntary now.” You’d immediately stop working! Our dogs want to be paid for their work just like we do. The better they are rewarded, the more likely they are to offer that behavior again and again. The general rule is if your dog is offering you the behavior on cue 9 times out of 10 asked, then you can start to phase out the treats very slowly. Don’t take those rewards away too soon!

Telling Your Dog “No!”

It is natural for us humans to want to correct each other. This behavior is ingrained in our very DNA. Because we have the ability to communicate verbally we easily understand the meaning of the correction and adjust accordingly. Our dogs however, do not gain much from being scolded or told no. Imagine you were placed in a room and no matter what you did or interacted with, I yelled “No!” at you loudly. You would be very frustrated when every little thing you did got you yelled at. You might even snap and say, “Well what SHOULD I do then!?” This is exactly the reason we shouldn’t tell our dogs no. It doesn’t teach them the things they SHOULD be doing. If we can be constructive and give them the tools to make the correct choices in any given situation, we set them up for success and our homes get a lot more peaceful. It is also important to take into account our dog’s natural behaviors. We want to encourage them to behave as a dog would naturally but in ways that are compatible with our lives. For example, giving your dog an enrichment item to shred instead of them getting bored and chewing on your shoes. Try teaching your dog what they should be doing rather than just scolding them for behaviors you don’t like.

Raising the Bar Too Fast

Dogs are typically fast learners, but humans are pretty impatient. When we see an end goal we tend to want to jump right to it. Our dogs can’t visualize the end goal we have in our minds. They’re not mind readers. It’s important to break down any skill you’d like to teach into bite size achievable steps. The key word here is achievable. We want our dogs to have fun in order to engage with training and it’s super fun to win the game! Make sure your dog can get the task right much more than getting it wrong. This will help make their training stick faster. But beware raising the bar too soon! Your dog may catch on quickly but if you change up the task too fast this can lead to confusion, frustration, and disengagement from training altogether. The general rule is that your dog should get the task right 90% of the time (or 9 times out of 10 asked) before changing any aspect of the current task. So if your dog is learning to lay down from a sitting position, he should be able to sit on cue 90% of the time before I start even thinking about beginning the next step for the down cue. Make it fun and achievable and don’t raise the bar too fast. You’ll find that Fido will catch on quickly!

Using Recall for Punishment

One of the most vital cues our dogs need to learn is recall. It is so important for your dog’s safety I even teach two cues for it, a general recall and an emergency recall. One of the biggest mistakes pet parents make is calling their dog back to them to yell at or punish them for something they’ve done. Imagine if I called you over to me and then really yelled at you. You’d be much less likely to come over to me when I called in the future! You’d think to yourself, “no way am I going over there. She’s so mean!” In dog training this is called “poisoning the cue.” You have just made it so that your dog will never come to you when you call and now we have to start over again from square one with a brand new cue word. Instead of calling your dog over to you with an angry tone, make it a party! If you’re excited your dog will be too. Even if Spot is digging up your favorite flower bed, act like you’re so happy to see them. They’ll come running! (Then we start teaching Spot to not dig in the flower bed, but that’s a different post). On top of making recall into party time, it is equally important to pick a recall word that you do not say often in conversation. If you pick a common word like “here,” your dog will begin to learn to tune that word out because it’s being used for conversation instead of the cue they think it is. I usually recommend picking the craziest word you can think of. Dogs can learn that spaghetti means sit. They don’t speak English so it doesn’t matter. For example my dog’s recall word is squid. How often am I going to say “squid” when talking to someone? It’s not very likely. Try to make recall into party time, even when you’re frustrated and make that word unique! You’ll see a marked improvement in your dog’s listening skills.

So there you have it. Try these tips for for fixing these common dog training mistakes and let me know how your dog’s behavior improves!

Fetch ya later! 🐾

Laura, CPDT-KA