Dog Training FAQs

All reward based dog training relies on a process called marking and rewarding to help our dogs understand what they did well and reinforcing it. Understanding this process and practising it will be at the core of all training and is an excellent starting point.

The fastest way to train a dog is to go at their pace. If we go too fast, we can skip important stages and the behaviours can unravel later or we can create frustration in our dogs as we leave them behind and set them up to fail. Some things that you can do to aid speed of learning are;
-Training is a process and not an event, make sure you are ready to reward good behaviours in your dog whenever and wherever they occur and not just during “training sessions”. Be that person that has treats with them always, your friends might think you are a little odd but your dog will love you for it.
-Train little and often. Short positive sessions are the way to go for both you and your dog. 10 minutes here or there each day is far more achievable for you both and ensures training sessions are short and fun
-FUN training has to be enjoyable! Don’t forget to have fun. It’s perfectly normal when learning for there to be some uncertainty from both you and your dog but always try and work towards having fun.

Just like people, every dog is different. As dog training is a team effort this is very much an individual thing. Remember, comparison is the thief of joy. Just because one dog finds something easy, doesn’t mean yours should.

In short, you can’t. It’s not possible to teach a dog the absence of behaviour. If someone has taught their dog “no” then they will almost certainly offer a behaviour when told no, this is often a sit or eye contact. Instead of using no, which is very natural for us as humans, we teach owners to ask for something they would like instead. For example, if your dog is jumping up, instead of saying no, ask them for a sit. They cannot be jumping up and sitting at the same time and it shows them what we would like and gives us a chance to reward them whilst avoiding any frustrating uncertainty.

Not a command but the two first things to work on is building positivity around your dog’s name and your marker word (normally good, yes or a clicker). Every sentence we form when communicating with our dogs will include: Name > Cue > Marker Word.

Clear communication, lots of practice and a varied tool kit for different situations will set you up for success. That being said, it’s important to understand that no recall is ever 100% and so if the stakes are high, ask yourself if your dog really needs to be off lead at that moment?

The easiest thing to train a dog varies hugely from dog to dog. I have had dogs pick up complex behaviours from start to finish in a few minutes and I have had dogs where it has taken multiple sessions over several weeks to get something “simple” like a down. This also can happen from behaviour to behaviour with the same dog. If all dogs were the same then I could write a book and retire early.

“Bad” is contextual. Dogs will be dogs, we just have to help them understand when and where they can express certain behaviours. If we have unwanted behaviours then our focus firstly is to find an alternative behaviour to replace the unwanted one. This will vary from situation to situation but a simple example would be if our dogs are jumping up, then we would ask them for a sit. Sometimes we have to dig a little deeper and find out the reasons behind the behaviour and help give our dogs an appropriate outlet but that is best done with the support of a trainer or behaviourist depending on the severity.

In general it becomes harder to train dogs as they get older because they have been practising doing things in a certain way and have had time to form habits that will potentially conflict with training. The exception to this can sometimes be the adolescent period or what can affectionately be known as the “terrible teens”. There are lots of reasons for this but in short it is a perfect storm of growing pains and hormones that can really throw dogs off and create uncertainty which is often misinterpreted as stubbornness, disobedience, belligerence, testing boundaries and any other number of humanistic reasons. The key for this stage is patience.

It is never too late to train a dog. Every dog is capable of learning. It certainly can be more challenging with older dogs because they have had longer to practise behaviours and form habits but it’s never too late.

You can absolutely train your dog yourself! We live in an age of information and online tutorials. If you have the motivation and appetite to learn then the sky’s the limit. The challenge is making sure you find the right information. We can help with that as we have a range of online options for learning alongside our in person services so you can be self-sufficient knowing that the content you are following is created by a qualified and reliable trainer and if you ever need some guidance or support then we are there with you when you need us.