How to Teach Your Dog To Do Anything in 4 Easy Steps

Want to teach your dog a delicious new trick? Are you new to puppy training and want to teach your dog the basics? I'll let you in on a dog trainer's secret: When we teach a dog a new skill, no matter how simple or complex the behavior we want to train, we go through the same process every time. Once you learn the process, you can teach your dog everything!

As a dog trainer, one of my goals is to provide my human students with the tools to understand how dogs learn and how to train them so that they can easily and effectively train them on their own. This means they will have the means to train their dog for life, not only building a strong human-dog relationship, but also helping to prevent problem behaviors. This allows them to do many different activities with their dog, from competitive obedience to other canine sports such as Canicross, Flyball or Agility.

Let's see how to teach your dog to do anything. Once you know these four steps, all you need is creative thinking, problem solving, and practice!

Step 1: Decide what you want to train

This first step is very important. If you don't know what you want, your dog will have a hard time figuring it out! When deciding what to teach your dog, frame it in a specific way – don't think about what you want your dog to stop doing. We humans often fall into the trap of "I want my dog ​​to stop jumping on people" or "My dog ​​needs to stop pulling on the leash." You can't let something be absent. You should provide your dog with clear standards of behavior that contrast any unwanted behavior.

Examples of well-defined dog training goals:

- I want to teach my dog ​​to sit when I say hello.

- I want to teach my dog ​​to walk in circles on the right side of

- I want to teach my dog ​​to walk at my pace one foot to the left of

on a leash.

- I want to train my dog ​​to open the fridge, look for beers

on the bottom shelf and make sure

closes the fridge door behind him.

These are all actions your dog can do and are well defined, although some are more complicated than others. No matter how complex a new behavior is, you will treat it the same as a simple one. The only difference is that you train the entire behavior in small chunks, linking the steps together as your dog learns; we will talk about it in the next step.

Notes for Trainers: The four steps in this article are designed to illustrate the process of teaching a dog new obedience behaviors based on specific situations or movements.

These are not necessarily the same steps in the training program that a dog trainer or dog behavior counselor uses to change behavior (eg, leash response, fear aggression, guarding resources or anxiety).

If your dog exhibits this type of behavior, contact a certified dog trainer or behavior counselor near you to begin developing a personal behavior modification program with your dog.

Step Two: Make the Behavior Happen

It's time to get creative. Certain behaviors, such as sitting or lying down, occur more often and naturally than when your dog is walking on a loose leash. In order to learn a new behavior, you need to reinforce the dog. To reinforce this behavior, it must first occur! We have different ways of "creating" the behavior:

Creating an environment

Creating an environment that facilitates the achievement of the behavior, either naturally or through stimulation or modulation (explained below). Having environmental cues to encourage certain actions or positioning will make the game work in your favor.

Example of using environment settings in training:

- You teach your dog to turn right in a circle. Place a training pen in a large circle. Put a cone in the middle and let the dog move. The circle they form may start out large, but with practice it gets smaller and spins harder in the right hand without a cone or training table.

- Use walkways and long walls as natural boundaries to help your dog learn the correct heel position. This is especially useful because the dog gets close to the leg for heel walking.

- Install a baby gate where your dog can park when guests enter your home. This protects guests from dog jumps and they can request a seat. They can then reward the seats with hospitality and/or attention. Sitting can also be a verb meaning that the door has been opened for them.

Bait Behavior

Use bait to guide your dog to position or movement through behavior. This is easily done with treats, but can also be done with toys or without having anything handy once the dog has learned to follow manual instructions.

The taste of food is when you hold the food with one hand and that hand directs the dog to the desired location. Your dog will likely follow the taste of food because he can smell the food, and if you can control the direction of his head, you can control how his body moves or orients.

When introducing your dog to a new behavior for the first time, it sometimes takes training to get the bait position and speed right. For example, if you are teaching your dog to sit and greet someone, place the bait in front of the nose and slowly move it over the head (between the ears). The dog must follow the bait with its nose until its hind limbs touch the ground. However, sometimes we spill the candy too quickly or stand up too high and the dog jumps on it or walks around trying to find it instead of sitting. It takes practice to find the exact speed and position of the lure. If your dog doesn't follow the taste of food or hand signals well, try slowing down when you move him or bring your hands to his nose.

Shape the Behavior

Shaping is a fun and incredibly effective dog training method, fully utilizing the power of marker training (clicker training). If you and your dog are familiar with the clicker, you can teach more complex behaviors with shaping. Shaping means you take a behavior and slice it into smaller, more manageable actions.

For example, if you're teaching your dog to fetch a drink from the fridge for you, you could train the entire behavior in these seven steps:

1- Taking a step towards the refrigerator

2- Grabbing a rope attached to the fridge handle

3- Pulling on a rope or towel to open the door

4- Grabbing onto the beverage (gently!)

5- Pulling the beverage out of the fridge

6- Closing the fridge

7- Bringing the drink to you

You can even slice these portions of the entire behavior into smaller pieces. By focusing on easy steps one by one, your dog will be more successful and learn the whole process faster because they understand each action of the sequence.

Training can be done with a lure if the dog does not want to follow the lure in a certain position, such as the trainer

Note: Make sure your dog does not avoid pain or injury in certain situations or movements during the training

One of my favorite training methods is called free form, where the dog provides behaviors to try to click without any prompting or coaxing. I have found that this involves the dog in the training process and really develops his problem solving skills!

Snap Behavior

Snap Behavior means that you wait for the action to happen naturally so that you can increase it. Lately, I use the hunting method with my dog ​​to practice the "stretches" technique. Because of his long corgi body and short legs, I couldn't convince him or ask him where his tail was. It tends to be just flat, with no center support or tensioned position from the frame. When I see her lying down naturally, usually when she's out of the kennel, I take the opportunity to call her and reward her. Sometimes I do praise and foreplay, or more often I just say yes or click and give him a reward.

Step 3: Identify and reinforce the behavior

The more the behavior is reinforced (whether by rewarding food or something else the dog considers valuable), the more it is repeated. It is our responsibility to ensure that we reinforce the behaviors we want our dogs to learn so that they choose to perform those behaviors more often and when asked.

This is where clicking (or typing words like "click" or "yes") will do all the heavy lifting for you. When your dog adopts a new behavior, tag it with a click or word and give it a reward. Then repeat!

YOUR CLICK OR "YES!" You tell your dog exactly what behavior earned him a reward - it acts as a bridge and gives you time to reward him with a reward. If you don't use tags in your training, reinforce (heal) immediately with the movements you want to strengthen, which can be difficult! Your dog will learn faster if there is clear communication.

When training a new behavior for the first time, I recommend starting with seduction, but move on to modeling as soon as possible. This way, you get the most out of your clicker and your dog learns important problem-solving skills that will make future training easier!

When is the behavior called?

Don't worry about giving verbal cues for behavior until your dog is performing reliably. Then, when they understand the action that prompted the click, start saying the request (such as "sit") when they sit down. So click and deal!

Dogs learn by sharing. With practice, you can give them tasteless verbal cues, and they will carry out the behavior while associating words with actions.

Step Four: Practice and Generalize the Behavior

Once you've started the steps above, it's all about repetition and practice. You'll start by practicing low-distraction behaviors and gradually add more crowded and therefore more challenging environments. Walking on a loose leash in the house is easier on your dog than walking on a loose leash in the park, with all those smells and squirrels to contend with!

Once your pup has mastered low or no distraction skills, make it harder. After walking on a loose leash inside, take it out to your driveway or the sidewalk in front of your home. Then around the block. This is called generalization, where your dog is learning that this new behavior is rewarding no matter where they are! Once a behavior has been generalized, you can then begin to fade out training treats in the environments where your dog is reliably performing the cue.

By following the general steps outlined above, you can teach your dog to do anything you can imagine (within their physical abilities, of course)! Training your dog to do things you like means that you can ask them for alternative and incompatible options to prevent unwanted behaviors, such as sitting in front of guests instead of jumping on them, or walking nicely on lead instead of dragging you down the street. If you need help getting started, connecting with a certified dog trainer can help you and your dog work as a team and will give you the chance to learn training skills that will last a lifetime.