Training Your Dog To Do What You Want

I regularly see people struggling to get their dog to do what they want, and in nearly every case it's because they really haven't a clue what they're doing.

Here's a recent example -

Someone living just down the road from me has a youngish labrador. It's probably about 6 or 7 months old now. One day a couple of weeks ago as I was returning from a walk with Molly I came out of a field onto a lane on which he was walking with his pup.

Both dogs were off the lead.

He looked as if he was just setting off on a walk so when I turned for home we were now heading in opposite directions.

Molly trotted alongside me. As soon as the labrador pup saw Molly it raced over to her and started playfully leaping around. Molly and I kept walking, trying to ignore the pup. (I *never* make a fuss of a puppy in that situation because to do so would be to reinforce in the pup's mind that running up to strangers/strange dogs is a pleasant and enjoyable thing to do. The pup will almost certainly follow the stranger and ignore the owner. Definitely not what the owner would want. It makes me absolutely furious if anybody does that to *me* if I have a puppy.)

The owner called out to me and asked me to stop, saying that he couldn't get the dog back. So I stopped and waited. The pup continued to cavort around us while me and Molly continued ignoring it.

The owner walked up to within about 4 or 5 yards then stopped and called his puppy. It took not the slightest bit of notice. At that point the owner's tone changed slightly and he started saying "Good boy, come here - good boy". He was using a warm, loving tone of voice - exactly the correct tone to use when you praise a dog. The dog's behaviour didn't alter so the owner repeated his "Good boy" entreaties several more times. Still the dog ignored him.

At that point the owner walked right up to the dog, all the while continuing to say "Good boy, come here - good boy". When he reached the dog he took hold of its collar, clipped on the lead and off they went.

If he hadn't been looking so intently at his dog he might have noticed my jaw dropping with incredulity. He was saying "Good boy" in a warm loving tone when the dog was doing the exact opposite of what he wanted it to do.

In other words he was praising the dog for ignoring him.

What does he suppose the dog will do the next time he finds himself in a similar situation? If he's expecting it to miraculously understand what his *real* intentions had been he's in for a big disappointment.

He's absolutely right to use warm loving praise in his efforts to train the dog. But only when the dog does what you want it to! Otherwise all that'll haoppen is you reinforce completely the wrong behaviour!

Recommended reading - "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".

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