Dog Training

[chickentrains]

Hi,

I am trying to learn as MUCH as I can about dog training

I use LIMA training. I use positive and negative reinforcement, depending on what my dog needs.

Here is my dog, who is a bit of a handful... anybody else a dog trainer, or interested in being one?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Hi,

I am trying to learn as MUCH as I can about dog training

I use LIMA training. I use positive and negative reinforcement, depending on what my dog needs.

Here is my dog, who is a bit of a handful... anybody else a dog trainer, or interested in being one?

View attachment 2552846

Your dog is super cute!

And yesssss!!! I love training and am always reading/watching/researching things and learning as much as possible hahah always finding new things too!

I’ve also trained all our own dogs and also worked with my brother’s dogs and clients dogs a lot too (I’m a pet sitter lol).

I want to get certified as a trainer eventually but still have a long way to get there.

 

[chickentrains]

How do you train dogs?

I used to consider myself balanced, but I recently realized that I'm mostly positive, Only sometimes using negative reinforcement in the form of a prong collar, or a firm no, or taking away toys, etc. My dog is REAL smart and me giving him the wrong look is hella adverse. I've learned that shoving food into his mouth and saying GOOD BOYY!!! is much more effective than popping him along with the prong collar because he wouldn't focus. A long road, lots of earning for me.

I have a bit of beef with positive-only trainers as I am convinced teaching an animal with no consequences gets you nowhere. There are things much more tempting in this world than your positive reinforcement, without the consequences of bad behavior, your dog will do what it wants. Chasing the squirrel may be much more rewarding than treats and praise from you.

Otherwise how you train your dog isn't my business, and since I use all four quadrants of dog training, anything anybody says can be applied to my training.. I love learning.

 

[ShrekDawg]

How do you train dogs?

I used to consider myself balanced, but I recently realized that I'm mostly positive, Only sometimes using negative reinforcement in the form of a prong collar, or a firm no, or taking away toys, etc. My dog is REAL smart and me giving him the wrong look is hella adverse. I've learned that shoving food into his mouth and saying GOOD BOYY!!! is much more effective than popping him along with the prong collar because he wouldn't focus. A long road, lots of earning for me.

I have a bit of beef with positive-only trainers as I am convinced teaching an animal with no consequences gets you nowhere. There are things much more tempting in this world than your positive reinforcement, without the consequences of bad behavior, your dog will do what it wants. Chasing the squirrel may be much more rewarding than treats and praise from you.

Otherwise how you train your dog isn't my business, and since I use all four quadrants of dog training, anything anybody says can be applied to my training.. I love learning.

Yeah, I actually feel like basically the same way as you! Hahah I try to mostly use positive as well but like you said, sometimes it’s just not realistic. I also try to tailor it to the dog a bit too.

Like for example, of my brother’s dogs, one of them melts just with verbal corrections and then their youngest one is OBSESSED with food so he’s pretty easy and he loves tug too. And then the older one thrives on structure and rules, etc. and she can sometimes use some corrections but she’s also very smart and pretty easy to train with just food and toys too. Just sometimes wants to be stubborn

So it definitely depends! But if it’s between the dog running across the road and getting killed or using, say, an e collar or prong or something, then I’m gonna choose the latter.

Though honestly even with positive reinforcement, treats are supposed to be eventually phased out and distractions built up slowly, so that they will listen even in distracting environments, but I honestly find a lot of people do it wrong and just stuff treats down their throats their entire lives and never phase them out. I used to be guilty of that though so I get it but then you get a dog that won’t listen unless you have food.

But honestly, basically like any dog I’ve worked with (which, granted, hasn’t been a ton but still) has been super excited about food, toys, and/or praise and quite easy to motivate! I do start introducing some consequences once I know for sure they know it but I try not to overuse them. Most of the time they don’t need it. And especially for like tricks and stuff, I won’t correct that (other than withholding food and making them do the right trick if they try to be sneaky and not lol) but for other stuff I will if they need it.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I don’t know if I’m making sense lol

 

[chickentrains]

I realllllllllllllllyyyy want a e-collar. In my opinion, its like insurance. Don't always need to use it, but you need to have it. I don't let my dog off leash because I don't have one.

Sounds good , I never want to use corrections unless my dog needs it. Sometimes I'll let him hit end end of the leash and give himself a correction, so he understands he needs to heel and when he doesn't, he gets the uncomfortable sensation of hitting the end of the leash.

Sounds like all the dogs you work with are wonderful! Most of the dogs I've worked with have been pretty food motivated, but i had one dog who wanted nothing to do with food, praise, etc that I basically just had to let her have the choice, you lay down, or I pop you with the prong. Which one? our training was based on respect. She respected me, so she sat her butt down.

and corrections with tricks is a no no! usually I say a soft and kind "no" when he gets something wrong , and ofc no treats.. deacon has his Advanced trick title!

 

[ShrekDawg]

I realllllllllllllllyyyy want a e-collar. In my opinion, its like insurance. Don't always need to use it, but you need to have it. I don't let my dog off leash because I don't have one.

Sounds good , I never want to use corrections unless my dog needs it. Sometimes I'll let him hit end end of the leash and give himself a correction, so he understands he needs to heel and when he doesn't, he gets the uncomfortable sensation of hitting the end of the leash.

Sounds like all the dogs you work with are wonderful! Most of the dogs I've worked with have been pretty food motivated, but i had one dog who wanted nothing to do with food, praise, etc that I basically just had to let her have the choice, you lay down, or I pop you with the prong. Which one? our training was based on respect. She respected me, so she sat her butt down.

and corrections with tricks is a no no! usually I say a soft and kind "no" when he gets something wrong , and ofc no treats.. deacon has his Advanced trick title!

Yeah exactly! It’s definitely insurance! I usually try to work a lot on recall anyway though just because I think it’s important and I do think not every dog will necessarily need an e collar but even if you think they’ll never need it, I just prefer to have one just in case cause even the best trained dog could decide to go into the road or after a deer or whatever!

With my last dog, I once dropped his leash on a walk thinking he’d be fine since I’d worked with him some, and that dog was so smart and knew or though I had no control now and tried to take off! thankfully though I had the e collar on and got him back cause he could have gone onto the highway! After that, I kept him on a long line lol but they can literally be lifesavers! Even now though even with dogs that their owners let off leash or with a collar, I’m scared to try it and just drag around a 50 foot long line

And yessss! Letting them correct themselves is the best haha I feel like they learn a lot faster too. And I also like using environmental/life rewards too and find they can be extremely powerful in certain situations! So like for example, you want to sniff over there, you have to sit first or focus or whatever it is. I think that’s technically premack principle maybe? Do this, you get to do this. But also just using the sniffing something or the fetch or whatever itself as a reward which is great if you don’t have treats haha

And I totally get the respect thing! Took me a while to figure out what motivated Gator and also to gain his respect and get him to listen to me. He always loved me but he walked all over me at first once I figured it out, he was amazing to work with and he learned a lot of tricks and obedience, etc. hah For him it was mostly just food and play but also just a lot of consistency and basically teaching him that I wouldn’t let him get away with not doing things like the rest of my family would

And I usually just go “that’s not a wave, come on, wave” or “a real wave” if it’s half butted LOL works for us lol they usually do the real one. or the baby’s biggest issue right now... that’s not sit, that’s down not his fault though I figured out lol

 

[chickentrains]

Deacon got bow and down confused
now i say butt on the ground
and slowly puts it down. Insane how smart they are.

I don't have a e-collar, my dog just drags his 15 feet leash behind him and he is really good at recall. He has not ever blown me off *kNOck On WooD*


enviromental rewards are great, still working on that, my dog is hyper focused on me and wont self reward if he thinks I have food or a ball for him. He will stare at me for awhile and sometimes after some time he'll have a sniff.


deacon is a ding dong an he usually responds much better when he corrects himself, rather then when I correct him

sometimes we go through phases though where he refuses to sit, and a prong comes in HANDY! i put it on, pop him when he ignores me, and after a few goes the prong comes off and guess who sits on command? Deacon.. haha.

 

[CSAchook]

@EverythingDucks this topic sounds right up your alley

 

[ShrekDawg]

Deacon got bow and down confused
now i say butt on the ground
and slowly puts it down. Insane how smart they are.

I don't have a e-collar, my dog just drags his 15 feet leash behind him and he is really good at recall. He has not ever blown me off *kNOck On WooD*


enviromental rewards are great, still working on that, my dog is hyper focused on me and wont self reward if he thinks I have food or a ball for him. He will stare at me for awhile and sometimes after some time he'll have a sniff.


deacon is a ding dong an he usually responds much better when he corrects himself, rather then when I correct him

sometimes we go through phases though where he refuses to sit, and a prong comes in HANDY! i put it on, pop him when he ignores me, and after a few goes the prong comes off and guess who sits on command? Deacon.. haha.

Omg that’s hilarious and adorable! Hahah Ike will down when you say sit most of the time but I figured it out one time watching my brother recently... he says sit, Ike lays down next to him (DB was sitting on the ground), “good boy, sit” *tons of petting* granted it was night time and he just wanted to love on him and they do enforce it at the door but I know now why he gets confused cause he’s trained him that sit actually means down I will hopefully be able to fix that soon lol

And he sounds like a good boy! I need a shorter leash for dragging hahah I have the 50 foot one but it’s soooo long

And aww he’s almost too focused! Hahah a friend of mines dog is like that lol will do ANYTHING for the ball and won’t focus on anything else if you have one

Self corrections I find definitely take better so I try to let them make their own mistakes and/or just wait for them to figure it out themselves and do the right thing. It’s hard at first if they’re just used to being told what to do all the time but I loveeeee thinking dogs.

And totally understandable! Haha my brother’s oldest dog Libby is like that too! She’ll be really great for so long and then just one day decide she wants to be naughty that day