How To Help Your Dog Listen

It can be frustrating when you’re dog isn’t doing what you ask. If this happens to you frequently, the first thing you need to do is control the environment as much as possible. What this means most of the time is to have your dog on a leash. Leashes can and should be used indoors and also in fenced in yards.

The next thing you need to have is something more valuable than the “distractions” in the environment. These distractions are just competing motivators. In order for you to out compete them, you need something very enticing.

Now that you have the ability to keep them from accessing other motivators and you have something to keep their attention, you need to reward as frequently as needed to keep the behavior going. For new dogs, or in new environments, you’ll need to reward very often. We call this a high rate of reinforcement. With practice your dog will be able to do more behavior for less reward. Here is an example:

I want my dog to stay with me and hold a sit or a down while kids are playing at a park 40 feet away. In order to keep my dog in position I’ll need to reward on average 8-12 times per minute. If I go back daily and practice, within a few days I’ll be able to get that to 6-10 times per minute. Then 4-8 times etc. Before long your dog will be able to hold the position for random rewards and it’ll feel pretty easy.