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| Make your dog a star with a few basic tips |
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| Written by Augusta Farley / Community Columnist | |
| Wednesday, 02 July 2008 | |
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Want to turn your dog into a loving, responsive, fun soulmate? Here are five tips to try, based on those provided by top trainers chronicled in a recent issue of AKC Family Dog (May/June 2008).  Augusta Farley / Community Columnist The original article was written for agility and obedience trainers developing star athletes, but it struck me as more than relevant, if tweaked a bit, for our companion dogs. After all, we ask obedience miracles of our dogs. We want them to listen to all family members equally, understand how to play rowdy with teens but not with grandparents, and greet guests politely and calmly but welcome us home with tail-wagging enthusiasm. They must perform the agility feat of jumping on our beds at night without stepping on our bodies or pushing us off the bed as they snuggle in. Finally, our dogs are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for endless hours of companionship and entertainment. So, how can we develop our own dog stars? Start early The day your dog walks in the door is the day you begin a lifetime of sweet memories. Somewhere between the limits and full promise of genetics, early upbringing, continued social and environment enrichment, and the leadership and love you provide will be the dog that brings joy to your life. I like a responsive dog, so I spend most of my time with my dogs talking to them when they are looking at me, teaching eye contact and then asking for it constantly, and motivating them to track my whereabouts. I make it fun to be with me, and I start on Day 1. Be positive Set your dog up to be successful. Teach and reward what you want before punishing what you don’t want. Does your puppy jump on you? Reward it for having four feet on the floor rather than kneeing it for jumping on you. You may be successful in getting your puppy not to jump on you by punishing it, but will you teach it to trust being near you? Every time you correct your dog’s behavior, think first whether you and your dog are mentally tuned to the same behavior. Kneeing your dog for jumping might be seen by the dog as a correction for coming. You just might be teaching it a lesson that will boomerang back to haunt you. So err on the side of rewarding before correcting. Believe you can do it Believe that the time and effort you put into educating, socializing, caring for and spending time with your dog will be repaid by devotion, responsiveness and well-being. It doesn’t matter where you expect your dog to excel. Maybe it will be a lap dog or a dock-diving champion. Some of us ask our dogs to join us in our travels, play our games and then relax when we do. Think about what you will be asking of your dog, and set up conditions to make it easy. But don’t leave the dog in the dark to figure out what you want. Communication is a two-way adventure. Keep it fun Raising a puppy or dog is partly about communication and leadership, establishing rules and committing to them. By having rules, we don’t have to think about not dancing in a busy street; it’s automatic. The pact we make with our dog is that if they do what we ask, we will spoil them rotten as cherished members of the family and have fun doing so. Going for walks and rides in the car and indulging dogs with play, special attention and outings to the beach and dog parks are fun rewards for a job well done. Have quality time Spend a lot of quality time with your dog. Bring it into your life. Let your dog supervise your gardening and cooking and sleep at the foot of, if not on, your bed. The more you hang out with your dog, the more you have opportunities to know what it is thinking and feeling. You will become empathic to the smallest details of its physical and emotional being. Your dog will become an astute reader of your cues, too, and begin to anticipate what you are thinking. It will learn to solicit your attention in funny and charming ways that touch your heart. How much better can it get? Augusta Farley has been a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant for more than 25 years.
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