We are currently in the second month of 2019. The year is still fairly new and chances are those New Year’s resolutions you made are still at the forefront of your mind. As you may be taking time to re-focus a bit on your own goals, have you ever considered setting some goals for your pets? Since our pets are basically part of the family, why not consider setting some training goals for your dog as we continue through 2019?
SETTING TRAINING GOALS
The first step in setting goals for your dog is to determine what behaviors you’d like to change. Below is a list of typical negative canine behavior that, when trained correctly, typically goes away. Does your dog exhibit any of these behaviors?
- Beg
- Jump on guests
- Chew shoes and other things he’s shouldn’t
- Bark too much
- Refuse to obey basic commands
- Pulls on the leash when walking
These are all very common behaviors that dogs exhibit, however, while they may seem pretty mild, if they are not trained out of the dog, they can become a real problem and make life unpleasant for all involved. Let’s look at the specific issue of “pulling on the leash” when walking. This can be a very frustrating habit that dogs easily fall into if they are not trained early on to walk correctly. What do we mean by correctly? Typically, your dog should not constantly pull on the leash. He should stay by your side and walk at the pace that you set. If he gets distracted, he should easily be corrected back to the task at hand, which is the walk.
We came across a recent blog post from a dog trainer who shared her approach. We thought she made some excellent points when it comes to training dogs.
“You see, you cannot teach your dog properly if you are not clear on what you would like yourself? Dogs see in pictures, the little things actually matter to many dogs, even if we think it’s irrelevant. And we tend to be very unclear with what we expect. And then we wonder why our dog just doesn’t understand what we want…… So, it helps if you are clear with what you expect so that you can be clear with your dog about what you would like.”
We thought this was excellent advice. The more clear YOU are about the behavior YOU want to see, the easier it will be to set the specific goals and achieve them through your training.
Once you have determined what you need to work on, the next step is deciding how that will be done. Cascade Kennels has a number of options that can help you determine the best approach for achieving the training goals you’ve set for your dog.
REACH YOUR GOALS WITH CASCADE KENNELS
The Training page on our website is a great place to start the process. One click to this page and you will find answers to a number of questions that will help you to better define the specific goals for your dog. Additionally, we have one page that is dedicated to helping you determine the exact steps you need to take to set the best, most realistic goals for your dog. What Training is Right For Me will take you through a series of questions to help you determine the best options for your dog such as:
- Should you be involved in your dog’s training
- Should your dog be trained by a trainer
- Should your dog be in group training
- Should your dog be trained privately
As you work your way through the flow chart each question will guide you to the best answer for your particular situation. We offer group training, private training, and board and train. We also work with all ages and breeds of dogs.
To sum it up, when it comes to setting goals, keep these two things in mind:
- Be very specific when it comes to determining the behavior you want to see in your dog.
- Never give up on your dog’s ability to learn new and better habits.
For some dogs, it may take a bit longer to get where you want to go, but contrary to the old adage……. “you can teach an old dog new tricks!”
Source: nzdogtrainer.co.nz
