In
my travels I have seen more and more dogs that do not know
simple commands such as heel, sit, stay and come. These
are the most important 
commands your handler will teach you.
Each is special in it’s own way, such as sit, sitting gets
me a cookie and I sit before I eat my meals. Most importantly
I must sit before Lynne will release me to retrieve a bird
or dummy this exercise also includes the heel and wait or stay
commands. We will explore all the commands in the second segment
of this article, we want to let you in on all the C-crets in
the first. These training C-crets are the foundation for all
training, obedience, field work, hunt test, and hunting. We
promise to get you started on the right paw so you too can
be a dog and handler team that posses all the secrets.
Students (people)
that come to Lynne’s obedience classes always ask her to teach
them to better understand their dog. She tells everyone the
secrets to being a great dog trainer/handler are very simple,
we call these secrets the 4 C-crets or 4 C’s of dog
training, and they are as follows:
Control
Consistency
Communication
Common Sense
(which
is most important)
Each of the 4
C’s coincide with heel, sit, stay and the come commands, let
me explain.
To
be able to teach a dog anything the handler mush first have Control, I
know it’s fun to jump around and play but in order to learn
we must be still and quiet to understand what our handler
wants, work now play later just like school. Your handler
can begin to teach you at a very early age (8 weeks). Everything
is taught on lead, because you can’t control pup if she is
loose, we will also learn the boundaries of the leash if
we are started early.
To teach pup when
she is young to get use to a lead, attach a very light weight
lead with a small snap to pups collar and let her drag it in
the house or outside while you supervise. You never want to
leave a pup unattended while dragging a lead, they can become
tangled and hurt themselves. It will take a few days for pup
to get use to the lead dragging behind her, she may also be
a little afraid of it. Praise her and reassure her, play games
with her while she is dragging the lead, in a few days you
can pick up the lead and begin your control work.
Sit on the ground
or floor and hold the end of the lead at the handle if pup
goes to the end of it and pulls, gently pop the lead toward
you and pat your leg, call pups name and tell her "here
or come" and praise her. When she comes to you pet her
and give her a treat this will begin to teach the "come" command
as well. This exercise lets pup know that by your side is safe
and when she gets to far away something "pops her" so
to speak. Pup will know that the negative pop did not come
from you because you are talking to them in a positive and
reassuring voice.
Don’t be surprised
if the first few times you pop the lead pup whines. This is
not because you are hurting them only because you are stopped
her from doing what she had in mind. On occasion you will train
a pup that will throw a holy fit when you pop the lead. Again
this is not because you are hurting them, they will learn very
young how to train you. Pup thinks that if she puts up a big
fuss you will stop your training and she will be able to continue
what she wants to do. You as her handler can not let this happen.
Continue with the light pops and continue to call her name
and praise her. When pups realizes she is not going to win
she will submit and come to you, this can take several minutes.
If you let pup win one time she will learn to throw fits longer
each time you train and will become unruly to get her way.
Neither of you want that, just be very patient and continue
calling her name and praising her until she submits. Pup will
learn quickly that her way is not always the right way. Your
training sessions will become easier and more fun everyday.
This
exercise will also take several days then you can begin to
walk with pup on the lead. The same will apply when you start
walking a quick pop with the lead if they pull, pat your
leg and pet and praise them when they come back to your side.
Very young puppies learn this quickly and you won’t have
the problem of them being 6 months old and never being on
lead.
This is how you
will gain control of pup, then you can begin teaching the commands
that she will use everyday for the rest of her life.
Consistency is
a big one, sometimes our handler’s try to teach us too much
and only show us how to do a command a few times. We learn
by repetition and by the rules always being the same, we don’t
do well when it’s ok jump up on you one day and then we cant
the next day. It is also very hard when you have several people
in your pack/family and all of them allow you to do something
different. For instance, Dad doesn’t mind you jumping on him
but Mom and sister do. Sister will allow you on the bed if
no one is looking and if you get on Mom’s bed you will be pushing
up daisy’s instead of digging them up. It is very helpful if
everyone in the family will teach you what is right and what
is wrong and they are the same. This is a problem most people
have when they get a pup. One person can untrain quicker than
the main handler is training.
In my home I am
only allowed to sit in one chair, I am not allowed on the other
furniture and I am not allowed on the bed. This is taught by
telling pup "no" in a very stern voice and putting
her gently back in the floor if she is on the furniture, the
same if they are jumping on you. Tell pup "no or off" and
bump them with your knee in their chest, if pup is very small
just push them back with your foot and give the same command.
When they are in the desired position praise them and give
them a pat, it won’t take long for pup to learn that 4 feet
on the floor will get them praise and petting. I have to admit
that I like knowing when I am doing the right thing, my people
scratch behind my right ear.
Communication is
the most difficult C-cret to teach a handler, they know what
they want us to do but have a hard time getting us to understand.
Teaching us with one word commands and showing us what that
command means is the key to communication. Sometimes handlers
think their dogs know the commands after only a few sessions
and they get upset because we forget. If this happen to you
ask you handler if she/he learned their multiplication tables
after only two or three days? Yes that includes the 7’s, 8’s
and 9s. I think that will help your handler see that repetition
and communication will get the job done even though it may
take longer than they think it should. We do understand more
than more people think, we do best when we learn commands in
sets of 3. If our handler tells us to sit and places us in
the sitting position (which we will go over) we will do that
exercise over again 3 times in succession. Our handler will
release us between each exercise with a release word, pet and
praise us and then repeat the exercise. The key is for our
handler to communicate with us by telling and showing us what
they want us to do. Again it wont’ take long for pup to catch
on but practice makes perfect and we, like people have to understand
the task that is being ask of us to complete. Some pups catch
on in a few days and others take months, so be prepared to
be patient with them.
The
last C-crete is the most important Common Sense, if
you and your handler are having a difficult day understanding
each other take a break and play for a while, then start
again. Think about what it is that you are having trouble
with, is your handler leaving out a crucial step, did they
have a bad day at work and are now taking it out on you?
How about starting from the beginning, sometimes that is
all it takes to better understand where the problem came
from in the first place, then you can work through the problem
together.
As you can see
this is a great place to start with your new or older pup.
With this knowledge you can teach your pup what it takes to
be a pleasant part of you family. You must also set rules for
the house and when you are in public. You are a very important
part of your family and with these secrets you can insure that
you will remain the first one everyone runs to when they come
home at night. Without these C-crets and manners you may be
the pup that no one wants to play with because you can’t sit
quietly and you jump on everyone. My bark of advice to you
is when you are in a training session try your best to understand
what your handler wants from you.
Now I will tell
you my personal C-cret, people don’t know it but we are really
the ones that teach them to become good handlers. We are the
one with patience when they have none. We are the ones that
will greet them at the door and give them a good lick up the
face after a bad day at work. We are the ones that will be
there in the duck blind with them in freezing cold. We are
a team, buddies, and best friends till the end.
I hope that I
have helped you better understand your handler and your handler
better understand you. Until next time:
Keep you Nose
in the Wind,
