Dog Training
This page describes my attempt to understand my dog, and help my dog to understand me.
SV Forstinning
I'm depending on the endless patience of the Schäferhund Verein Forstinning. My eternal thanks goes to Brigitte, Heinz, Tatjana, Kurt, Ingrid, Petra and my fellow "Anwärter".
Us
Both Esther & I had dogs when we were children, but this is the first time we've trained a puppy.
It's not the dog that needs training, it's the owner...
We don't need a robot dog, but if she isn't obediant, if she doesn't adapt to a world run by people, if she hurts a jogger or child, hoever accidentally, or runs in front of a bus, we'd be devastated. And we seriously underestimated how much time and patience it takes to achieve the essential level of obediance. So here's a brief summary of what we've learned, so far.
Start Immediately
No puppy is too young to start learning: when young they learn fastest.
We started with a general dog training one-day-a-week... not nearly enough for inexperienced dog owners. And we should have immediately joined the Schäferhund Verein.
But probably we should have started training ourselves even before Josie arrived. We read some books, so thought we understood the theory, but failed to put it into practice.
Be Consistent
Obvious, but devilishly difficult! Chose a very small set of commands, aways use the same commands: reward verbally and, initially, materially (Leckerles!).
When the dog knows the command, then we can expect the dog to follow the command. If not, there must be consequences: rebuke and no reward.
Apply Operant Conditioning
Pavlov's experiments were the foundation of Operant Conditioning.
Excellent books on applying operant conditioning include:
Gemeinsam Erfolgreich from Peter Scherk & Florian Knable
The Pavlov Project by Simon Prins
Practice... Always
Cesar Milan makes it look so easy! But it takes thousands of repetitions to reach a high quality of obediance: don't get frustrated, if it doesn't work, think about what YOU are doing wrong, and how to improve... or at least,, that's what trainers keep telling me. Never take obediance for granted: praise your dog and mean it!
Winter Training
Learning to walk (Heel / Fuß), under Brigitte's eagle eye.