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Old 03-28-2008, 05:00 PM
jlaack jlaack is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Madison, Wi
Re: Training tonight!

Quote:
What other ways do you suggest in teaching your dog just what exactly "quiet" means? As soon as he stops making noise I tell him "good quiet!". Anything else you can do?
By asking the dog to pay attention to me instead of the stimuli that is causing them to bark and I usually accomplish this by asking them to perform a command. Barking is trickier than other behaviors because most dogs can bark and do something else at the same time. However over time as you see your dog is thinking about barking, you can interrupt the behavior by asking for a command(s) sit, down, come, so in essence you are preventing rather than correcting. My personal favorite is front, a command that instructs my dog to: return to me facing me, sit and make eye contact while we are standing toe to toe. This eliminates the dogs ability to focus on the distraction because they have eye contact with me and I have yet to have either of them bark in my face. You could ask for a simple sit and then feed cookies since it is difficult to bark and eat simultaneously.

This approach will take longer but it will be priceless in terms of long term goals: having a dog attentive to you and not distractions. I also will not ask my dogs for commands unless they know it and I can correct (not necessarily a correction) if needed. When the dog is learning if you are driving and ask for a command but all you can do is cross your fingers that your dog will perform you are setting yourself and your dog up to fail. Everytime you ask for a command and the dog doesn't listen you are teaching the dog to not listen to commands. Therefore if you are driving and can't guide your dog into a down when he is barking then don't ask for it until you know he'll do it, guaranteed.

Last I wouldn't incorporate the command into the praise. You want your dog to respond automatically to the word it can only have one meaning. Just because you add good in front of, your dog doesn't understand that this adjective just changed the meaning, but could instead see it as being recommanded. Once your dog knows a command this could become frustrating or confusing. If the trainer instructed you to praise in this manner coupled with the spray bottle technique, I'd be looking for a different trainer.
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