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How
To Give A Dog Commands |
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Article |
This
is something which is only a small topic, but which we felt needed
an article of its own, as many people overlook the importance
of HOW a command is given to a dog.
When most people give a command, their tone changes depending
on varying factors such as urgency, mood, stress level, time
of day. NO dog can make sense of these factors, and therefore
they need to be excluded as much as possible by the handler.
Try to give your dog commands at a similar tone, volume, and
in a consistent mood.
This is easier said than done, but the harder you try, the more
you will see your dog understand more easily what is required
and you will prevent confusion which is carried in the tone of
your voice. Try to remove all emotion and sentiment.
If you tell your dog to lay down for a treat, and 10 minutes
later you tell your dog to lay down to prevent him running out
the front door, you can imagine that the dog will usually hear
two quite different sounding commands, even though the actual
WORD you use may be the same. You will place more emphasis on
S sounds or D sounds when you are stressed or angry, and less
when you are not. Try to think of the WORD you use as only 20%
of the command, the other 80% is given through your TONE and
MOOD attached to the delivery of that word. This is where you
must work on balancing the two and bringing everything as close
to identical as possible as far as the sound of it is concerned.
Probably the biggest mistake most people make in their command
delivery is repetition. How many times have you been to someone's
house and heard them saying to their dog as it runs to greet
you: "Rover, Sit,
Sit, Sit, Sit......." etcetera?
This is a very destructive mistake to make in so much as every
repeat of the same word reduces the power and accuracy of that
command by half. It also teaches the dog that WHILST it disobeys
and ignores the command it is being given (before being given
the chance to do so in many cases) he is hearing "Sit,
Sit, Sit, Sit" which can only
possibly associate that word with something other than what you
want it to be associated with in your dog's mind.
Give a command ONCE and ONCE ONLY. If a dog doesn't do it after
hearing it once and assuming it has been trained to know that
command, then you need to STOP using it, and go back to the drawing
board for that command. In effect, you clearly have NOT taught
that command yet to your dog and it needs either teaching again
or radically fine-tuning until you DO get a response the first
time. Either way, repeating it will do nothing but make your
training task much bigger and harder.
Finally, give a command when your dog's attention is on YOU.
You can't try to teach a dog to sit whilst it is running around,
(well you can, but you are making a rod for your own back). Instead
leave those harder scenarios for later, and begin by making it
as EASY as possible for the dog to understand and obey the first
time, then GRADUALLY introduce more distractions, difficulty
factors and challenges.
It's a step by step process, so deliver a command with the dog
looking at you and in a situation where it will be as easy as
possible for him to obey the command you are giving, and say
it once and once only. If it doesn't work, STOP using that command
for general use, and go back to training it with treats, clickers,
toys or whatever you prefer to use, from the very beginning. |
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