Dog training is all about team work. Your dog and you are a team working to live the best life together.
Think back to those times where you’ve had someone nagging at you to do better. Whether it be your parents or teachers with your grades at school, a boss who wants you to perform better or even a sports team with that one bossy, know it all player. Did the nagging and put downs about not achieving make you feel good? Did they help you achieve what they wanted? The answer is likely to be no or that you put up with it for a long time then quit.
Too often we become that person to our dog. Nagging them to get things right, even if they don’t understand. Becoming frustrated and shouting at them because they should know what we want from them already. We call them stubborn and naughty when really, they probably don’t know what is required of them or don’t see the value in doing it.
Occasionally some of us will be lucky and have that one person that encourages us to achieve more and we end up excelling expectations. I had an English teacher that did just that (I think his name was Mr King, but it was a while ago! Haha!). I found English boring to be honest. I love to read, so if we had to read a class book I was always reading ahead. Unfortunately, this meant I’d often get caught out and scolded for not ‘paying attention to where we are in the book’. This inevitably led to me dreading English class as I was always going to be getting it wrong and made to feel bad for it.
BUT then in walks Mr King. He notices that I’m trying to slow down to go at the same pace as the class, but instead of making the dreaded scene in front of everyone, his response was ‘take the book home with you Laura, then you can read as far ahead as you want. Then I will tell you the pages we will be concentrating on in class so you can join in with discussions’. A simple, yet very boosting solution for me, and it worked. My grade picked up and I looked forward to class again.
THAT is the person you want to be to your dog, you want to be Mr King. You want to encourage your dog to develop in to the dog you want them to be, rather than scolding them for not being there yet. It will lead to your dog wanting to spend time with you and to learn new things with you.
Our training classes are based around building your relationship with your dog so that you both become great team members. Game play is a fun way to learn and to teach concepts to both humans and dogs. Remember when training your dog, you’re getting trained to. It is a team effort. The teams with the strongest bonds achieve the most.
