Pay me or Make me

I am always thinking about new ways to better train my dog.  How can I explain a concept better to him?  Obviously I cant speak English to him since he really does not grasp it the way we do.  So I am left with understanding how he perceives things. So I have his nose, eyes, ears and his ability to feel things.  Most of the time, I use his nose and eyes to show him what it is that I am trying to define to him.  Other times I have to use his sense of touch to get him to do what I want.  So this brings me to my point, will I use his nose and eyes or will I use his ability to feel?

So early on in training with my dogs I often used their ability to feel to get them to do things.  Plainly said, I used force.  I will admit that my dog often got the concept pretty quickly.  I did come to the realization over time as I trained more dogs that some of them would quickly decide that they didnt care for the training and would rather do something else than work for me.  In essence my dog looked at training as if it was chore with no real sense of accomplishment. My dog was not a partner in obedience but a slave.

Now what about using the dogs nose and eyes to get the job done?  I will say that this requires a bit more thought on my part but is it worth it.  When I define things to my dogs using this ability it seems that they just come alive.  Some of the new behaviors that the dog starts to show early on are increased confidence, super important if you ever want to do something difficult with you dog, and the dog begins to come to me more readily.  Over time I see that the dog actually begins to look forward to the time we will be working as opposed to dreading it.  No longer will I have my dog be a slave in obedience but a partner in conquering whatever may come my way.

How will you choose to teach your dog?  Will you get him to do it or will you motivate him to use his brain and be partner in obedience? "

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