Читать книгу B.E.S. Dog Training Bible - Andrea Arden - Страница 15

Once you have set realistic goals and made a commitment to teach your dog, it is time to decide the all-important question of how to achieve your goals. The effort required for this can vary greatly depending on your lifestyle and training skills, as well as the dog’s age, genetics, and past experiences. Some dogs require more structure and repetition than others. Your goals and training pace must match your dog’s strengths and limitations.

Considering all of this potential for variability, one might expect that vastly different approaches are warranted when teaching individual dogs Regardless of the dog’s age, breed, or lineage, or the family’ expectations and experience, and experience, the overall approach to training is basically the same. This applies to teaching new behaviors and modifying existing ones.

PAWS TO CONSIDER

Regardless of your training goals or your dog’s unique temperament, the training process must be built on a foundation of trust. This is the basis of efficient, effective training, and a healthy and happy relationship with your dog.

Trust as the Foundation for Teaching

A trusting relationship is central to the training process. It is the support net for your dog as he learns to cope with the experiences and circumstances of the human world and what is expected of him.

Training facilitates communication and strengthens your bond with your dog. However, the dog must believe that his people are trustworthy before this can happen. Your dog won’t feel motivated to pay attention to your directions unless he values your guidance and wants to understand what you have to say.

This is why consideration of the long-range impact of a particular method is so important when choosing a training approach for your dog. A dog’s responsiveness to learning is motivated by his desire to be part of a social group and his willingness to trust his people. Trust fosters cooperation, and a cooperative dog is easily guided toward appropriate behavior (i.e., their job) in any given situation.

DANGER!

Coercive Training

Something can be dangerous to your clog without being physically harmful—it can be psychologically detrimental. In fact, many of the problems clogs have are emotionally based as opposed to physically based.

Choosing an aversive approach that causes your clog mental or physical pain should be avoided at all costs. The negative side effects of a punishment- and coercion-based approach are many, and they include even more serious behavior problems related to aggression, fear, and anxiety. Even if your clog doesn’t end up with these problems, it is not in his best interest or in yours, nor does it bode well for creating an enthusiastically compliant canine companion.

Some might presume that a fun, loving relationship with a dog is contradictory to training. This is probably based on the misleading idea that training is primarily about discipline and correction. In fact, teaching your dog what is expected of him in a calm, gentle, and gradual manner is the most effective and efficient route to success.