Jo's Old Site

When training a dog, it is important to use commands that a dog understands as even though dogs don’t use words they do understand meanings, and some more than others. And one command that I know that Ilse understands is the word “leave it.” I also started using this command when she is being a bit bossy, and she gets this way when my mother’s Rottie is on the chair that I often sit on when I go outside.

Also another thing that I have tried with Ilse when she is being a bit noisy, is squirt her with water mixed with vinegar and found that this only confused her and is why I’ve stopped using that method; as I found another way to get a dog to make less noise is to say “quiet” whenever it barks, and also signal the dog at the same time and when it does respond then say “yes” and give the dog a food reward.

I also find that using food to train a dog, is an effective way to train. But once a trainer starts using it they cannot phrase it out totally.

And if using food, it is also important for us to have words that our dogs know will be followed by a food reward, and this can be a tidbit, or a jackpot. These words can be something like “get lolly” or “yes,” and I always give Ilse a jackpot when I say the word “come.”

Then another way to reward our dogs is to teach them how to play different types of games, as this is another way that we can get our dogs more focused, and motivated. And we can also get our dogs to work for it as training a dog to accept different types of rewards, whether it’ll be food, praise, or a chance to play can be very useful in training as long as it is something that we know that our dogs likes.