Improving a Dog's Obedience

A few months ago we adopted a new dog into our home. Over the time he has been with us, I have (of course) started training him. He's a very friendly dog, but still not too work oriented. Part of that is due to his core personality (which I knew when I got him), and some is due to him being younger than the shelter estimated (still immature).

Anyway, the other day we were out walking around the Otterbein Campus for some training. My new dog likes to chase things, and as a runner ran by he tried taking off. I stopped him after about 5', but I was also disappointed he broke out of a heel. He had been doing very well over the previous weeks, so I was a bit surprised by this lapse in performance.

After we packed up and headed home, I started thinking about how to address this issue. Later that day we went to Antrim Park where he was worked for 20 mins around runners, bikes, and other distractions zipping by. After this session he was able to walk/heel very well, even around distractions that caused the earlier problem. I was proud of him, but I also know we will need to keep practicing around certain types of challenging distractions.

I often tell my clients it's easy to keep doing things your dog is good at. If you want to make your dog's obedience more reliable for real world distractions, you need to find weak areas to shore up. While all trainers will test a dog's reliability around various distractions (proofing commands), the best proofing can take time. Different dogs will find different things distracting - sights, sounds, scents, etc. Proofing means an owner needs to spend time finding weaknesses, then practice, practice, practice around them until obedience improves.

These types of challenges are necessary to reach excellence. They require training and work in many settings, and around diverse distractions. They also require more time on those weak training areas, rather than repeating the same routines every day. For anyone wanting a little help with diversifying and testing your dog's obedience, I invite you to stop by my "Daily K9 News and More!" page. Every weekend this page includes a helpful thought, article, and training suggestions to help owners challenge their dogs in new ways.

Have a great dog day!