How Body Language And Voice Effect Dog Training

The way you speak and move are very important in dog training. Your tone of voice and body language can actually be used as additional tools that can aid you in training your dog.

Dogs to not speak in words but do communicate to each other with an assortment of barks, grunts, yips, and growls. By using different tones we can mimick growls and yips etc. therefore conveying information to our dogs.

I will break it down into three overly simplified groups. The first is a high tone. This higher tone creates excitement in a dog. Excitement will encourage your dog to move and be active. This also you should use a high tone for praise. When you want your dog to come to you the higher tone is the best one to use. It creates the excitement you want which causes him to come quickly to you. It creates the needed enthusiasm you want for a quick recall.

A medium tone is what I would call a neutral tone. It is calming and is not really a reactive tone. This is the perfect tone to give a non moving command such as sit, stand, down, and stay.

Low or gutteral tones are usually reserved for stopping or reprimanding a dog for inappropriate behavior. It is the equivalent of a dog’s growl. It can be used as a vocal correction. Remember you do not need to yell, it is the sound of the low firm tone that tells the dog you are not happy with him.

Just as important is the way we use our body during training. When using body language you need to take your dog’s temperment into consideration. What may work for a dominant dog may overwhelm a very shy or submissive dog.

How To Teach Your Dog To Sit Stay

After you have taught your dog to sit consistently you can move to the sit stay command. See “How To Teach Your Dog To Sit“. When I say consistently I mean he will sit for you in a quiet house as well outside in the backyard with a bunch of people and activity. You always want to cement one command before adding on to it.

Now that you have a solid sit and he will sit under all circumstances we can move on. The next command is the sit stay. This is basically a much longer sit then just a sit command. Personally in everyday life I would never use a sit stay. If I wanted my dog to stay a good length of time I would put him in a down stay. That being said lets move on.

Start with your dog on your left. Sit your dog. Then with the leash in your left hand signal your dog to stay. To do this you bring your right hand across, palm open in front of your dog’s face and say “stay”. As you do this pivot around and stand facing your dog. Keep your arm straight out fingers pointing up palm facing your dog. It will look like you are stopping traffic. Count to 5 and return to your dog’s side the same way you left him. Make sure to keep your hand in front of your dog until you are back at his side. Praise and release. To release your dog after a command you can say “okay” and walk a few seconds with your dog. It can even be just a few steps in between commands.

I suggest you use a flat buckle collar to teach your dog new commands. For sit stay I would turn the collar so the clip is up. This way when your attach the leash and hold it above his head it helps convey to him not to move. The tension on the leash and the hand signal in combination help him understand what you want. If you did not use these your dog would instinctively want to move when you do. If your dog does move quickly step in towards him saying “no” and put him back where he was when he broke the command. When you say “no” say it quick kind of like a distraction. Sometimes I use a quick “hey” or “ep” sound. Right now we are teaching so do not be harsh with him. I use the vocal distraction to give the dog feed back so he knows where he went wrong so to speak.

When teaching commands I like to repeat the command. So as you step around in front of your dog with your hand out I would repeat “stay stay stay”. When you say “stay” you need to say it evenly. If you use a high or excited voice your dog will want to come to you. You also do not want to say it so firm as the dog feels that he is being scolded either. Some trainers feel like you should only say the command once and that is it. Now I do believe that once your dog truly knows the command you should not repeat it over and over. If you do he will learn that he does not have to listen the first time. But I think that has to do with obeying and that is a different phase then the teaching phase. As he learns the sit-stay command you need to phase out repeating “stay stay stay” . You will also test him with just a hand signal or just a verbal command. Use what you need as long as you need to. When he seems to understand the command but you are using verbal, hand, and repeating of commands reduce the repeating until you only have to say it once. Then reduce hand signal to a quick hand signal in front of his face in stead of holding your hand in front of his face the whole time.

Always start in a quiet place but change environment as he improves. When he understands the command add some distractions. this improves his attention to you and the command. After he really understands this command you can start to increase the amount of time he stays and the distance from you. The rule is not to increase both at the same time. You can start by going 3 feet in front of your dog but still keep it 5 seconds. Or you could stay in front of him but make it 10 or 15 seconds. Never increase either until he is perfect in the time or distance you have previously set. In other words if he can not stay for 15 seconds do not try to do 30 seconds. As always start in a quiet spot and test in a different spot with distractions before you move on to longer times or distances.

How To Teach Your Dog To Sit

The sit command is probably the first command most people teach their dog. It has many practical uses and can be applied to many situations. A dog in sit position can not be involved in another activity such as jumping etc. It is also often used as a way of asking your permission and showing respect to you as the leader.

Often dogs are taught to sit before the are allowed to eat or go out. This basically teaches and reinforces to your dog that you are the leader. Teaching your dog to sit before he goes out or eats or goes up the stairs is also very practical.

A dog racing you up the stairs or bolting out an open door can be dangerous especially if you have children. A dog that is taught to sit before it goes out a door is less likely to run out the door when a child opens it also. Children that are old enough should ask the dog to sit as well before going out or feeding them. It helps let the dog know where his place is in the family pack. Your dog’s place in the pack should always be at the bottom.

There are two basic ways of teaching the sit command. The first is to put your dog on a leash and place him on your left side. With the leash in right take your left hand and slightly push on the top of your dog’s butt and push down. When his bottom touches then you say “sit”. This way he understands that sit is when his bottom is on the ground. This was the way I was taught in my first dog training class. Some dogs did fine with this but some resisted. The owners that had dogs that resisted were told to squeeze hard right in front of the dogs hip bones as they pressed. If your dog does sit with the gentle version of this fine. If not move on to my on to the second way to teach a sit.

The second way to teach a sit is really the best way to it. In fact I think it is the only way a sit should be taught. Even if you are gentle with the above method it still won’t work for some dogs. Some dogs are very sensitive to touch. When you touch them it actually distracts them from learning. And the rough version is unacceptable to me. Learning should be fun not painful and frustrating for you or your dog. The method I prefer to use to teach a sit is lure training. It is basically what it sounds like. You use a piece of food or maybe your dogs favorite toy to lure him into a sit.

Take the lure item and hold it close to your dogs nose and lift if up and behind towards his back. Do not let him grab it from you until his bottom touches the ground. When his bottom touches the ground say “sit”. There is no point saying sit to your dog before he actually learns what it means. If your dog keeps scooting back place him with his behind close to a corner. When he has nowhere to back up to he will hopefully sit for you.

After some practice he will learn to sit faster because he is starting to get it. He is learning that he does not get anything until he sits. When he starts sitting quickly you know he probably understands. To really test this you say sit without the lure in front of him. If he sits give him his reward. If he does sit on command over and over you know he understands the meaning of the word. Now when you train mix up the rewards. On the first sit maybe give him a treat. The second time maybe pet him a little. The third time just tell him excitedly what a good boy he is. This causes some confusion because he never knows when he is going to get a treat so he will sit each time. You do not want a dog who will only sit when he knows you have food.

Adding a hand signal for sit is pretty easy. You may want to teach this in case you are unable to tell him verbally to sit such as if he is at a far distance from you or talking on the phone. The hand signal is similar to the movement of luring into a sit. Start with your right arm down at your side, palm open bend your all the way up. By using the verbal command “sit” and the hand signal together it connects the two. Test your dog by just using the hand signal alone. If he does not sit using the hand signal alone go back to using both together. Eventually he will sit with either the hand signal or verbal signal.

After your dog learns to sit you need to clarify what sit means. Sit does not just mean to put your bottom on the floor. It means to sit and not get up until you release your dog. So after he understands the basic sit you want to ask more of him. To release your dog you say “okay”. You want to move him out of the sit as you say “okay”. You can do this by encouraging him to move forward and out of the sit. You can do this by moving back way from him or gently with the leash or collar. If he pops up before the command try to say “okay” as he comes up anyway. Either way it helps him make the connection. A good example is he is on the leash by your side in the sit position. As you say “okay’ you start to walk. Your movement and gently pull on the leash will encourage him out of the sit. As you progress you will move into the sit stay command. The sit stay indicates to your dog that he will be in the sit for some time.

Always make training fun. Keep each session short and successful. Always quit while your dog is doing well and you are happy. If you train to long he can get bored and stop working for you and you will get frustrated as well. You are always better off training 2 or 3 shorter lesson a day rather than one that is too long. For a puppy I would only train a few minutes at at a time working up to 15 minutes. Your puppy will let you know when the lesson is getting to long. If this happens adjust the lessons accordingly.

When we got our husky Buddy we found that although he was smart he was stubborn. At least that was what I thought then because he would learn a command quickly but would not necessarily do it over and over. I learned that he was not stubborn or stupid just not motivated. A lot of dogs will do something for you just to please you or for food(such as the Labrador). Apparently my Husky was more of a what’s in it for my dog. I thought about it from his point of view. What does Buddy love? Buddy loves to play. So I made a game out of it. When ever he sat or downed for me on command we would run a little. Sounds silly but that was his motivator. He loved it. It just made training fun for him. So if your dog is not motivated by food, praise or toys this may just be the ticket for you. It is a very good way for kids to train since it puts them in control of the fun their dog has when he listens.

Well good luck to all and as always keep it fun.