The two most important words in dog training

If you have a dog, you’re always training. Always. I know, that sounds completely exhausting, but whether you’re watching TV and the dog’s pushed you off the couch and you’re sitting on the floor (though in that case, perhaps the dog’s training you?) or you’re giving the dog a bath, when your dog’s around, he’s always learning from you, always reading your body language, and always being trained.

And, in dog training, there are only two words that matter: “Good dog.” See, our dog wants to make us happy, and so it’s important not to be stingy with your approval and encouragement. Sure, you can overpraise a dog, but most of us do the opposite–we don’t give them enough encouragement.

If you had a two-year-old (and bear with me, because we don’t have kids of our own yet so this all comes from babysitting my nieces), you don’t go around telling her all the things she’s doing wrong. The way she chewed the couch and made you mad or how that barking at the mailman has got to stop. Nope! Instead, you give her good choices and distract her when necessary. Then, you encourage her when she gets something right.

And your dog is a lot like a two-year-old. So, that means that when he’s barking at the squirrels *again*, instead of yelling, you should say, “No. Quiet.” and then distract with a Kong or stuffed animal or command “Get on your bed.” Then, follow it up with, “Good boy!”

I find this rule especially hard when Vance is in the car with me. To keep him from climbing over me to get out of the car first, I know all I need to do is tell him to lay down before I open the door. But, instead, I often forget and start to open the door without giving him a command. So, then he climbs on me, and I yell. NO! Get OFF ME! You get the picture. He gets confused, I get furious. And it can all be prevented just by taking a moment before I open the door to remind Vance that a) I’m in charge; and b) he’s not getting out of the car until he’s being obedient.

If you have trouble with this process, you’ll definitely get a lot from my earlier article on the dog training program Nothing in Life is Free (NILF for short). I’d love to hear about those times when you forget that a quick command before doing something means you get to say, “Good dog” instead of “Stop that!”