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Early Training for a New Dog
Here's a Top Training Tip from Harriet:
"A new dog in your life? Take it from me (and I got this from Trisha back in 1989!), pick the TOP 3 or 4 BEHAVIORS you want your dog to REALLY know in a year or so, and work hard on those. Leave all the others to "management" for the time being. It's not easy to pick just a few, but my list would include Come, Stay and Leave it. Of course, everyone's list will be different, but you are better off mastering a few exercises rather than training many that only work when there are no distractions! "
Great advice Harriet! I completely agree. I think we are all better off helping our dog to "master" some fundamentals than training 20 different things that only work if it's dinner time and you're holding the food bowl! Aimee Moore and I write about this in Chapter Six of Family Friendly Dog Training, because it's easy to get overwhelmed when you have an new dog. As fun as training is, most of us have a few others things to do!
"A new dog in your life? Take it from me (and I got this from Trisha back in 1989!), pick the TOP 3 or 4 BEHAVIORS you want your dog to REALLY know in a year or so, and work hard on those. Leave all the others to "management" for the time being. It's not easy to pick just a few, but my list would include Come, Stay and Leave it. Of course, everyone's list will be different, but you are better off mastering a few exercises rather than training many that only work when there are no distractions! "
Great advice Harriet! I completely agree. I think we are all better off helping our dog to "master" some fundamentals than training 20 different things that only work if it's dinner time and you're holding the food bowl! Aimee Moore and I write about this in Chapter Six of Family Friendly Dog Training, because it's easy to get overwhelmed when you have an new dog. As fun as training is, most of us have a few others things to do!
