For most dogs, meal time is one of their favorite times of the day. But, is it one of your favorite activities? Many dogs bark, spin, jump on you or even knock the dog food out of your hands as you try to place it into their dog bowl. But, it doesnt have to be like that. Here are some dog training tips to make meal time more enjoyable for you.
· Have patience.
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| Live demo with dogs that have never practiced before. Quick rewards for sitting. |
· Have more patience. You will be teaching a habit for your dog and you! Habits take at least 3 weeks to really start to sink in.
· Be consistent. Once you set a rule for your dog, you must continue to follow it. If you become wishy-washy, your dog will not have a clear understanding on what to expect.
· If you have more than one dog, plan on individual training time with each dog. It is much easier to teach a dog individually on what you expect rather than try to teach them both a new behavior together.
· Teach your dog how to sit. Build the sit behavior by asking for a sit before good things happen. Examples include: sit before being pet, tossing the ball, going outside, putting on the dog leash..... If you instill "good things happen when I sit" your dog will learn to offer this as a default behavior more often.
· Pick a place you would like your dog to sit & wait while you prepare his meal. Make sure it is in a convenient place that you can easily give a treat while fixing his meal. Ideally this will also be where you feed him.
· Grab a handful of your dogs dog food & walk your dog over to the above spot. Ask him to "Sit" at his spot and reward him there. Continue to reward him for sitting in his spot at various intervals. Example: 3 seconds-treat, 4 seconds-treat, 1 second-treat; 1 step away-treat, 4 steps away-treat etc.
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| After a few minutes of feeding for sits. Cavapalooza 2013 |
· The next step is to start to put the new routine of sitting in the right spot while preparing & feeding your dog. First, make sure you are not rushed & have time to follow through with these steps. This leads to the second, have patience. :)
· Ask your dog to sit in their spot. Reward with a piece of kibble. Start to walk towards the area to prepare your dogs food, but before you get too far, or your dog breaks his unofficial stay, return to your dog & give another piece of kibble. You are going to continue this process while fixing your dogs meal. Continue to go back and forth rewarding your dog for staying in his spot.
o If he gets up during this process you can either do one of two things. 1) Stop in your tracks & look at him & wait for him to go by himself to his spot & then you can reward that action. Or 2) Politely lead him back to his spot & start the process over. But, you do not want to continue to prepare his meal if he is not in his spot.
· Once his meal is prepared, walk to his meal spot with his bowl of food. You will want him to still be in his spot. You can of course and I recommend, continue to reinforce him with kibbles for staying in his spot while you approach. If he gets up repeat the previous step 1 or 2.
· As you start to put the bowl on the ground, if your dog starts to get up, swiftly pick up the bowl & have him go back to his spot. Continue this until you can set the bowl down, wait 2 seconds, then release him to eat.
Viola! Dinner is served. This may seem like an impossible task, but it truly can go quickly if you practice at each meal & take your time. Once you and your dog have a better feeding routine in place, meal time will be enjoyable for both of you & effortless. But you do have to put in the time in the beginning to get there.
Tips:
· All behaviors you dont like (jumping up, barking etc) lead to you stopping the feeding routine. Wait for your dog to get back in his spot, or all four on the floor to restart.
· Be calm & patient. Do not yell or get frustrated with your dog. This will only lead to more stress for both you & your dog & more rowdy behavior.
· Those kibbles you are rewarding with, have them count towards your dogs daily calories. We dont want fat dogs just because you are training them!
· Reinforce (food, play, attention) that sit behavior or sitting in their feeding spot often. Especially in the beginning. Your dog will learn that sitting is the key to good things and will repeat this behavior.
· If you have a lot of dogs, you can feed in shifts. 2-3 at a time etc. Nothing is wrong with that, particularly at the beginning. Add more as they get the routine down.
Final Notes:
· Oh, and get the camera!! I would love to see your video footage if youre trying this at home. Any level you are on. Good Luck~Tonya
Here is an example using the methods above but for unloading the dishwasher.
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