The four foundational behaviours of dog training
Dogs might not be the smartest non-human animals out there, but when it comes to ‘trainability’ dogs excel. In fact, they rank near the absolute top for reading human social cues, emotional attunement and cooperative communication. They’re capable of learning a large number of commands, tricks and cues. Take two border collies, Chaser and Rico, for instance; they learned hundreds of words, with Chaser famously able to distinguish more than 1,000 proper nouns, used as names for his toys. While it can be enjoyable to teach your dog loads of tricks like middle, paw and spin, these should only be added once the fundamentals are completely ingrained.
Too often off-lead dogs come running up to on-lead dogs while their name rings out in the distance. Loads of dogs pick up and eat or destroy things that are totally inappropriate and then we have the lead pullers, jumpers and Tasmanian Devils that run circles – literally and figuratively – around their human family.
There are four categories of skills every dog must be taught – and taught as early as possible. These skills will make life easier, freer and safer for all dogs and people (and other animals) both in and out of the home.
Recall. I think this is the most important skill to teach your dog. A dog that has solid, reliable recall EVERY TIME, is the freest dog there is. A dog that comes when they’re called can be off-lead around dogs, other animals, cars, children, pretty much everything, because they will always listen to their human when they say it’s time to ‘come’.
Relinquishment. Some kind of relinquishing behaviour means you can leave food, toys or any kind of ‘fun’ thing around your dog and not worry that they're going to eat and/or destroy it. It also means they won’t eat something that could hurt them or that they could hurt/bite/kill some other animal. However, if you have a solid recall, ‘leave it’ is essentially part and parcel of that behaviour. But it’s worth training separately, as your dog might be right next to you when they try to pick up something they shouldn’t
Relaxing. It’s surprising just how many dogs don’t know how to relax or that appear to have no ‘off switch’. Teaching a dog to be calm, as in a static-ish position such as a sit, down, wait or just lying in their bed, also opens lots of doors to places like pubs, cafes, trains and buses because the dog has learned that some places and times are for charging around tongue out and others are for chilling. Also, calm behaviours are completely incompatible with crazy and/or reactive behaviours. A dog can’t jump at visitors and lie down in their bed at the same time.
Focus. Hmm, maybe this is actually the most important category. If your dog can focus on you, that means they can listen to you. That means they can ignore all those exciting distractions around them. That means they are safe. That means they can learn when they can/can’t do things. That means they can learn to walk with a loose lead. They can learn to sit, stay, give you their paw and all the other good stuff. The best dog-human relationships come from dogs that can focus and listen.
All these behaviour categories deliver freedom – for you and your dog. Dogs are actually big fans of routine. They like to know what to expect. We might like surprises. Dogs certainly don’t – unless it's food. By setting boundaries a dog learns what to expect. They learn that in certain situations they can run around, sniff and try their luck chasing crows, but other times they have to listen to mum/dad. Routine and boundaries are actually best friends with freedom. Knowing what you can’t do also means knowing what you can do.
In the next four posts I’ll cover how to teach the basics of four behaviours from these categories:
Recall
Leave it
Go to bed
Loose lead walking
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