Written by Martine Lavallée BAA, TSA

Having the perfect dog who knows how to react to any situation and who obeys each of our orders is a utopia. But to ensure that he is well well-educated in society is the least of things or even an obligation as a dog owner. Indeed, being able to recognize the dog’s body language to guide our dog and prevent an inappropriate reaction from it, is necessary. However, it represents a daily work especially in our companion first years of life. In addition, it can be an investment both in terms of time and financial level.

You have probably heard of dog training or obedience classes. Nowadays, these two names are no longer up to date because they omit the intention to educate dog owners. We will rather privilege the learning of the dog and the human at the same time. Ideally, if you have no idea in this area, look for a dog behaviour specialist who works with positive reinforcement and harness, without a choker. We want to educate ourselves to well-educated his dog because it is an undeniable asset for any human to fully understand the language of the canine species throughout our lives.

Now, what are the reasons to well-educated his dog? Because there are only advantages! The education of our dog only makes sense if it is carried out with respect, kindness and knowledge of the language of the animal. The desire to well-educated your dog must above all be driven by a desire to find a balance in the relationship we have with his dog. In no case should we see the dog as an animal to be subjected to any price and to lock in a strict framework. To well-educated your dog is to learn to observe, to feel, to read and to understand this being who does not work like us so that he can live serenely with beings who do not work like him either. And to do so, mutual respect is required.

Below, some of the seating or
achievements of a well-educated dog:

• Communication through the eyes
  (in the medium/long term)
• The success of self-checking
• The stimulation of commitment
  and motivation
• The learning of good manners
• A dog full of confidence
• A good human-animal relationship
• A good socialization

To succeed, here are five tips that can optimize your education sessions to better understand your dog and develop an excellent relationship with him.

1. Respect the needs of the dog

Initially, for our dog to respect us, we must respect him and to do this, it is essential to meet his needs:

• Intellectuals: stimulate him regularly by teaching him new things; keeping him busy when he is alone, etc.
• Olfactory: let it smell new smells regularly mainly during its walks on a leash.
• Physical: to be able to spend his energy several hours a day so to run and play.
• Primary: drink, eat, sleep warm and safe.
• Social: meet his fellow people often, walk every day outside his field.

When all the needs of our dog are respected, it will not be tempted to fill some of them by having behaviours that do not correspond to our expectations.

2. Use a clear drive system

This immediately excludes ALL VIOLENCE! During the education sessions, we repeat many commands to our dog. But to constantly repeat words to an individual who does not understand our language without indicating to him by some sign that he has understood and understood is certain to ensure that it eventually ignores us. We must therefore absolutely reward the successes of our Fido. To do this, we use what is called a marker. The latter serves to make our animal understand that he is rewarded for the behaviour he has just produced. Markers facilitate learning by increasing the understanding link between desired behaviour and reward. The reward must be IMMEDIATE! It can be both verbal (cheerful tone of voice) and/or the clicker as well as small snacks. As for voices, intonation and exaggerated tone will be in order. Indeed, high-pitched sounds are mainly used for congratulations as well as the reminder and the call to play. While the deep voices are used especially for prohibitions and invitations to renunciation.

This positive reinforcement technique weaves a strong bond between us and our dog. The stronger this link is, the more your dog will understand what he or she has been rewarded for and will tend to reproduce these behaviours easily. Some dogs learn faster than others. So if our dog tends to learn slowly, reduce our requirements and start at an easier level, which will help us to better understand.

3.  Learning in different environments

We and our dog will be confronted with different environments, more or less stressful, during our lives. In order to be able to react well, both for us and our dog, it is recommended to practise in various conditions. In short, dogs have difficulty generalizing what we are teaching them and for us it is difficult to understand that our dogs do not understand our words.

4. Learn basic commands

In general the basic commands of our dog are:

• Sitting: this one allows us to have all his attention on you.
• Rest: to teach him to stay in place when you ask him.
• Come: for him to come back easily when he is free.
• Sleeping: allowing a return to calm when it is too agitated
• Stop/stop: for our dog to insist.

5. Dissuade unwanted behaviours

Our dog has a tendency to urinate and, thus, to continually mark his passage everywhere during the walks and he has unfortunately already lifted his leg on someone … discomfort. To stop this unwanted behaviour, you can teach him to urinate on command or let him urinate on his favourite trees while he walks. During this last, we start by asking him to look us in the eyes and then we ask him to sit on command.

In conclusion

In my opinion, to educate and well-educated your dog is to allow us a good integration into the society in a more global way. To succeed in the dog training of our dog, I always recommend dealing with a qualified professional who has at heart his job to help us in our approach. Thanks to a discipline and a good supervision, our dog will become attentive, fulfilled because we will share the same language and we will thus create an excellent complicity.