I have three Labrador hunting dogs and one rat terrier housedog. My dogs are highly trained, and to keep them there takes ongoing attention.
A great dog will turn into a so-so dog in about six months if the owner does not maintain its talents with constant and ongoing refresher training.
I have been involved either directly or indirectly in the training of about 250 different hunting dogs with my association with Round Lake kennels.
We deliver trained dogs to clients after they have spent 90 to120 days in our care. These dogs go home as a high and tight Marine Corps, recruits fresh out of basic training.
They listen and obey our commands with great consistency.
But if the owner does not continue to use repetition and command enforcement, that dog will figure out in as little as a week the rules have changed.
When you tell a dog to sit and then do not enforce that command, it will soon figure out that this human does not need to be listened to.
This is why some dogs listen and obey the dad of the house but won’t do one single thing for mom. One human requires compliance and the other one may not. This is called the pack hierarchy. All dogs are descendants of wolves and the packs they have operated in for thousands of years. They know who is the boss and where they fit in the group.
In your home, each dog must also understand where it fits in your pack.
In my house the dog is the lowest member of the pack. Each human in my family is a higher-ranking member. This means that every human needs to be listened to.
A dog needs to know where in the pack it fits in order to be satisfied in life. Dogs love routine; in fact they thrive on routine.
To play fair with a dog is to maintain consistent rules in its life.
How can a dog understand their lot in life if the human is constantly changing the rules as to what is OK and what is not?
Young kids can make this very difficult. A child will tell the dog to do five things all in about five seconds. They yell the “sit,” “heel,” “roll over” and “here” commands one right after the other.
The dog does exactly none of these because it is confused. The dog learns that no commands need to be followed. This situation exists even if the dog is doing everything in its power to do the right thing.
A dog can only do one thing at a time.
Give the dog a command. Let it execute that command. When complete, give a second command, and when that command is completed you can issue the third command.
For example, tell the dog “here.” When it gets to you then issue the “heel” command. When it completes the heel command and is at your side, you can issue the “sit” command and the dog will sit. See how this works?
It takes this fair and organized approach to have a great dog who listens and loves his or her life living in your pack. A dog will test his place in the pack regularly to see if it can move up in rank.
This is when consistency is needed the most.
Dog training is one of my greatest passions. Everyone can do it, but it does take time to properly train a dog and then keep it operating at the high level.
If you have a dog-training question, drop me an email at scottarall@gmail.com and I will be glad to try and help you.
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com.