Jon J Bachelor... The Bachman and not so pro dog handler

To drop me a note, click on my dog, Jessie (and tell her she's a good girl!).

Link to Computer Science 050 class. Go check out the syllabus and other great info on this class!

Dog Training, The Bachelor Way!

For some silly reason, there seems to be a common rumor floating around a lot of places which claims that dogs are not ready for training until at least six months of age. The fact is that this is simply not true. Your two month old puppy is ready for training TODAY!! And in fact, now is the best time to train that pup... while she is small, manageable, and VERY eager to please you. The key to training a young pup is NOT punishment, but rather positive reinforcement. The most important thing that you will be teaching your pup at this young age is HOW to learn. Unfortunately, we can not sit down and have a discussion with our young pup to let them know that when someone says, "Sit," their rump is to hit the floor... right away. So we have to show them what we mean, as well as motivate them to do it for us! This is not at all difficult to do with a young pup. All it takes is a little persistence and a lot of love! So, with this in mind, here is a list of topics which will help lead to a well behaved and very happy puppy. My Labrador Retriever, Jessie, is six months old, and she responds to the commands sit, come, down, leave it, and fetch quite reliably. In addition, when told to stay down, she will do so just about indefinitely (until I release her)... she has no problem sitting through 90 minute classes, or long dinners. A well behaved dog is a dog who can come with you to a LOT of places because their behavior can be counted on. A dog that is with you, and has a well established relationship with you as the boss is a happy dog!

Bach's Dog Training Manual

Motivation-- Sit-- Down-- Come-- Stay-- Hurry Up-- Leave It-- Reading List

Motivating Your Puppy

Dogs are pack animals, and so by nature seek out a heirarchy in the pack which they join. When you bring home a puppy, it is very important to let your pup know that you are the pack leader, or alpha. How do you establish alpha status? Easy! For one thing, don't let your puppy stare you down... the alpha will always maintain eye contact the longest (be careful with this one... don't stare menacingly at your puppy. This sort of eye contact is seen as a signof dominance and aggression, and while you want to establish dominance, you do NOT want to send your pup running afraid of you!). Also, put your dog in a sitting position and give a firm massage all over. If she tries to get away, hold her still and give a gruff "NO". Whenever she sits quietly and lets you massage, quietly praise her.

Another way of estabishing dominance is to never let your dog call the shots, and this gets into the training a little bit too. Training is not something you do once a day... it is a continuous process. Your pup is learning AT ALL TIMES. It is up to you what is taught. Are you about to pet your pup, and lavish her with praise (do this a lot!)? Tell her to SIT first, and gently put her in that position, then praise her. She will learn how much FUN it is to sit when you say that word! Make her sit before she goes outside, before you feed her, and before any other activity or experience you know that she enjoys.

Finally, like I said above, with a puppy, we want them to learn how much FUN it is to learn. So when just starting out, use only positive reinforcement. Say the command firmly (ONCE!), place the dog in the position, and then give lots of praise. Give treats? That's up to you. I would advise against relying on them... you don't want the dog to only respond to you when you have a treat in your hand. I use treats once in a rare while, and I've found this to work very well.

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Teaching the Sit

The sit is the basic command which you will probably use more than any other, and it is a great command to think of as the base from which your dog will learn how to learn (and will learn how much fun it is!). As suggested under the motivation section, you should always make your dog sit (or perform some other command) before you do something for her. So make that pup sit ALL the time!!! Is she jumping on you for attention? Tell her to sit (and put her in the position), and THEN praise her. If you do this consistently, your pup will very soon learn to walk up to you and sit rather than jump up. Also, forcing her to do something for you before she gets anything puts you in the alpha position.

To get your dog to sit, have her standing at your left side, with a leash attached to your dog and held in your right hand. Say the command, "SIT" in a firm voice. Then, at the same time, pull up gently on the lead with your right hand while bending down to apply gentle pressure to your dog's rear, scooping her rear legs into a sit. Wacko! A sitting dog. Praise her. Have a party! Make her really know just how pleased you are that she sat when you told her to (don't worry... eventually, it will happen without you being directly there).

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Teaching the Down

The down is not only a great command to keep your dog calm and out of the way during meal times, classes, business meetings, or whatever other non-playful situation you might wish to bring your dog to, but it could also save your dog's life. If Ms. Excited Pup begins chasing a squirrel, and is headed towards I-95 during rush hour, it could save her life if she actually hits the deck when you scream, "DOWN!" you'll breath a lot easier as the squirrel becomes road-kill. The other wonderful thing about the down is that it enforces your position as alpha, which makes mastery of this command essential. If you have a dog who thinks she can push you around, she will NOT want to go down, as this is a submissive posture. If you have such a dog, work on the down a LOT, and never say "down" without being right there to be able to enforce your command (and of course, praise when she's down!).

To get your dog to go down, start with her sitting at your left side (use your sit command!). Tell your dog, "down" in a firm voice. Immediately bend down and pick up her right leg with your right hand. Use your left hand to push on her left shoulderblade towards the right, which will essentially force your puppy off balance into a down. Once she is down, praise her.

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The All Important Come

Many people say that all they want their dog to do is come when called. They don't want to be cruel, and force their dog to learn all those other commands. In a word, wrong-attitude!! Teaching a dog commands is NOT cruel. To the contrary, the dog truly LIVES to please you, and the more ways she has to do it, the happier she is. Also, knowing more commands will make her more stable in a non-alpha position. Dogs do NOT care about being in a non-alpha position, what bothers them is confusion... if they do not KNOW that YOU are the alpha, then they will wonder if they should take on the role, and this is confusing. The happiest, most secure, and best attached dogs are the ones who are well trained. If you skipped to this section hoping to only teach this command, I reccomend going to the suggested reading list and picking up one of those books before you go any further in your canine career... for both your own and your dog's benefit.

Fortunately, a young puppy LOVES you in the BIGGEST way!! This makes teaching a young pup the come command a piece of cake. This is a fun command to teach, because you will really see how much the dog is focused on you. With your dog a couple feet away, call her name and tell her to come. DO NOT WAIT for her to start heading towards you, just begin praising like crazy. A puppy can not resist a good time with you, and when she sees you having such a good time, she'll probably come charging, with a smile and a wagging tail! When she gets to you, praise for a long time. Have a large party, and let that pup konw that she is just the greatest thing since the invention of the banjo! You can start to play hide and seek too. With your dog in another room, or if outside you can hide behind something, begin calling to your dog and praising. Keep praising, and have faith... she will come! Doing this a lot will not only enforce the come command, but also get your dog focused on you.

A word of big time caution is in order regarding the come command. There will be (no question about it) times when you call your dog away from some bad activity that she is not allowed to do. If you call your dog, and she comes, you MUST PRAISE. If you call your dog and then tell her she is bad, all she thinks is, 'that's the last time I come when called... look how angry my master was!!!' If you are going to scold the dog, you've got to go to the dog (scolding, by the way should be a scruff shake and a gruff "NO"... not a rolled up newspaper or any other method of hitting).

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The Stay... Making the Pup Safe for Dinner-time

This command is easy to teach. Just remember, start off with very short increments of time, and build up slowly. Long downs are very tough on a puppy, so don't expect much for the first few months, but by six months, if you work consistently, your dog (like mine) will be able to sit through meals or classes or meetings. Make your dog do a sit stay while you prepare meals for her. Put the meal down, but do not release her. She will try for the food at first, but so long as you quickly correct this and MAKE her wait, she will VERY quickly learn that she must wait for the okay from you before she eats. Make her do this, and boy are you the dominant member of the pack! Once she is doing some reasonably lengthy down stays, you can put your dog in a down stay during dinner. Run the lead under your foot, and any time she tries to get up correct her. She will soon learn to stay down for long periods of time, and all you had to do was eat dinner!!

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Excretion on Command!!

This is another of those extremely easy commands to teach, but it comes in very handy when you are in a rush. As you train your dog to eliminate outdoors, and not indoors (see books in the reading list for detailed instructions on crate training), your dog will be eliminating many times a day outside. Every single time she does this successfully, you must praise like your dog just won the nobel prize, and named you as the inspiration in her acceptance speach to the world. But before you do that monumental piece of praising, JUST at the moment you see your dog about to go to the bathroom, tell her to "hurry up!". Then start the praising frenzy. Just do this for a while, then you can one day tell your dog to "Hurry up" while she is just daydreaming, but you've got to get to a job interview, and she will look at you, most likely. This is the ONE command you will repeat. Say "hurry up" again and again, and soon your dog will get it. Once you start saying this command, don't stop until you get some results. This command has saved my skin a number of times!

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Stop Eating My Rug, Don't Chase the Cat

Ah, the command "Leave It." This is a wonderful command which you will be VERY happy you taught your dog. It's a wonderful way to control your dog. You can stop her from running towards that elderly couple and knocking them over. You can stop her from running towards a pile of broken glass. And of course, you can stop her from chewing up your rug.

All you have to do is be consistent. When puppy starts to chew on the forbidden item, or starts to run towards the illegal destination, tell her to "Leave it" in a firm voice. She will not, of course, the first time, since she does not know what you mean. But you will then forcibly remove her or stop her, and express your dissapointment in your voice. Tell her that she ought to know better. Finally, tell her to sit, and when she does, turn happy, and praise her. Eveentually, when you tell her to leave soemthing, she will change direction and probably come towards you and sit. What could be better?