Dog training is nothing more than teaching your dog a trick.  Therefore you should make training a fun activity and not a boring mundane one.

Training your dog is asking him to follow an instruction and in following that instruction they gain a reward.

Dogs learn by consequences – if they have a positive consequence following a behaviour they are more likely to do it again and if it is a bad consequence they are less likely to do it again.

These are the basics:

   J                    REWARD GOOD BEHAVIOUR

   L                    IGNORE BAD BEHAVIOUR

   M                   INTERRUPT WHAT CAN NOT BE IGNORED

Examples;

Your dog pinches an old shoe

If you start to chase him in order to retrieve the shoe he will see the interaction as a reward so he is likely to do it again.

Ignore your dog and he will soon become bored, which would mean he is less likely to do it again.

If however as your dog ran off with a new shoe you would have to interrupt the behaviour.  Try gaining your dog’s attention by offering him a food treat or a game with a toy.  Do not get into a tug of war situation; simply swap it for the food treat or toy.

JUMPING UP

If your dog jumps up at you;

If you start moving backwards away from your dog and start shouting at him to get down he will get excited and take this interaction as a reward and is therefore more likely to do it again.

If you fold your arms and turn away from your dog, make no eye contact and totally ignore him, he will soon realise that this behaviour is getting him nowhere.  (Remember to tell your dog he is right – with verbal, physical rewards when he does get down).

If however you have your best clothes on you need to interrupt the behaviour.  Try throwing him a tasty stuffed Kong or a long lasting chew – he is therefore being rewarded for getting off and staying off.

To stop your dog from jumping up you need to join forces with everyone, so family members, visitors, and anyone else who comes into contact with the dog.  Even whilst out on a walk.  Together with all these people you need to teach your dog that jumping up will not get any reward from you or them.  Follow the steps below for a quick route to success.

Whenever your dog jumps up, fold your arms, turn your back on your dog and avert your eyes away from your dog.

Do not talk to your dog

After a short while your dog will get down and have all four paws on the ground, at this point you need to reward your dog.  You can use calm physical contact and verbal praise or a food treat

If your dog jumps up again start the exercise from the beginning.

All of the people your dog comes into contact with need to do the same.

If you don’t mind your dog jumping up then that’s fine but we recommend that you teach it to do so on command.  This will ensure that your dog won’t jump up on a child or an elderly person.

           Offer your dog a tasty treat when he is showing the desired behaviour.

MOUTHING

The simplest way to cure this problem is for the person concerned to respond to the lightest mouthing, be it skin or clothing, to a sharp “NO”, as if they have been hurt badly, whenever the dog uses its teeth in play or in mouthing. 

They should then walk off and ignore the dog for a few minutes

This will hopefully teach your dog to curb the strength of its bite. 

With continuation of this exercise it is hoped that the pressure of your dogs bite will decrease and eventually stop altogether.

However dogs bite in play naturally so we need to also offer them an alternative be it toys, bones or chews.  This way we can redirect the bite onto something else. 

Try leaving a chewable object in each room the dog goes in. (for you to give him)