What is Dog Training, and how to impart your skill-sets to others?
Dog training is about how to change the behaviour of the dog so that the dog can live harmoniously together with us. We can train a dog to become a good manner dog in our living environment. That’s why Dog training is very important for all pet dogs.
Before we touch base on the different training methods, lets us understand how dogs learn. Dogs like all living creatures, they need to work for survival. They will work for themselves to live. Dogs don’t know what is right or wrong, and they only know what is safe or dangerous. For Dogs to learn, we use classical conditioning and operant conditioning. A good example of classical conditioning is the use of verbal cue and clicker together with rewards given to the dogs. Rewards can be in the form of food or toys, depending on the type of drives that the dogs have. For operant conditioning, Dogs will learn that certain behaviour will lead to certain consequences.
Nowadays, the most common method in dog training is the rewards base or positive reinforcement method. This method will be more preferably use on young puppies. It motivates the dogs to do certain things and get rewarded. This kind of training method will produce a dog that is very focus, attentive, and with a good attitude. It will help to create a good bonding and relationship with your dogs.
However, once the dogs had learned the also need and able to do it correctly most of the time, the next phase will be fine-tuning or on-demand phase. We need to teach the dogs to figure out how to prevent making mistakes and the consequences of the mistakes made. The dogs need to know how to switch off the pressure applied to them. With the combination of relying on positive and negative realms, we can bring the level of dog training to a more advanced stage.
At the advanced stage, we will be focusing more on the speed and accuracy of the dog’s behaviours that we want from them.
To be able to teach others how to train their dogs, we will need to show the dog owners the “Why,” “How,” and “What.” The “Why” is the purpose, the “How” is the process of doing and the “What” is the result of it. Dog owners must be patient and consistent in all their commands given to their dogs. We want the dog owners to be the center of attractions for their dogs. The dogs will push the owners for rewards, the best outcome we would like to see. From a dog trainer perspective, we will need to prepare a structure class syllabus that is easy to understand and able to relate to all exercises.
All training must be practical and able to use in our daily lives. Dog owners will be able to appreciate and put to good use.
Jason Ngiam
Assistant Dog Trainer