Have patience- Any dog you are working whether young or old, deserve a trainer/owner with a slow and steady training method rather than rushing through steps that will later lead to miscommunication in your relationship

Learning the proper communication- Dogs do not speak English, we all know this, but what do they speak? For the most part they speak body language, pressure, facial expressions and some vocalizations. In order to communicate with your dog you have to have understanding of what you might be sharing with them. How are you holding your body? Are your muscles tense? Where do you hold the leash? Is it close to your body or loose and relaxed? All of things need to be considered when working with your dog.

What reinforcement are you using? Is that what your dog uses for reinforcement? There is no way for us as humans to know exactly what motivates our dog’s unless we test different options. Even when using treats or food you should always experiment to see if certain treats are more motivating than others and in what order. Dogs could find any number of things as a reward that we wouldn’t think of- squirrels, trash, dead animals, mud, etc. but there are ones we can tap into. Freedom, zoomies, sniffing new areas can all be rewards that we can use to make sure we are giving the reinforcement our dog’s are asking for.

Training Schedule- A training schedule should be used in the sense of understanding the right steps to take to train a new skill. If you come up with steps to train something new with your dog (like recall or retrieving an item) then every training session you have for that skill should follow the steps, or approximations, you come up with. This also means that every session you do you should get everything you need ready before getting your dog. For example if you are training recall make sure you have ready your treats, longline, clicker (optional), and then get your dog. With this procedure every session will end on a win and you will have positive progress every single time!