Timing is Everything

Training Tip:

Timing is critical when training your dog or puppy. If your timing is off just by a second, they you may accidentally reward him for something entirely different than you are trying to teach.

For example, you tell your dog to sit, he sits, you pause for a second to get a reward and he stands up, you give the reward and praise because after all he did sit, right? Wrong! Obviously the dog needs no correction, but the timing needs to be adjusted.

Instead, once the dog does the behavior, the first reward marker to give is the sound of praise which can be made IMMEDIATELY so the dog can associate it with the behavior, (or a clicker which works even better when learning new behaviors). Then give the food reward as quickly as possible after the praise, (the praise or clicker was the immediate reward marker).

At that time give a release command to the dog before he has a chance to even think about getting up. This way you can very gradually, as he becomes more reliable, increase the length of time between the behavior and the release command and he will naturally begin learning to stay in one place longer until you give him that release command.

See more about training at:

* http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Puppy-Training-that-is-Safe-for-Your-Puppy&id=17825


* http://www.puppy-potty-training.com/dog-training.html

A wise man regards the life of his animal

-King Solomon