Persistence and Training Your Dog

I am working with a large and a fairly active dog at the moment. What made me think of writing this post is that she has a short attention span and she needs to continuously be reminded to behave. Let me clarify that, she responds to her environment and displays behaviors all the time. What I need to do is remind her to behave in a desirable manner. 714-827-4058

As I work with her I’m reminded that persistence is one of the most important elements to training difficult dogs. Being persistent means getting up every time the dog is doing something it shouldn’t. You need to be willing to get up and insist the dog do the right thing.

You do not need to be overbearing, just persistent.

Being persistent also means stopping what you are doing to reward the dog when it’s doing what you desire.

Sometime the dog needs to wear its leash so you can conveniently and calmly make the dog behave. Other times it means always having food rewards available so you can increase the amount of time the dog performs the appropriate behavior. Toy management is also a good tactic for encouraging good behavior with some dogs.

A girl I once knew called my persistence

Being stubborn. I never thought of persistence as an undesirable trait until I met her. That is what happens when you’re life revolves around dogs. Training dogs for a living is not an easy task.

I often sleep like there is a new baby in the house. There are feeding schedules than need to be maintained and constant cleaning. Then there is the potty training. Making sure the dog stays out of the trash and doesn’t chew the house or wiring is an ever present duty. I believe it is much like raising a small child.

The take away from this is, be more stubborn than your dog. Or you could say be more persistent than your dog.

Wishing you the best in dogs and the best in life,
Andrew Ledford
So Cal Dog training
714-827-4058