I don’t have time to train my dog!

Do you get to the end of the day - or worse, the end of the week - slump into your armchair and say, “Oh no! Forgot to train the dog!”

I understand. Our lives are already full to bursting with all the things we have to do .. and all the things we think we have to do .. and fitting in lengthy dog training sessions just seems to slip through the cracks.

But the trick is - don’t have lengthy sessions! If you do want to have a training session, then by all means do - but five minutes is the most you’ll normally need. (That is until you get into serious competition or performance training - which perhaps you never will want to do.)

For getting our family dogs and puppies on the same page as us - and becoming the perfect companion we wanted when we went to all the trouble to find them! - you need to use All Day Training.

All Day Training

“Wossat?” you say.

Well, it’s my recipe for getting my dogs trained at the same time as running a couple of businesses and writing books.

It’s how you can manage your family, your work, and your dog!

You see, all day long you are interacting with your dog. Every interaction is a training opportunity - it’s not isolated to lessons or classes.

And all day long you have the chance to ensure that that interaction is moving you forward in life together.

My puppy needed ONE DAY to learn that jumping at the door of the crate or playpen resulted in no escape, while sitting automatically opened the door!

It took another week or so (nine weeks old) to learn that staying sitting when the door is opened is a new requirement to get out.

And then a week (now ten weeks) to learn that this works on house doors too. No door-crashing! No squeezing through cracks!

And how long did this valuable lesson take?

Just a moment.

Just a thoughtful pause in my daily doings.

Instead of throwing the crate door open and being thumped amidships by a wild puppy, I just needed to consider what I would like him to do, then ensure that that was built into our daily round.

The beginnings of an ACE Recall

Another skill your dog can be learning, without effort, all the time, is to respond immediately to his name.

Without this, you’re going to be shrieking and yelling when you want him to bound back to you across a field!

How to get your dog to LURVE his name? You need The Precious Name Game …

.. and you can find out exactly how to play The Precious Name Game in our free Workshop here.

What else?

You can extend this method to everything you want your dog to learn.

You want him to pick things up for you? Incorporate that into your interactions with him.

You want him to greet people politely? Start with teaching him how to greet you politely. And you should have many, many, opportunities in a normal day to do this. Don’t forget to keep this in mind when you’re returning from an outing and he’s going to be extra-excited - this is the ideal time to test your teaching!

You'll find lots more tips and new ideas in my books. And did you know that buying direct from the author can save you money? Go check them out!

What else would you like your dog to learn with so little effort from yourself?

Comment below and let’s take a look at how you can do that!

Why do people want to fight with their dog?

I’m not, of course, talking about people organising dogfights - which is barbaric and against the law in most civilised countries.

What I’m talking about is the need people often have when they get a dog, to order it about, “command” it, make it do things, stop it doing things, control it, in general have a master-slave relationship.

Do they get a dog because they need someone to boss about?

Thing is, this is a-a-a-a-ll conflict.

Conflict-based.

This is what leads them to complain that their dog is “stubborn”, “defiant”, “ignores me”.

The way some people want to be with their dogs is centred on conflict.

And it’s a mystery to me!

Love

The great dog trainer and trailblazer in how we treat our performance dogs is Susan Garrett.

And she saith:

Dog training is really relationship building

 This is what it’s all about, guys!

It’s not about making your dog do something, or stopping it doing something.

It’s about developing a relationship with your dog, living a full and enjoyable life with another creature. From another species, sure - but a sentient being who can work things out, solve problems, seek pleasure, who has fears, likes and dislikes, JUST LIKE US!

Remember Shylock’s impassioned speech in The Merchant of Venice?

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

He was talking about being a Jew. He could have been speaking as a dog, or any other animal!  

Frustration

If you’re frustrated with your dog on a daily basis, I suggest that it’s because you are looking for Confrontation and Conflict on a daily basis.

It’s an “I’m right, so you must be wrong” approach. Whereas anyone who has ever lived happily with another person knows that it’s Compromise and Compassion that win the day.

If you’d like to find a better way to live with your dog - to banish conflict from your life and have fun instead - start with our free Workshop here and sprinkle a little stardust in your home!

Your puppy’s first Christmas is coming!

If your puppy is brand new and very young, then he needs to be protected - as you would protect any baby - and keep his routine as near as possible to how it usually is.

If your puppy is older, more excitable, boisterous - or perhaps nervous around strangers - then a slightly different approach is indicated.

Either way it’s important that you are on the ball and can give your puppy the attention and care he needs, regardless of how busy your schedule may be.

In general, Christmas is a time of upheaval for dogs.

Upheaval = stress

Stress for your dog = stress for you, and for your guests!

So what can you do to minimise the stress?

Very young puppy up to 15 weeks old

Let’s look at the brand new puppy first.

This is a vital time for your puppy’s socialisation - which can only effectively happen between the ages of 3 and 15 weeks.

As ever, ALL experiences must be positive!

So this means you are on duty the whole time your puppy is awake and there are visitors and new activities taking place. As this young a puppy should be sleeping at least seventeen hours a day, this really isn’t hard!

For a puppy who’s still a bit leaky, greet your visitors outside, then it won’t matter if the excitement causes damp patches on the pavement.

It’s important that you maintain his usual schedule, in terms of sleeping, eating (should still be on 3 or 4 meals a day), and housetraining. You’ll have a cosy, quiet, place for him to do all of this, and you need to ensure that your puplet won’t be disturbed by anyone, especially over-excited children!

If you haven’t already got a cosy nest, make one now - set it up in a quiet room whose door you can lock - and start using it straight away! Consider soft lighting, half-covering the crate, soft music (classical, Mozart, is best - but you can also find stuff on Youtube). The music will not only soothe and calm your dog, but also muffle some of the sounds of the household.

The older puppy, over 15 weeks

Your older puppy is well past the socialisation period, but you have hopefully been introducing him to new experiences - happily - ever since.

The more novelty your young dog enjoys, the better he’ll be able to cope with novelty in the future.

You’ll be following the same guidance as for the very young puppy, but he’ll be sleeping an hour or so less. And depending on how much he’s learned of the outside world, you may need to do some counterconditioning work to help him cope with visitors invading his usually quiet home!

We can show you how to do this in detail in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy, but what counterconditioning means is gradually acclimatising your dog to something new - firstly in a very dilute form (I.e. at a great distance) and slowly nearer, always with lots of tasty treats. How do you know how to get nearer? When your dog shows little more than curious interest at the sight of the thing that previously worried him.

Remember he’s still very young, and very impressionable!

And remember too that lasting damage can be done if you fail to protect his burgeoning personality, his confidence.

Not to mention the damage that can be done to squawking children or furniture if your puppy is allowed to get overstressed and exhausted!

You’ll find more ideas in our free e-course with eight lessons here.

So you want to become a dog trainer?

You love the life you can enjoy with your dog, now you know how you can teach her in a totally kind and loving way!

And you’d love to help other people improve life with their dog too, so that both they and their dog can have a happier life.

So many of you would make great dog trainers - and so many of you think you can’t do it.

Why?

We have a mechanism in our brains that tends to stop us doing what we know we really want to do.

We get caught up in thoughts of insufficiency, not-good-enoughness, inability to run a business, can’t manage tech … all these things are just your brain reassuring you that staying in your box and forgetting your dream is the right thing to do.

But it ain’t!

If you truly want to devote your life to helping dogs and their owners, you need to say, “Thank you, Brain, but I’ve got this!”

And do it!

See how things changed for EB once those misgivings were pushed aside:

“The support from you all has been great for my confidence and you are so encouraging Beverley, that your belief in me has made me believe in me!” EB

Support all the way

I love helping gifted force-free dog trainers bring their gifts to the world! 

I love knowing this is my legacy to the world - so that those who like what I do can continue to teach people and their dogs in the way that I have developed and that resonates with so many.

“Thanks for what you do for dogs and their people!” CT

“You are a real blessing to me and many others!” DB

“Things were going from bad to worse with my dog. Thank goodness I found Beverley whose kind, insightful and exceptionally effective methods are simply the best!” LA

Is your dog obedient? Or is he happy?

The old-fashioned emphasis on “obedience” has led a lot of people astray.  

It’s strange that this fixation on obedience was abandoned in schools a long time ago. The pupil’s wellbeing and engagement is rated much more highly.

Blind obedience is only expected in the armed forces, not in everyday life!

And yet people still have an expectation that their dog should instantly and without thought OBEY their every “command”.

It’s all the wrong way of looking at it.

 

Happiness leads to “obedience”

The long and the short of it is that if you take care of your dog’s physical and emotional wellbeing, you’ll automatically have an “obedient” dog.

Why?

Because dogs are easygoing creatures who, like us, value a warm bed, a full stomach, and a life free of conflict. And like us, we appreciate those that provide those things.  

So naturally, dogs are ready to comply with whatever works to provide these essentials and these comforts. 

We just need to tap into that mutual admiration, and you will have a confrontation-free environment, a compliant and happy dog, and a happy owner!

Read this article in Psychology Today for more on this.

“But my dog …..”

If your dog does not fit this happy model, I suggest there are things happening that are interfering.

It’s not that your dog is disobedient. It’s that something in your relationship is missing.

Do watch our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN! There’s plenty of sound advice there, and a lesson which people find amazingly transformative. If you only learn one thing, let it be this game!

You get Dog 1.0 - the upgrades are up to you!

It always amazes me when readers write of their puzzlement that their new dog or puppy doesn’t seem to understand what’s wanted.

[Do keep your letters coming - here at Brilliant Family Dog we just love to help! And all queries are read and answered.]

🐾 Maybe they’ve been looking at a friend’s dog, who understands everything.

🐾 Or maybe they’re thinking of their last dog who they had for donkeys’ years, and they simply can’t remember all the teaching they had to do when he was new.

I can remember a new mother asking me when my children were young, “When do their teeth all arrive?”

My response: “I can’t remember, but they’ve got ‘em all now!”

We deal with what we need in the moment, then forget it.

Did you forget?

And maybe that’s what’s happened with your new dog? You’ve forgotten just how much time and attention your faithful old friend needed when he was brand new.

So … you’ll have to do the same with this one too 

An easy way to start your system upgrades :-) is to read any of our Brilliant Family Dog books that you’ll find here: www.brilliantfamilydog.com/books

Even easier? Watch our free Workshop and consider joining many other dog-owners in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy!

There’s a huge range of people and a huge range of dogs. Our oldest dog-student was 15, and our youngest 8 weeks. Our oldest human student is over 80, and we have plenty of people who involve their whole family - especially the children - in the training.

And you can get to meet all of them in our friendly private community!

Don’t soldier on alone! Things can get hard if you don’t know where to turn.

But with kind and compassionate help at hand, you never feel lost or alone on your journey with your precious pet.

Imagine … you can start applying those upgrades today!