Using commands too often without success will lead to your commands being nothing more than background noise. Don’t worry, there is a simple rule you can follow to help you avoid over using your commands.
Before giving a command, ask yourself how confident you are that your dog will listen. If you are at least 70% confident that your dog will pay attention and successfully do as asked, give it a go. If you are not at least 70% confident, don’t risk it.
Always try to set your dog up for success, but also test them from time to time by trying out your commands in increasingly distracting scenarios. A puppy is unlikely to sit when asked if they are busy watching other dogs running around in a field, so don’t ask your puppy to sit in that situation. They might have more success if you are outside your own house and your puppy is already looking at you. If you and your dog have been enjoying some success, set up a slightly more difficult scenario to put their skills to the test. If things haven’t been going to plan, make things a little easier for a while.
New locations are much more challenging than familiar surroundings. When you train your dog in a new environment for the first time, make sure distractions are kept to a minimum. When you are training your dog in the presence of new distractions, be sure to practice in familiar surroundings first. If you decide to teach your dog to respond to a whistle or hand signals, make sure you introduce the new commands in a familiar environment with little or no distractions. Teaching your dog to sit to the blow of a whistle for the very first time in a brand new environment while lots of other dogs are around is a recipe for failure. When you increase the difficulty, just change one factor at a time.
The exception to the 70% rule is if you need to give your dog a command in an emergency. If your dog is running towards danger, try to recall them even if you don’t think they’ll listen. If you ever find yourself in this situation, forgive yourself, learn from it, avoid it in the future.
You might dedicate as little as five minutes each day towards training your dog (which is fine for a puppy) but your dog is learning things every moment that they are awake. The 70% rule applies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – not just during your training sessions.
If you have visitors and your dog is excitedly running around in circles, do not set your dog up for failure by asking them to sit or to get on their bed if they aren’t ready to listen. As tempting as it might be to tell your dog to “sit, sit, sit”, don’t do it. Do not say a word. Put your dog on a lead, take them to their crate and reward them for being on it. Or, let your dog run around in circles. If you don’t give your dog a command they cannot ignore it, and if they don’t ignore it you have not undone any of your training. Until you feel at least 70% confident that your dog will sit in those challenging circumstances outside of your training, do not say anything.
Wyre Walkies 