03/03/2026
🐕✅️ Dog Training Is Important ✅️🐩
In this video I am awkwardly moving down the stairs post surgery. You will see me using a few of our trained cues to prevent Hoshi knocking into me, running past me, jumping up and stepping on me by accident. Yuna waits on a mat giving me distance, as she follows me less around the home.
As owners we never know what can happen to us, and how our dogs and pets will cope with changes in the home, as we can not mitigate all potential life factors. Yes, management is key and so useful, which I use alongside training skills. However, management such as door gates and separation was not realistic for my whole recovery. Particularly with a very energetic, large, focused and attached dog like Hoshi. Plus, using pure management and closing him away would increase frustration and stress for him.
Hoshi has been taught a wait cue and send to place, which has been generalised and is fluent in different environments and contexts. This means he will wait at the top of the stairs, before I release him with his release cue, as seen in the video. Hoshi has been trained to send to a place, a mat and area, which has been used a lot since my surgery, to prevent him running 100mph around me or clinging to heel position where he could knock into me.
Hoshi often gets excited when I come downstairs, particularly when I have woken and coming to greet him. Very malinois enthusiastic let's say! I do not mind and enjoy the chaos somewhat, though we have been working on less kangaroo behaviour. Hoshi's enthusiasm and energy is something I use for training behaviours that need high energy. I don't live with a malinois or husky for a calm life!
However, I have practiced these key behaviours, and built their reliability for many reasons; safety around the front door, guests, visitors and deliveries, mental stimulation and our partnership, enriching my dogs lives with my time and engagement, for fun as I love training and for situations like this currently. My surgery will take recovery time, and hospital advice was to be careful around pets. Therefore, prior to mine, I practiced these cues and walked slower in the lead up. This is similar to my advise when a client is pregnant, we desensitise the dog to as many new stimuli and environmental changes, and practice behaviours before the baby arrives. We set our dogs up for success.
🐶 A note on training 'calmness' 🐺
Calmness can not be trained. It is not a behaviour cue. We can teach a dog a down position, but this does not mean a dog will feel relaxed in that moment. Or send a dog to their bed to stay. Again, the dog moves to their bed and lays down, but do they feel relaxed? Relaxing and feeling 'calm' is more than a down on a blanket. A dog may need to carry our a sequence of behaviour, chew a toy, seek reassurance and contact from their primary attachment, circling and treading before laying down which is a hereditary behaviour, pulling at blankets, require food or a snack, etc. Then we need to observe our dog, often we hear deep breaths and sighs, see soft mouths and faces, see our dogs shuffle and lean, flopping on one side, stretch out, slowed breathing, extending legs or rolling onto their back. When a dog is comfortable and showing relaxed body language, we can reinforce the settling behaviour thoughtfully, using reward reinforcement. So my advice is to observe your dog, are they following a cue, offering a down, a stay position or a send to place? Or are they fully settled and relaxed?
📍The importance of training and teaching skills to our dogs.📍
Training is Important for cognitive and emotional engagement for dogs. Positive experiences, using reward based methods help build your dogs confidence, optimism, and strengthens your partnership with your dog. It has been found that reward based training is more effective and efficient, plus a more secure attachment to their owner. In comparison to training using punitive methods, which was found less effective and compromised dog welfare. (Vieira de Castro et al, 2021)
Dogs can learn at any age, so training does not need to stop, and practising behaviours regularly will continue to reinforce these skills. Dogs are always learning, like us, from their environment and engagement, and reinforcement occurs continuously.
By training I mean teaching new behaviours, whether sports or tricks, for example, using reward based methods. I do not mean in terms in regard to using training, instead of qualified behaviour support. Dogs whose owners and handlers use more rewards have been shown to perform better with training novel tasks, as compared to those dogs where punishment was used, and are less confident and playful. (Rooney, 2011) Research has also shown that dogs are more pessimistic when aversive training methods are used. (Casey et al, 2021)
You can try to train a dog to sit, instead of lunging at dogs, that perhaps worries about approaching dogs. Sometimes this may work temporarily, in other cases this could exacerbate behaviour. However, we are not addressing and identifying the function or cause of the behaviour. Therefore, without qualified behaviour support, many factors could be missed, such as pain, anxiety, musculoskeletal issues, underlying health conditions, etc, which requires veterinary diagnosis, before any behaviour plan is put in place. Trainers should not be taking on cases beyond their remitt, and should refer to vets and clinical or qualified behaviourists.
That said training, and professional trainers are equally important as behaviourists. We teach new skills and behaviours, support new dog and puppy owners, teach fun sports, trick training, assistance dog training, scentwork, cooperative care and behaviours, understand dog breeds and individual traits, use our knowledge of reinforcement schedules, differential reinforcement and learning theory to teach and create training plan and so much more.
🦮 Why I enjoy training! 🦮
Teaching owners to train their dogs is very rewarding. Seeing an owner and dog build communication, understand each other's language, grow their partnership and most importantly have fun engaging and playing together. Training for me is more than a cue or trick, its quality time with my dog, where we both are working together towards a behaviour or skill.
✅️ For fellow training colleagues ✅️
Please understand your importance as a trainer, teaching skills such as the above helps many dog owners and homes to live and communicate with the dogs positively and safely. Do not feel you have to take on cases of sensitivity, anxiety, or complex behaviours beyond your remit as a trainer. These complex behaviours are clinical based and require veterinary diagnosis and clinical and qualified behaviour support from accredited behaviourists via ABTC, ICAN and ICB. I am now 10 years+ into my training journey and refer cases. Even for training clients I often seek veterinary advice and checks. This is best practice and for welfare and wellbeing of the dog. Hone your skills, practice your application of theory and mechanics as a dog trainer. There are crossovers and we need an understanding of behaviour, body language, etc, alonside applying learning theory. Often great behaviourists were passionate dogs trainers, before gaining further qualifications and experience.
✔️ References ✔️
Casey RA, Naj-Oleari M, Campbell S, Mendl M, Blackwell EJ. Dogs are more pessimistic if their owners use two or more aversive training methods. Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 24;11(1):19023. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97743-0. PMID: 34561478; PMCID: PMC8463679.
Nicola Jane Rooney, Sarah Cowan, Training methods and owner-dog interactions: Links with dog behaviour and learning ability, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 132, Issues 3–4, 2011, Pages 169-177, ISSN 0168-1591
Vieira de Castro AC, Araújo Â, Fonseca A, Olsson IAS. Improving dog training methods: Efficacy and efficiency of reward and mixed training methods. PLoS One. 2021 Feb 19;16(2):e0247321. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247321. PMID: 33606822; PMCID: PMC7895348.
