I’m reading a book by Viviane Theby called Dog University: A Training Program to Develop Advanced Skills with Your Dog; and she makes some excellent suggestions:
- Video tape your training sessions and analyze them. This is a great way to really see what you are doing with your dog or cat.
- One minute training sessions. Use a timer and set it for one minute which is an ideal length of time for many training exercises. Try to practice 6 repetitions of an exercise per minute and then take a break.
- Keep a training diary. Keep notes on each of your minute long training sessions.
- Stop saying “no” to your dog. We need to stop being lazy and saying “no” all the time to our dogs. It’s not fair to punish them for our own shortcomings.
- Effective reinforcement. Reinforcement should be relative to the training session. If you want a quiet down-stay, don’t reward by throwing a ball which will get him wound up. Reward him with a well placed cookie or a quiet stroke on the chest.