
Dog Training: The Thomas Edison Approach
Approach dog training like the inventor Thomas Edison, and have fun experimenting with new training methods when your dog is stuck.
Approach dog training like the inventor Thomas Edison, and have fun experimenting with new training methods when your dog is stuck.
Teaching your dog “tricks” – including basic obedience behaviors – is critical to having a dog you can live with. However, training your dog brings a wealth of other benefits as well.
As dog trainers, we sometimes forget that not everyone is familiar with the terms we use. To the average pet owner, “trick” means jump through a hoop or fetch the newspaper. In truth, every behavior we teach, from sit, to walking on a leash, to fetching a drink from the fridge, is just a trick.
When you are training a behavior, don’t make yourself part of the environmental cues for performance. If you always ask for a down with the dog directly in front of you, or always stop next to the contact zone on the dog walk, your dog will rely on your position as part of the environmental cues for the behavior.
Don’t make these mistakes with your dog agility training!