How to make your training bulletproof – The 3Ds

(there is no way to make dog training bulletproof. Dogs are living, breathing, thinking things, not robots)

It’s all very well teaching him to sit, stay, recall in the garden, but will he do it in a park, with a squirrel running past and a 6yo who just dropped an ice cream and a cute girly dog in season? If you want your dog training to be as reliable as it possibly can be then you need to introduce the 3Ds into your dog training.

 

Distance

This relates to how far away your dog is when you give the cue word (sit / stay / down etc).  So your dog can be walking beside you and when you say STOP, he stops. Well done, top marks, but it’s a pretty low bar. Chances  are that when you really need him to stop, he isn’t beside you.  So once you have a behaviour trained in, start to slowly increase your distance from the dog when you give the cue. If at any point he struggles, move back in.

 

Duration

How long can he do ‘it’ for? If you put your dog into a ‘down’, does he spring back up instantly? Not much point if he does. Once he has the behaviour, then gently add time until you mark and reward. So normally, you would mark the second he goes down. For duration, wait a second before you mark and treat. Then two, three, four etc seconds.

 

Distraction

Always address distraction AFTER you have put in distance and duration. Distraction is by far the most difficult so do it last. Almost all training will start off in a boring part of your house. Then another boring part, then maybe the garden. You are slowly building small distractions by changing the environment. Taking training outdoors is the first big distraction. All of the sudden the smells, sights and noises change and are more exciting. If the garden is big enough, use different parts of the garden. If not, find a quiet carpark or industrial estate before you blow everything on the park. Even in the park, you can usually find quieter spots before you try a training session in the middle of everything.

 

Now the complicated bit…..

Think of each of the Ds as a lever. You must only pull one lever at a time and until he is an expert, when you pull one lever, push the others down. In other words, if you have increased distance and you’re now working on duration, drop down the distance.  Set him up for success.  If you decide to work near squirrels do it close up and not for long until he can just watch the squirrel, then mess around with distance and duration.

If you have any questions on this or any other aspect of Dog Training, give us a shout.