The most common question I get as a trainer is

How do I stop my dog from …. XYZ

This type of question is a great example of how we can improve our thought process when it comes to our beloved dogs.  Typically I see owners visualizing the behaviors we want to STOP.  I’m going to ask you to flip that around and start envisioning what you DO want your dog to do.   Approaching your challenges in this way is exceptionally more useful.

Proceeding in a solution mindset will help you be aware of where you are spending your dog training energy.  Mostly owners expend all of their energy with verbiage such as NO, DON’T and STOP.   Language of that sort doesn’t do much in creating the results we are looking for though.   Instead you need to spend your energy in rewarding the behaviors you LIKE, that’s where all the true power comes from!!

It’s a fact that dogs will find rewarding things to do, it’s how the brain operates.  The best thing we can do for our dogs and us is to formulate a list of behaviors and activities we would like the dog to do.  If we don’t… they will come up with their own list of things to do and you probably won’t be a fan of the list they come up with.  Things like looking for small animals to chase, barking out the window, counter surfing, digging .. you get the idea.

That brings us to our game based training and why it works so beautifully.  Playing games sets us up for success by providing a format to show our dogs what we what and have them get rewarded for it, thus building their list of things to do!

Games are fast and fun!  Most games will only take 3, 5 or 10 minutes so you don’t have to set aside an hour to do something productive.  Plus your dog will love participating which helps motivate us owners to play more often.  That’s why we wanted a dog right?! To do fun things with?

An  added bonus is by mentally stimulating and challenging our dogs it aids in wearing them out and producing an overall calmer dog.   A calm dog is a great dog!