saying 'no' to a dog

Rush@)=(~

okay say your dog has done something he was not ment to do how do u say 'bad dog' or 'no'
some books say that there is no point saying no because the dog does not understand the meaning of no so they tell u to say it but raise your vioce as u say it
some books say that raising your voice is pointless and just agitates the dog istead of punishing it so they say to tap it on the nose istead
orther books say taping it on the nose it pointless and unpleaset 4 the dog and just makes them annoyed with u so they tell u to say no

are u starting to see the pattern

how are u ment to tell the dog that what they just did is not allowed in less than 1.6 seconds(the reason 4 that is after 1.6 seconds the dog no longer knows what it's being punished(or rewarded) 4)

BlackWizard

That bull. If my dog done something wrong I could walk him over to the location an hour later and immediately he would be on all fours hunkered down really slow slowly moving towards the location because he knows he done something wrong.

Then I just point the finger and him and make sure Im looking directly at him and sternly say no. It's worked a charm.

Call me Socket

IF you catch him in the act, say 'NO' but say it calmly, don't shout it. If you don't catch him in the act, then don't reprimand him. Make a big fuss when he does what you want him to do.
Dogs want to please their owners, getting rewarded with positive attention when they do something is far more effective than getting punished when they don't do it.

LisaO

Hi Rush

to quote Call Me Socket

Dogs want to please their owners, getting rewarded with positive attention when they do something is far more effective than getting punished when they don't do it.

The key is to provide your dog with the opportunity for the right behaviour, so that you can reward him for it. So in every situation where he is likely to do something wrong, you need to be clear what the right or appropriate behaviour is and then give him every opportunity to do the right thing & little or no opportunity to do the wrong thing.

For example, attacking strangers. Your dog is loose in your yard & has little or no recall. Stranger comes in, dog rushes at them, growls, snarls, may try to bite. You are calling, yelling at him but no response & need to physically drag him away.

Replace this with: Dog kept in house, only allowed out on lead & accompanied by you, you have ready supply of tasty treats to keep him interested in being with you. Stranger comes in, you call dogs name to focus his attention on you & reward him when he looks at you. You keep his attention by using treats until stranger has gone.

Over time, you can gradually use less treats, use longer lead until you are sure he will always come & you may not need lead at all.

It is a long process & hard work but well worth it for all concerned in the end. Same principles can be applied to anything he does that you don't want him to, you just need to identify the positive (opposite) behaviour & work on reinforcing that until he doesn't even think about doing the wrong (negative) behaviour.

Going to some training classes would probably be a really good idea, had you thought about that?

Best of luck with him, he is beautiful dog.

kassie

Rush@)=(~ wrote: »

some books say that there is no point saying no because the dog does not understand the meaning of no

This in itself is true. Dogs don't understand words or their meanings but they learn to associate behaviours and reactions to certain words... which is essentially training. You could teach your dog to sit by using the command word "stand" if you wanted, but it would get confusing for you!!! You have to be patient and kind to your dog while training and make it as fun as possible. As the other say, its best when you catch the dog in the act to correct (no punish!) the uwanted behaviour. I find a stern "ah ah" works with my lot. When saying no, don't shout, but use a firm commanding tone and mean it or else the dog will see right through you. Keep your posture upright, shoulders back and look the dog in the eye. You'd be surprised how much you can achieve by using your body language with the dog.

happy training

Rush@)=(~

hey we are taking him to classes cause he has a bit of a aggresion problem
thanks 4 the advice really helped hes getting better

marlin vs

Just say, Madra dána,it work's a treat.

The Sweeper

The best way I can describe it is "strict teacher voice". Dog's don't understand English (though they'll grow to), but all animals recognise tone.

If you want to train your dog, train your tone. Praise should be delivered in higher pitched, excited, happy voice - if you've ever seen wild dogs in Africa on TV on a nature programme, you'll know that when the adults return from hunting there's an excitement of sqealing and high-pitched, happy puppy noises. Subsequently, positive interaction should be in a voice that emulates that sort of noise.

By contrast, your unhappiness should be conveyed in a firm, strict teacher voice - loudly, (no roaring and shouting, but you can be loud), round syllables, stand tall and straight while you deliver the syllable, then act - remove the dog from what he was doing - catch his collar and take him outside, or into another room for a time out for a few minutes.

In between the two are training commands - sit, stay, fetch, lie down, so on. For those your tone needs to be commanding, but with an element of the fun, play tone in it - so the dog knows its not in trouble, but you ARE commanding it, but you're going to be very happy and there will be a play reward if it manages to figure out what you want.

It's very, very important that you understand that unless you catch your dog in the act when it does something you don't want it to do, admonishment is useless. They don't have the capacity to associate an action of a while ago with your current mood - unless they've started to learn right from wrong, at which time the brighter of them realise they're going to get it when you see the stuffing out of the cushion / defrosting dinner on the floor / toilet roll confetti - but that's not every dog.

The same deal works on cats, who are harder to train because by nature they can live as solitary animals and don't have the 'need to please' drive that dogs have that comes from needing to fit in a pack. Tone is even more important with cats and I find they won't respond to the single word commands the way dogs do - subsequently I've replaced "No" for cats with "NAH-AH-AH!", (which can be extended endlessly into nah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah when they're really not getting the message). Takes longer, but still works.

RICARDO1982

I Agree that its in the voice, A firm no usally does the trick followed by a period of ignoring the dog. Not too long though....

LisaO

Great to hear you have started attending training classes - hope you are both enjoying it! Have you discussed these kind of issues with the trainer? If he has aggession problems, whether directed at people or other dogs, would be very important to ensure you do not put yourself in a vulnerable position when training or correcting him. As trainer has seen you & dog working together they are probably best person to advise you on how to correct/discipline him.