Saturday 26 December 2015

7 Steps to Train Your Dog

You can train your dog some basic commands all by yourself. All you need is a clicker, some delicious treats and a little amount of patience. Follow these steps for five days and your dog will master a command.


  1. Location: Take your dog to a location which is calm and cool without much stimuli, preferably inside a room. 
  2. Click: Click randomly and give small pieces of treats just after clicking. Do it for two minutes and then take a break then Repeat. 
  3. Check: Click but don't give any food now. Check if your doggy is looking for treats. If No, then go back to the second step. If Yes, then your baby is ready for the next step. 
  4. Lure: Lure your dog with a hand full of treat to make him behave in a certain way. 
  5. Click: Click on the exact moment when your dog performs the desired behaviour.
  6. Treat: Give treat and immense amount of praise to make your dog realize that he/she has done a good job. 
  7. Command: When without luring your dog performs the desired behaviour, it's time to add a command for the behaviour. 
Now, practice, practice and practice... 

Click to Train

Clicker is a small device that produces the same sound upon clicking. It is used in positive reinforcement method based training to mark the correct behaviour. Positive reinforcement is the most modern and scientifically proven method to train not only dogs but cats, hyenas, lions, tigers, elephants, horses, dolphins and moreover human babies! 
The usages of clicker requires three consecutive steps to follow while training dogs,-

  1. Classical Conditioning: As experimented by Ivan P. Pavlob. He discovered that if a same unique sound (bell ring) is immediately followed by food, then gradually, the dog associates the sound with food. The sound eventually becomes a biological stimulus for the dog as the dogs gland start to produce saliva in anticipation of food whenever the dog hears the same bell ringing. 
  2. Operant Conditioning:  As experimented by B. F. Skinner. He discovered that monkeys are able to find out a solution to reach food located at a high elevation in a room, where there was no other option to survive. So, when, the very survival is questioned, animal can become problem solver and if they understand that there is no other option but to work for food, they start to do so in such a manner that their action produces food. 
  3. Positive Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement means praising the correct behaviour with reward and making the dog repeat the same again and again until the dog learns that a particular behaviour has a positive consequence. Here clicker is used to mark the correct behaviour. 
Our behaviour is actually consequence driven, especially when we learn. So with our dogs. If food is used as a reward for positive behaviour and clicker sound is associated with the food, the dog will find out ways to behave in such a manner that produces food. Now, here comes another significance of clicker;- clicker is clicked to mark the right moment when the desired behaviour happens and the sound is followed by food. Thus, our furry baby understands exactly which behaviour produces food and loves to repeat the behaviour as it has some positive consequence.    

Love is All You Need

All you need is love to have a dog. And with love, comes responsibility. Upbringing a pup, cleaning its mess, coping with both of its behaviours and misbehaviours, providing training, adequate exercise
and food, maintaining its growth, taking care of its health, routine grooming and timely check up may sound too much hectic for one; but you love to take all of these responsibilities just to see your dog happy. Eventually, it makes you happy at the end of the day. It's love, trust and respect that prevail in the end. The most common thing between you and your dog is the religion that both of you share together- the religion of love. 

Life, Off-Leash

Life, off leash is fun, provided it's disciplined, full of love, responsibility and mutual trust. You two walk, not hand in hand, but with an invisible bond of trust in between. You understand each other completely. Silence becomes your medium of conversation. You enjoy life both individually as well as collectively. Life, off leash is metaphysical: Love with Logic!