Mary Allen
If there is one thing you should train extra hard on during the puppy period, it is the contact. It is most important of all, says dog trainer Lena Larson. – Only with good contact can you also build a relationship, she says.
Lena’s life is full of dogs. During the day she works at the Swedish Working Dog Club’s office, in the evenings and weekends, she holds courses. And at home, she has five dogs. Sometimes she also takes care of dogs that need to be trained in order to then be relocated. That’s how it has been, and that’s how it will remain.
– With my puppies and young dogs, it’s about building a relationship. And the basis of all relationships is contact. My dogs should perceive me as the safe and fun one. If there is no contact, there is no security and then the dog can not or does not want to cooperate, she says.
Always praises spontaneous contact
She herself works with the contact with her dogs just all the time and almost constantly without thinking about it. It is in the spinal cord of both her and the dogs. It is partly about having physical proximity to the dog. But then it’s a lot about praise in everyday situations.
– I always praise the spontaneous contact that my dog takes with me. If I lie on the couch and reach for the remote control and the dog looks up at me, I say “oh, what are you good at” or something like that. Always! If we are out walking and the dog looks up at me, I praise every time, regardless of whether it looks at me because it runs out of leash or because I step on a stick. I do not care so much about why, but I always praise. This means that the dog will always try to do things that I praise.
On the couch and on the walk
What she encounters with many new puppy owners is that they are very good at training in contact exercises – on the appeal field. But they miss taking contact training with them in everyday life, at home on the sofa or on walks.
– Sometimes I think you make it harder than it needs to be. Contact exercises in all glory, you have to work with that a lot. But it becomes difficult to implement on a regular walk when there is so much else that attracts. You might think that you should train on the walk, but then it is grayish weather and you do not recover. Then it will be easier if you get into the habit of always praising.
Reward not just candy
Once you have established the contact, you can switch on a command such as stopping or giving the dog a task. Dogs will always want to do more of what they are rewarded for.
She emphasizes that a reward does not have to mean sweets. It can just as easily be praise or play. Confirmation somehow. But to be able to do that, it is important that you as a dog handler yourself are attentive and focused on the dog. That you are “with”. Lena compares to going for a walk with someone who gets a call during the walk and who then chooses to talk to the person on the phone instead of you walking next to it. If the same friend hears from you again and wants to go for a walk, you may not of course say yes.
With but not together with
– It’s a bit like we treat our dogs, we are with them – but not with them. We may be talking to a friend, talking on the phone, or thinking completely differently. As soon as we are somewhere else, the dog will also try to find mischief – dig in the lawn, run towards another dog – well, go for his own walk. If you instead work on being with your dog, you get a dog that is in a team with yourself.
But if many people have different thoughts when you are out with your dog, then there is another mistake that many puppy owners also make – giving sweets in batches and minutes.
– You are so in love with your puppy and you really want to give sweets, but you do not demand compensation. This diminishes the significance of the praise, the candy. I always give my dogs a task before I give candy – sit, lie down, whatever – so that they do not get candy for what they are, but for what they do. Imagine that you get paid even though you just go home and retire, so why bother? It will be useless. Then it’s more fun if you work, make an effort and get a bonus for it. It makes you want to perform more.
Give a task
Lena says that she wants her dogs to see her as a candy machine, but they need to figure out how to get candy out of the machine. So when you feel like you want to reward your dog just because he’s so nice – give him a task first. The same thing if the dog comes with the ball and wants you to throw it away, says Lena.
– I want to be the one who starts and finishes. I think it is important that the dog sees me as a resource and I will be if I start and finish. So if the dog comes with the ball, I say “sit”. Then I throw. Then there will also be a collaboration, which both parties feel good about.
Contact exercise a fresh product
From the very first time, it is extra easy to work with the contact with the dog, she says. It is worse when the dog is sexually mature… In the beginning, the puppy is very inclined to seek contact, to be close. They are not that tough. The world is big and they are not going that far. When the puppy then becomes sexually mature at 6-8 months, it thinks that it rules the world. The dog is confident in its owner – he will always follow. Then it is a great opportunity to start training contact exercises again because they are a fresh product, says Lena.
Life out
Continue with contact exercises throughout life. Start easy and make them a little harder. Even if the dog is very good at most things, surprise with very light counter-performances sometimes so that it can not take for granted what you expect.
If you completely skip the contact then? Is it possible to teach your dog a lot of things anyway? Unfortunately, it works, says Lena and tells that she herself has trained and competed with other people’s dogs, without having first established that grounded contact. It is possible to get quite far if you practice “circus moments”, as Lena chooses to call them. But it is difficult to reach the top results. For that, contact and security are required – the relationship.