You just got a new puppy and you’re planning to make this dog exceptional. Maybe you are planning for this dog to get into agility, detection, service work, or you want it to be the best pet dog there ever was. What are the most important things you can teach this dog right out of the gate?
Very few things in dog training are black and white or can be summarized with just a few words, but to me, this is one of them. Engagement, and stress inoculation.
Engagement with the owner is the foundation for any sort of working or pet dog because every command starts with just that: Looking at your owner. Engagement is also how a dog learns to overcome stressful and anxiety inducing situations. We teach our dog “look at me and good things will happen.” Let’s unpack a couple of very different scenarios.
You’re taking your dog on a leisurely walk through the neighborhood on your work break and a dog on the other side of the street slips its collar and runs over to you and your dog. For many owners, including myself, this situation creates instant panic, which of course your dog can feel. If you have taught your dog through all situations they need to engage with you, your dog will look at you as if to say “What’s the play here, boss?” and then you can calmly guide your dog behind you while you stick your foot/hand out at that other dog and shoo it away. If your dog cannot default to engaging with its handler/owner, then this could turn into a chaotic battle with your dog charging that dog, you getting wrapped up in leashes, fighting with the owner. It’s terrible and it can be avoided.
Stress can be good for dogs, just like for humans. If you’re like me, my 3rd grade multiplication practice test awakened a sense of stress in me I hadn’t know in my life until that point. But they got me ready for the real exam. The feeling of sweaty palms, heart racing, brain getting fuzzy were all feelings I became more comfortable with the more I practiced and then I knew I could get through that situation, and there would be a reward on the other side. That’s stress inoculation and I use it in dog training all the time.
If you can teach a puppy that this big scary world isn’t as terrifying as it seems and there are rewards on the other side of scary situations, you will be rewarded with a dog that doesn’t face adversity with barking or reactivity, but a calm and “ready to take on the world” mentality.
If you come to Magnus for any kind of training, we will talk at length about both engagement and stress inoculation.