Barking Mad Day 5

Day 5 - Celebrating Success

We want to take a moment to remind you that dog training is not linear, or it does not follow a straight line. We may think that we’ve conquered a training challenge or solved a challenging behavior only to have it pop back up again. Do not get discouraged when this happens! Simply back up to training basics and work through the games again.

While it’s so easy to become discouraged, we rarely take a moment to celebrate our successes. At C2C Canine Coaches we believe in celebrating even the smallest successes. So if nothing else happens today, you should celebrate that you made it to Day 5 of this Workshop!

• If you are seeing increased teamwork in moving away from the trouble spot, celebrate!

• If you are seeing barking stop faster and faster, celebrate!

• If you are noticing that your dog looks to you instead of barking to see if you have cookies ready, celebrate!

No matter where you are in the training process, share a short video of where you are today. Then a week, month, or even several months from now, you can look back and see just how much progress you’ve made.

Another thing we want to examine on Day 5 is how you would rate your level of teamwork between you and your dog. Where did you start on Day 1? Where are you now and where would you like to be? If you’ve seen any improvement at all, celebrate it!

• Did you implement any new forms of communication this week? 

• Did you change cue words? Add a hand signal or body movement cue? 

• Did you notice your dog communicating with you in any new ways?

Leave us a comment on the type of communication you are struggling most with and we will send you a resource that will help out.

If you are not seeing a reduction in barking then look at these parts of your training session.

Environment: You may need to set up the environment differently or pick a less distracting, more predictable environment to begin in.

Management: You may need to add another level of management to prevent the barking during times when you can’t be right there to train your dog or when the distractions are too big. The more our dog practices barking, the longer it will take to impact lasting results with changing emotions. Barking can become a self reinforcing behavior if your dog learns to love the chemical spike they receive from repeating the behavior.

Reinforcement: You may need to find a higher value reinforcer, which may mean a higher value food, switching to toys, or playing a more interactive game.

Emotions: If you are not seeing progress, you likely are feeling frustrated! Reach out to the Canine Coaches for assistance so we can help you come up with a plan that is more suited to you and your dog.

Today’s Game:

Play the game we’ve been building all week, but now add in one controllable or very predictable distraction. For example, if your dog barks when someone knocks on your door, have a friend or family member do some practice knocks. If your dog barks at something that happens at the same time like the kids walking home from school, you can use that as long as you can increase distance far enough away that your dog can be successful.

Here is a video of Belle on Day 5

And here is a video of Belle doing this at the park

Today’s Video Tip:

Remember that training videos have one main purpose, to help YOU improve your training session. Do not worry about creating the perfect video! It doesn’t matter if your house is a mess as we all struggle with that sometimes. It doesn’t matter if the lighting is perfect. Do your best to keep you and your dog in frame and let whatever happens happen.

I can watch a video I made last year or even yesterday and see mistakes or things that I wish I could change about the video. All C2C Canine Coach videos have mistakes in there somewhere. The goal is that we learn from our mistakes and become a better owner and trainer for our dogs.

Today’s Video:

Try to get a video of playing the game. Don’t watch it immediately or you will want to do another session to fix your mistakes asap. Try watching your video just before you set up for your next training session. That way if you find anything you want to change, it will be fresh in your mind during your session.