Why is training important?
Training is a way of affirming, reinforcing and guiding your dog into displaying behaviours that you want it to display. It means you have a dog you can control under any circumstance and it means your dog will respect you and be interested in you when facing distractions.
In recent months and years ‘dangerous dogs’ have been in and out of the headlines on a regular basis. While a small number of tragic incidents has made it to the press there are many other minor incidents of aggression or aggressive behaviour that aren’t being reported. As a dog owner and lover it becomes your responsibility to safeguard your dog and the people it will come into contact with; even something innocent, such as approaching and greeting people by barking can scare a child and may lead to a potentially dangerous situation. Training is one method of ensuring the safety of your dog and the safety of other people.
Aside from the social responsibility of owning a dog training exercises a dogs mind. Often a training session of five minutes will tire the dog as much as a walk of twenty would do. Because the dog is using its brain, it will more readily learn new things including how to cope in new situations. Dogs love to learn: a well trained dog will be more relaxed, happy in different surroundings and more focused on its owner. Dogs need physical and mental exercise in order to reach their full potential; dogs that achieve this are usually the more ‘polite’ dogs in public.
When should training start?
Whilst you will be unable to walk your new puppy or take it to training classes until it is fully vaccinated it is important to note that training should start as early as possible. There is a period of time in a puppy’s life, usually between 4-12 weeks that is a particularly sensitive time for learning. This period occurs before the puppy has developed a fear reaction and studies have shown that a dog exposed to many different experiences during this period has a higher rate of brain growth and are more adaptable in later life than dogs exposed to fewer experiences.
A new puppy should be introduced to as many different sights and sounds as possible, particularly those it will come into contact with on a regular basis such as cars, vacuum cleaners and people. Although your new puppy cannot walk on the floor outside, you can carry it for short walks up and down the street. You can, and should, take it for many small car journeys to accustom it to travel and you should invite as many well mannered friends to see the puppy as you can. There are also puppy socialisation classes specifically for unvaccinated puppies where they can meet and play with other pups of their age (ask your vet for details of local classes).
Conventional training (sit, down, stay, recall, walking to heel) should also start early, from the day you get your puppy home. Interacting with the puppy in this way will help it to settle in and build your bond with it. Young puppies are usually highly motivated by attention and this can work to your advantage particularly when teaching the recall – an essential tool for any dog owner.
When should training stop?
Training sessions should be kept short, especially for young puppies as they get easily bored. A few minutes several times a day is more than enough.
Training in general is an ongoing process, it never ends and you should continue to teach your dog new things all through its life. While training is very important in the first years of your dog’s life, puppyhood through to adolescence, it remains important for the older dog to keep their minds active and keep them happy. At the very least you should be willing to commit to three years of training to see them through adolescence.
Training a Skye
It’s a terrier thing...
Terrier’s chase, they dig, they bark and they pay little attention to human commands. This, unfortunately, is not far away from the truth: terriers were bred to work in a group to hunt and kill vermin and game. Unlike retrievers, who wait for the command to fetch the game and bring it back, most terriers were bred to work mostly independently of humans. If they see a rat running, they chase it without being told to do so. Much of this personality is in the terriers we find today: little bodies with huge personalities.
This is not, however, an excuse to allow your terrier to run riot on the park and claim it as normal behaviour. The behaviour is normal...if your terrier is a ratter on a farm in the country or a fox hunter in the undergrowth. It is certainly not acceptable for your terrier to chase children, dig the garden, bark at the postman or anyone else that walks past the house and ignore anything you try to say to it. A terrier is a terrier but most of all it’s a dog first. Dogs are trainable, terriers are dogs and terriers are trainable.
They key to training a terrier is stubbornness. You have to be one hundred times more stubborn that it is, and it will be very stubborn indeed! Consistency is an important factor in training any animal and the same goes for terriers, consistency in your commands and actions and consistency of your stubbornness are the only things that will beat a terrier.
The Skye’s the limit...
Terriers are lovable rogues, larger than life with big mouths and big hearts and you’re about to meet the epitome of ‘terrier’; the Skye. Bred originally for fox and badger hunting and ‘going to ground’ into sets in their native Scotland it should come as no surprise that Skye’s have a natural tendency towards chasing, digging, barking and working independently. A typical terrier with a difference; while many terriers are sociable, personable dogs with strangers the Skye prefers to remain at a distance. Unwaveringly loyal this is one dog that won’t be leaving the park with anyone with sausage in their pockets.
The Skye has a strong personality in a number of ways: they are often noisy and like to bark or ‘talk’ at people, they are mightily stubborn (from personal experience Skye’s can take up to four times as long to train to perform a specific action than a Westie) and they have an unending capacity for cuddles, they love to be groomed and they adore any attention their special people lavish upon them. They will, however, run your house for you if you let them.
There are a few things to keep in mind from the word go with a Skye:
- Be assertive, you’re the human don’t let the Skye boss you around
- Be consistent, dogs like routine and they like expected results. Decide what is not acceptable before the dog arrives and always, always react in the same way.
- Be gentle and calm, Skye’s are short dogs – imagine how scary life would be if someone ten times your height were waving their arms around and shouting at your intermittently.
- Expect obedience and respect from your dog and give them the respect that they deserve.
