Sydney Dog Behaviour Training – How to Distract Your Dog

If you’ve ever needed help with your dog, you’ve probably been told by a dog trainer to distract your dog when they do something you don’t like.

But what does it mean? Isn’t yelling ‘no’ to your dog distracting enough? Let me tell you, what dog trainers mean by this. Here’s Sydney Dog Behaviour Training advice!

Use a positive distraction

Setting limits and boundaries are important in life, even with our dogs. Especially, if you want an obedient dog. So it’s perfectly okay to stop your dog from doing something you don’t like or that could be unsafe. The key aspect here is to focus on how you stop her. An interrupter should always be clear and consistent.

For example, if you don’t want your dog on the lounge, you can calmly and consistently interrupt the behaviour and redirect her to her own bed. You can reinforce staying on her bed by giving her a bone or kong toy with treats while she’s lying on her own bed.

What kind of distraction should you use?

Choose a word or noise.

Many dog trainers use a noise ‘a-a’.  But you could use a word “Watch!” or “Look!”. Or even more traditional “Leave it!” or “No!”. The word doesn’t really matter. What matters is the way you say it and the meaning you give to the word or noise. It’s simply a cue. Use it in a clear and happy tone, as you would with any cue.

1. Say your cue and then immediately give your dog a high value treat.

High value treat means something very delicious, like chicken, cheese, roast beef… Say your cue and immediately feed your dog delicious treats. Repeat this until your dog looks at you right away when she hears your cue.

2. Practice around distractions.

Start with easy distractions and the gradually work with more difficult situations. For those really difficult situations such as other dogs running in the park, you may have to practice at a distance first.

Interrupters work in the moment

It’s good to remember that distracting your dog doesn’t teach your dog not to do the behaviour in the future. An interrupter is a temporary solution.

SYDNEY DOG BEHAVIOUR TRAINING IN INNER WEST SYDNEY & SURROUNDING AREAS

During the private home dog training lesson, your professional dog trainer will:

• Assess your dog and the environment.
• Plan a training program for you and your dog.

• Give you advice on how to control behavioural problems.
• Demonstrate the commands and training plan.

• Train both you and your dog.
• Training is tailored to each individual dog.

After the first session, you will receive a personalised training plan with homework to follow for the next few weeks. All the Eazy Dog Training Sydney dog training plans and homework is based on the assessment of your dog and the training progress. Each week I’ll teach you how to better understand and help your dog and take you through the training step by step.

The number of training sessions depends on the training goal, issue and your own commitment but in most cases more than just one session is recommended. When you purchase a training package I will check the progress of your training weekly with follow up meetings, adding the difficulty of the training step by step.

Imagine no more jumping on you or your guests or getting dragged down the road whenever your dog sees something interesting. No more embarrassing barking episodes when around other dogs, no more lunging, pulling or reactiveness towards other dogs. And no more running away from you at the dog park…With my private dog training in Sydney your dog can be your best friend instead of a nuisance.

Call Your Dog Trainer in Sydney Today!

0493933613!