Foundation Behaviors

Basic manners for your family dog are trained by teaching a group of foundation behaviors or building blocks. These foundation behaviors provide a training skill set for you to understand how to live happily with your dog . This skill set allows us to train the everyday behaviors of recall, attention ,leave it, stay sit, down, on your bed, and walking nicely, the behaviors desired in the family dog as well as impulse control. The foundation skill set is comprised of the following:

Targeting-which is the foundation behavior for recall, go to a specific location, walking nicely on leash, sit, down and a whole series of more complex behaviors

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Responding to a cue-Understanding what cues are, how to attach them to a desired behavior, and how to use them in training is what allows us to communicate with our dogs.

Attention to owner- Training your dog to pay attention to you and reinforcing that attention, is what allows us to have our cues attended to in real life situations. It is how our dogs can eventually have the freedom of off leash excursions

Offering behavior- The animal’s ability to feel confident in offering behavior is what gives us the opportunity to Shape ( clicking and treating in small increments) behaviors into their desired end goal behavior. The more we are able to have our dogs offer behavior, the more opportunities we have to reinforce desired behaviors.

Settling in a crate or on a bed- This skill allows us to take our dogs to more locations, and to give them a specific location to settle during dinner or when guests come to the door.

Leave It - Teaching a solid “Leave It” is training a turn off and safety cue. It means that steak, pill, icky stuff in the road, that dog across the way is not for you. Training a solid leave it is an integral part of communicating what he can have or do, and what he cannot.

Stay- This behavior builds impulse control and patience in our dogs. “Stay”, along with “Wait” are important safety cues for a dog being off leash, going in and out of doors, or exiting our cars.

We are teaching a set of skills to create a well mannered dog, and teaching you as the owner a skill set that you can use throughout your dog’s life.