Thursday, February 10, 2011
Me and My Jimmy
Yes!! Jimmy and I survived beginning dog training class last night! Man, o man... he was the smallest lil guy there;everyone else was ninety pounds or above! He did an awesome job and just from attending a one-hour dog training session, I learned so..much about dog psychology. First off, for dogs, actions speak much louder than words. When getting a dog to behave, one of the biggest mistakes people make is telling a dog to "sit,stay,or lay down." However, dogs are more willing to follow hand signals and gestures to follow commands. Another important thing I realized too is that dogs have very, very short memory and constantly need repetition in order to learn tricks or obedience training. Teaching a dog how to sit one time and giving them a treat will not teach them to follow the command; they need to see the gesture or signal at least 10-20 times to even some-what pick up anything. Lastly, Jimmy's trainer from Petsmart, Holly, told the class that her main secret to the training is positivism and postive-reinforcement. Using treats and tummy rubs as rewards accompanied by "good boy/girl" and avoiding words such as "don't,stop, and no" are the key to getting a dog to pay attention and follow commands. I think that was such an awesome experience yesterday, getting a hands-on experience with dog-training and I am so..proud of my lil boy, Jimmy for doing such an awesome job in class yesterday! <3
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hey!! how are you doing? actually my girlfriend just got a puppy 2 weeks ago and is learning how to train him as well. I'm going to talk to her about what you wrote because she hasn't gone to Petsmart or anything like that for help.Your project sounds like a lot of fun and I have to admit Jimmy is really cute.
ReplyDeleteOne More thing, Hoe much are the dog training classes? Do you think they are worth it? or it's something we can teach by ourselves?
See ya!
Alejandro
It's cool that you went to a dog training class to learn about psychology with animals...and your dog is adorable. I've never gone to one of those classes, but it sounds like a good way to learn more about animals. Since my WISE project is about animals, I think I might have to try going to one of those classes!
ReplyDeleteYour dog is so cute and it sounds like he did amazing! I thought it was really interesting that you went to a dog training class to learn about psychology, that is something that I usually wouldnt think about.
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