Understanding canine drive

SO your dog is full of energy and driving you crazy, now learn why and how to use that drive in obedience it is training. Being a trainer, especially a dog trainer in a wheelchair, I am often asked "what is the key to training a dog". I would have to say a dog's drive toward his work. The concept of drive might be new to some readers, so let me give you an introduction to drive. No matter what breed of dog you have, there is most likely something that your dog will strive to gain. It might be food, a toy or a simple pat on the head. Unless your dog is extremely lazy or in his later years he or she will have something that will motivate him or her. The first trick is to find out what brings your dog into drive, or brings out the most energy.

Food is the most common used reward when teaching dog's to drive and it is the easiest reward to manipulate a dog. Before starting any type of training using food it is helpful if your dog is a little hungry. If you are planning on training on a Saturday morning, it is helpful to withhold the night before meal. Dogs are not like people, they do not require three meals a day, most do just fine on one or two meals a day so withholding one meal will not hurt your dog. By withholding a meal we are in a sense manipulating the dog's food drive - we know that when it is time for training the dog will be hungry and more responsive.

Many breeds are not food hounds, so next, you might want to try a toy of some type. Using a toy can be a huge help in training but it can also be a big downfall if not used correctly. When picking a toy there are a few things to keep in mind. First, the toy you pick needs to be used only for training and never given as an every day toy. Just like food, if it is always available to dog will have very little drive towards it and will make it difficult to use in training. The second thing to think about when picking a toy is to pick a toy that can be carried easily on your person and can be hidden out of sight. Normally a tennis ball is a trainer's first pick, but a small burlap sack rolled up with a nylon handle attached works very well.

A puppy's drive and energy is shown at a early age, but it is most often looked at as bad behaviour. Example: You come home from work, walk in the door and your 12-week-old puppy is all over you or is carrying something in its mouth he or she wants you to throw. Who wants to play with a puppy first thing when coming home after a eight-hour day or work? So the puppy normally gets pushed away or put outside. The only problem is the puppy is showing you drive and you don't realize it. So does this mean the moment you come home you need to start training? Of course not, but we can learn something from this. By understanding the reaction the puppy is giving us when first seeing us, we learn this is a type of drive and we can us it to our advantage later.

New puppy owners cannot stand it when our sweet fluffy 12-week-old puppy bites our hand when feeding him or her and many times the puppy gets punished for doing so. This is one of the biggest mistakes made when using food to bring out drive. By encouraging our puppy not to be enthusiastic towards the food in your hand you are saying to him or her that he or she should not be excited towards food, this is something we definitely do not want to portray to our animal. Now you have a little understanding of drive - drive is the dog's energy towards a stimulant that you can provide.

Dog training is not a exact science like most things there are many ways to accomplish your goal. My main focus is using the dog's natural drive and instincts to motivate him or her in their training. This is done by using the dog's drive. A dog that has no drive towards his obedience will be sluggish and very hard to train. Think of dog training like you think of your everyday job - if you went to work every day and did not get paid would you really want to be there or would you even go to work? Using rewards in dog training is much the same. If we ask our dogs to work for us we need to reward them in some way. The problem is, over the years we have taught our dogs not to appreciate the reward we are giving. Here is what I mean.

If you are trying to teach your dog how to "sit" by pushing its rear down and saying sit at the same time and then rewarding your dog for sitting, you are only teaching your dogs that you will do the work for them and reward them in the end. Think of rewarding your dog like you would reward a child. If every day your child came to you and you handed him or her $20 for doing nothing, by the time that child reaches his or her teenage years money will have little value. If we take the same child and teach him/her that the harder they strive to please us by doing chores around the house, the more money they will earn, the money will have more value to them.

Over the years we have learned if we use the dog's natural drive we can virtually train our dogs without even touching them. A good example again can be seen in teaching your dog how to sit. If you are holding a treat in your hand and your dog is trying to do anything he or she can do to gain the treat (this is drive), place your hand with the treat in front of the dog's nose and slowly bring your hand up over its head. If your dog has drive towards the reward in your hand you should see his rear go down without him or her even knowing it. The reason this happens is because you're dog can only put his or her head back so far until they must realign their spine in order to look higher than their neck will allow. I skipped over a few steps in teaching the sit, I merely wanted to use this has a visual on how a dog's drive can aid you in training.

I hope I have given you some insights on what drive is and how it can be used in your training program. With any type of dog training don't be afraid of trying new things, but always remember your training needs to stay enjoyable for your dogs. The moment our dog stops enjoying his or her training it stops learning and becomes stressed and in the end this only breaks down the bond our dogs have with us.

About the author: Jason Lake has been a dog trainer for almost 10 years. He lives in Central Point, Oregon, where he teaches everything from 4-H obedience to competitive obedience. He has helped train a wide variety of breeds, but his main focus is on the German Shepherd Dog. He is often asked if he is a breeder, but says: "I am not a breeder myself but I am dedicated to the advancement of the German Shepherd Dog in the United States and abroad." You can visit Jason on the world wide web at www.ProdogZ.com or by phone 541-665-3132.