Author Archives: Liam Crowe

By: Liam Crowe

Training in a way that is holistic and uses all of your dog’s learning capabilities is a critical part of training dogs “the Aussie way.” Dogs have the potential to learn in a variety of ways, and by limiting your training to only one teaching method, you’re not just increasing the amount of time it will take to change your dog’s behavior; you’re also selling him short!

As dogs evolved to rely on human companionship and care, they’ve become extremely good at reading human body language. Chances are that even if you think you’re only communicating praise to your dog (such as in strict “positive-only” training), he’s actually interpreting corrections from your body language and voice tones when you are upset or angry. Likewise, dogs with owners who do love and care for them but have a more gruff personality—for example, they may not seem to fawn over their dogs or reward them with treats—can still sense, respond to and enjoy their owners’ pleasure.

The trick to quickly and effectively changing a dog’s behavior is to actively use ALL of the ways he’s already learning in ways that are non-threatening, non-physical and build respect and trust. This means clearly educating your dog every time he makes a correct OR incorrect choice.

One example comes from the way we teach our own human children. Of course, when they make a good decision, we reinforce that behavior with affection and praise—“good job,” “that’s right,” “I’m proud of you.” We should do the same thing with our dogs to let them know when they respond appropriately. Although this can be done with treats or clickers, the simplest way is to use vocal praise and pets—you may not always have a treat or a clicker in your hand when you need to give your dog a command, but you’ll always have your voice/body language. Not to mention that this encourages your dog to focus on YOU and grows the bond you share.

Similarly, when our children make a mistake or are approaching a dangerous situation, we use it to teach them and redirect them to a better choice. Dogs can learn in the same way. For example, if a child is walking, arms outstretched, toward a hot stovetop, you wouldn’t just call him back or attempt to distract him with cookies. Instead, you tell him—often with a raised voice to indicate urgency—to “come back,” “don’t touch that,” “it’s hot,” etc. You don’t want him to simply learn that if he chooses to come back, he gets a cookie or a pat on the head. You want him to learn that it is dangerous for him to make the alternative choice and touch the stove.

The same kind of learning happens when you vocally correct your dog. The deficiency of training without correction and only by praise is that your dog never knows he’s making the mistake in the first place; he’s missing that part of the education. And like children, dogs are intellectually capable of learning that lesson without being frightened or traumatized.

When corrections are delivered in a way that is natural to canine communication and redirects to the desired behavior without physical punishment, they can accelerate and round out your dog’s learning. The result? A smarter, happier, more well-behaved dog and a stronger bond in less time! And that’s training dogs the Aussie way.