Wednesday, May 2, 2012

How To Teach Your Dog the Look Left & Right Trick

By Steve Cote


Positive dog training is modern and a kind, fair way to teach your dog anything from general good behaviour to provoking tricks. It fortifies the helpful behavior of your dog and completely ignores any behavior that is of no use.

Look left and right is a great trick to teach your dog. It is amazingly easy too if your dog is tuned into a clicker. It is simply a case of strengthening and reward of each behaviour that leads to the head movement. It is amazing to look at your dog when he realizes that simply looking in a certain direction will earn him the click and reward that he is aiming for.

To start teaching this trick your dog must be tuned into the clicker as a reinforcement tool. This indicates that the dog is already conditioned to associate the click sound with a food reward. You may then use the click sound to identify even the tiniest head movement. The sound will inspire your dog to repeat and build on the action that formerly provided his reward.

Start by preparation with plenty of small treats and your clicker. Your dog will know that you are about to carry out a training programme and be incentivized by the treats. He'll probably attempt to squash the treat from you by carrying out a stock of things that he has learned. When he realises this won't work he is going to sit in front of you and try and work out what to try next. Now watch him thoroughly and be prepared. You must concentrate on look left first and at even the smallest head movement in that way click and reward him. Do this every time he moves his head to the left, you'll be slightly taken aback by his progress. When he's looking left add the dog training command "look left" and shortly he's going to be looking left on cue.

You may then follow the same process to teach him to look right. Once you work out the easiest way to train your dog, it gets easier to coach more intricate behaviours, and you may then cue those behaviors to dog training commands.




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