We have to prevent always that our pup can demonstrate unwanted behavior, that should be the starting point in dealing with the pup inside our home. So we must not give him any opportunity to do so. In fact we have to organize it in such a way that he is only showing wanted behavior that we can reward him for in order for him to repeat this, making it a habitual behavior that is very strong. We must our pup teach immediately that he has to lie on a fixed place at home. That is safe and clear for him as well as comfortable for us, because he can’t ‘stroll’ around and cause several problems that we have to respond to. We are going to lay him down in a bench, locating it in the living room on a place nice for him. Obviously he will not enter it by himself, we will have to seduce him, using a treat that he likes very much. We must always be careful not forcing but seducing him. It has to be his own choice. Lying in the bench he has to feel comfortable, only then he will repeat the specific behavior. In this way we are applying Skinner’s behavioral theory.

At first we let the door open, preventing however the pup to come out by itself, which is determined by us. Once our pup has entered the bench by itself, we are keeping him inside very shortly for the first time, next we take him out. Slowly we are going further, keeping him longer and longer inside the bench. At teaching the behavior ‘lying inside the bench’ we are applying the technique of ‘shaping’ too. It is crucial that each step in the learning process must be successful, we should not let the pup go wrong by wishing to go too fast.

Once becoming used to lie in a bench, the pup has been given a fixed place at home. A fixed place at home offers him a feeling of security and peace of mind. He doesn’t have to respond to all sort of things and as a result of this he is feeling like safe and comfortable. After some time (about one year or one and a half) you may replace the bench with a basket.

At the beginning each pup should be able to do its needs every two to three hours. The easiest way is to let him pee and poop close at home always in the same place if possible. Very soon he will only want to do his needs there, thus doing so we are teaching him a good habit. We should apply also the principle to avoid unwanted behavior at teaching a pup to be house-trained. Be careful he will not get the opportunity to pee or poop inside. Should this happen unexpectedly, do not punish him, it will not do anything good, it can even work counterproductive. A pup, not doing his needs outside due to distraction, even when one is very patient and has been giving him enough opportunity, probably will pee or poop after arriving home. One should be prepared for this and take the pup immediately outside again to the specific ‘peeing/pooping spot’, offering him the opportunity to do his needs. In the worst case scenario this should be repeated, because at all times one should avoid letting the pup peeing or pooping inside, and thus making a new, however unwanted behavior exist. All this implies that we should not losing sight of our pup indoors during the first period. Hence bench-training, as described above, is essential. Obviously the pup doesn’t like it yet to lie in the bench continuously. At times we are not ‘working’ with him indoors, it might be a good idea tying him around your waist with a thin line, in order for him to be near with you all the time.

A dog likes sleeping near his owners at nights, it offers him a sense of comfort and security and it connects with his natural behavior too, because in this way the pack stays together. Besides it benefits the house-training, after all we are easily be able letting him pee, sleeping near to us. One has to try at first, but one time a night mostly will be sufficient.

Teaching a good habit at once, that should be our motto! A pup, being trained from the beginning not to lead the walk and not to pull on the leash, will not do so in the future either. Indeed, he will not be able to do so! How to teach him this?

Let’s keep in mind that at all times we have to take the initiative, being pack leaders and higher in rank. So we are leading the walk and determine directions. The pup, being lower in rank, should watch us and should be paying attention continuously. In this way walking on the leash becomes an exercise in paying attention, not being a trick having to be perfectly executed by the pup. He doesn’t have to walk at our feet all the time and to look up to us. Paying attention to us is what matters, continuously he is watching us, he depends on us.

In doing so we are using a thin and light long line of about 6 meters. We start walking and observe how our pup responds to it. If he remains standing or he is going to sit, then we continue our walk, but we stand still before the line becomes taut. Now we turn around, and by making ourselves small we seduce the pup to get into motion. If he again remains standing or is going to sit we repeat this. After a while he really understands that he has to walk with us.
However there might be another possibility: he directly leads the walk, when we are getting into motion. At that point we stand still and observe how the pup is responding. If he stops, we turn around and are walking in the opposite direction. Each time he is leading the walk, we repeat this procedure.

If the pup doesn’t stop when we are standing still, but continues to walk, we turn around a little bit more abruptly and are walking in the opposite direction. He might get a little pull and this may scare him. Again we observe how he is responding to this. If he walks in our direction, we continue our walk smoothly without saying anything. If he is a bit more scared and is standing still or is going to sit, by making ourselves small we seduce him to get into motion. As soon as he is walking, we get up immediately and continue our walk.

It is crucial not to talk in any way during this exercise, only to use body language. We don’t need to reward him for following us, because we are connecting with a dog’s natural instinct, that is to follow a leader, a person taking responsibility and offering him protection and comfort.

These exercises in paying attention we don’t train them longer than ten minutes in a row, however we can repeat these about five or six times a day. Only when the puppy walks with us properly, we may walk a little further. Keep in mind that teaching good behavior is what counts and at all times we must prevent the pup learning bad behavior. Therefore the puppy’s daily schedule consists of letting him do his needs every two hours and afterwards training the exercises in paying attention. Walking with us on the leash, the pup always is paying attention to us and doesn’t take any initiative, but depends on our support and care, which will offer him clarity, security and peace.

At the learning of these behavioral actions we completely apply Pavlov’s and Skinner’s theories as described in ‘The dog’s education, theoretical backgrounds’.

First we are teaching the behavior without using any signal. We reinforce this behavior with food giving a signal, for instance a little word like ‘OK’, thus creating a conditioned reinforcement.

When the puppy quickly executes a behavioral act and in a proper way, a signal is being connected to it, for instance a little word whether or not accompanied by a nonverbal signal. We should pronounce this signal in a quiet and clear voice, just before the pup is actually executing the behavior. The right moment is very important, the signal should really enter the dog right before the behavior is occurring. Only in this way the dog associates the signal with the behavior. Next a positive reinforcement is given again. Being patient is crucial. Do not be convinced to fast the dog is ‘understanding’ the meaning of the signal and the association between the signal and the behavior has been made by him. We are testing this by pronouncing the signal only once and waiting for the dog’s response afterwards. Not showing the wanted behavior within a few seconds, he is being seduced or helped by us. In any case we should not repeat the signal, however tempting that may be. It simply means the connection between signal and behavior has not been established. This certainly won’t happen by repeating the signal, in fact in doing so we are making the signal less meaningful. We can only conclude that we should take a step back in the learning process.

Environment too has a great impact on behavior. We should choose a quiet environment when teaching our dog a behavioral act for the first time so he will not be distracted. One should choose the same environment every time. If the dog properly executes the behavior to be learned, this will not mean yet he masters this behavior everywhere. So we are changing the environment, but we should be conscious taking back a step in the learning process might be necessary. It also depends on our dog, we have to observe him well during the learning process in order to be able to estimate how strong his learning ability is.

When our dog controls the behavior in all kinds of different environments, we can make sure that this behavior remains intact by reinforcing him irregularly, meaning we do not reinforce him positively every time when he is demonstrating the wanted behavior, but every now and then and very irregularly. As a result the dog becomes addicted to, as it were, the reinforcer, just as we may become addicted to a slot machine rewarding us very rarely with the ringing of coins rolling off!

The last phase occurs the taught behavior becoming a habit. It is difficult determining when this happens, but when the time comes, he can’t do anything else but executing the wanted behavior at the given specific signal. Basically a reinforcement isn’t needed anymore. It suffices to reinforce him positively very occasionally. Having educated our dog in such a way that all wanted behavior has become a habit avoiding unwanted behavior to develop, both our dog and we are living actually together like a real pack filled with harmony.

We seduce the dog going to sit by slowly moving a treat backwards above his nose. The pup not going to sit by himself, is helped by us pushing down gently his rear body. When he finally sits, we reinforce this behavior by a treat giving a signal, for instance ‘OK’. In order to achieve a good result, it is crucial not to talk, this only will distract the pup from what it is all about, that is going to sit. We repeat this three or four times. After that we pick up the Paying attention exercises. Next we practice again the sitting several times.

The wanted behavior (to sit), once fast and easily executed, can be connected to a signal, for instance the word ‘SIT’. Just before the pup is going to sit, we pronounce this little word in a quiet, but clear voice. Next a positive reinforcement will follow. After a while when the dog is going to sit immediately after our signal ‘sit’ is given by us, the association has been established. Now we change the environment and observe our dog performing the wanted behavior there too. Possibly we need to take back a step in the learning process depending on our dog’s learning capacity. Finally we are applying the principle of irregular reinforcement, as discussed before, in order to keep the wanted behavior intact. Finally going to sit will become a habit and the dog can’t do anything else but automatically executing this behavior whenever the signal ‘SIT’ occurs.

Broadly speaking we are following the same approach as when teaching the dog going to sit. For the most puppies lying down is hard to learn. They really have to surrender themselves and to become quiet, which isn’t always easy. Therefore we should be aware of the learning process taking a lot of time and we should building it gradually, slowly and with a lot of patience.

At first  the dog has to sit. Next we are seducing him to lie down, above all we are not going to force him. We keep a treat before his nose and are moving this slowly towards the ground between his legs. We keep it there until the dog lies down. Only then we should give him the treat. When the dog isn’t responding to this, but remains seated, we keep the treat even closer to his nose and are moving it very slowly towards the ground again. Being patient is crucial in this! Having succeeded in letting him lie down, we should repeat this just once. If the dog had trouble lying down, we should just leave it there, for it is very important finishing each training session with a successful experience. Continuing for too long may result in not achieving that successful experience anymore, having a negative impact on the learning process.

The wanted behavior (to lie down), once fast and easily executed, can be connected to a signal, for instance the word ‘DOWN’. We are following the same approach as for teaching the dog to sit, as described above. Once the dog has well known the association between the signal ‘DOWN’ and the actual lying down, we are changing the environment again and continue are training there. We must continue to reinforce the dog positively every time for a longer period of time, precisely because it is a behavior difficult to learn. The irregular reinforcement we have to keep it up too for a longer time, until the phase of habitual behavior has arrived.

Our dog, finally controlling the behavior lying down in all circumstances, can be taught to stay lying down until he is picked up by us. For this purpose we use both a verbal signal, ´STAY´, as a non verbal one, a stop sign directing our palm of hand towards the dog.

After the dog has lied down, we are giving him both signals at the same time and wait for a few seconds. We must observe our dog very well and respond alertly to signs indicating he is going to stand up. We should not let it get this far, we are ahead of him. After these few seconds he is getting a positive reinforcement. Next he is allowed to stand up, we walk a bit and repeat the exercise. As said before, we should not repeat this to often, at all times we finish the training session with a successful dog experience.

Now we are applying the principle of shaping by letting the dog lie down increasingly a little longer standing next to him. Only when he is able to lie down for quite some time, we can make a start with leaving him. Again we are applying shaping, literally step by step we build this up. At first one step away from the dog and back. We repeat this until this is always going well. Next two steps and back again, etcetera. If the dog stays lying down well, when we are away from him a good number of meters, we can make the exercise heavier by disappearing from the dog´s sight. To observe a dog having enough stimulus control, that is staying to lie down in all kinds of distractions,  is another strengthening of the exercise. I once saw a Benedictine monk training a Great Sint Bernard Dog this kind of stimulus control by jumping up and down in front of him, the dog laying on the ground, even jumping over him!

Teaching a dog, separated from the leash, to come from afar at a specific given signal, might be the most difficult behavioral act to teach. It is for this reason that it is so difficult because the dog is in fact beyond our control and we have no possibilities for correcting his behavior at a distance. So we must follow a very precise path, in order to achieve eventually a successful final result. At all times we should prevent the dog learning a wrong habit as is the case with all the behavior to be learned. We mustn’t drift into a situation not having any influence on our dog, which means in fact not releasing him in situations or environments where it is necessary to call him to us once. We can safely state that all our efforts will have been in vain when the dog isn’t coming to us just once when being called!

We start the exercise in a quiet environment. Our puppy is on a long leash and may go his own way for a while. When he is paying attention to us, we are going to squat and seduce him to come to us, expressing little high sounds or using inviting body language, in any case a treat. Using the signal ’COME’ we should not do. Slowly we are pulling the line letting our puppy come to us. Arrived in front of us, he is being seduced going to sit and a positive reinforcement is given. The total behavior sequence doesn’t only consist of the actual coming but added to this is the sitting before us. This will be important later when we wish to lead the dog to the leash, him sitting quietly before us makes this a lot easier.

Having trained our puppy coming to us quickly and easy, we connect the signal ‘COME’ to this behavior, giving this signal immediately after the dog is on its way to us. After a while we are giving the signal ‘COME’ first and observe our puppy responding to it. When he is not taking immediate steps coming to us, the association has failed and we have to go back in the learning process. However responding to us quickly enough after a while and coming to us each time at the signal ‘COME’, our pup is to be trained with this exercise in a different environment.

For a very long time, maybe a year, our dog will have to be trained coming to us on the leash. We strengthen the exercise constantly by looking for more and more distractions, the most difficult exercise being the dog coming to us amidst other dogs. At the beginning we only might release our pup in an environment where he can’t escape and we not having to call him, but having enough time waiting for him coming to us by himself. Only controlling the exercise ‘COME’ up to the highest perfection under all circumstances, our dog might execute this exercise being set loose. We need to make sure the dog is always executing this exercise successfully, again applying to it the shaping technique.