Nobody Gets This Dog Training Question Right…
You won’t believe this but it is true.
I know you’ll be shocked when you read this, but I am being honest with you.
There are people who come into my business, meet with me, and decide…
…they do not want to train with me!
I know, I know, who in their right mind would miss out on the opportunity to work with yours truly?
The truth of the matter is I have a very detailed, specific system of training that is taught to EVERY SINGLE person who walks through my door.
It does not matter what behavior problem your dog is having, it does not matter what you want to train your dog to do, his age, the breed, you and your dog are going to learn The Eric Letendre Dog Training System.
This shocks many.
How can every dog be treated the same? How can a little 10-week old beagle puppy be taught the same way as a 7-year old Doberman Pinscher?
The problem is starting with the dog. You don’t start with the dog. You start with understanding behavior.
Once you understand behavior, you can start working with the dog. The principles of behavior work regardless of age, breed, size, or environment.
I ask everyone this one simple question:
“How many behaviors does your dog do?”
The dog owners I ask this question to always give me confused looks. “I don’t know, my dog does all kinds of behaviors,” is the usual answer.
Let me give you the correct answer:
You must understand your dog ONLY does TWO behaviors.
I can hear the howls and cat calls now. Many of you are reading this and thinking, “This Letendre guy is nuts. He needs to spend a few minutes with my dog and he’ll see my dog does way more than two behaviors. My dog jumps, chews the corners off my coffee table, counter surfs, and yanks me on leash so hard I had to have surgery. This guy is a bonehead!”
I stand by my original comment.
Let me break it down for you.
Your dog only does good behaviors and…
…bad behaviors.
A more correct term would be acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
Think this through for a second. We want your dog to DO certain behaviors:
Behaviors like sit, down, come when called, go to place, etc.
On the flip side you want your dog to STOP doing other behaviors.
You want your dog to STOP jumping, chewing, counter surfing, digging, etc.
You with me so far?
Good!
If you want your dog to DO a behavior you use reinforcement.
If you want your dog to STOP doing a behavior you use punishment.
So if you are going to train a dog, where do you start? You start by learning how to apply reinforcement and punishment.
Yes, my young apprentice, you need to understand reinforcement and punishment to effectively communicate to your dog. It does NOT matter what age, behavior, or breed your dog is.
This is why I start off EVERYONE I help by showing them how to use reinforcement to INCREASE behaviors we want (sit, down, place, come, etc.) and how to use punishment to STOP behaviors we don’t want (jumping, chewing, digging, etc.).
It all starts with 4 Magic Words.
I teach every dog owner these 4 words (or if you want to talk dog trainer lingo, “markers). Here they are:
GOOD
YES
WRONG
NO
Good and Yes are associated with reinforcement.
Wrong and No are associated with punishment.
Once this is done we can start to EFFECTIVELY communicate to your dog to increase and stop behaviors
And as Sean Connery said in the great movie The Untouchables…”Here endeth the lesson.”
But the lesson continues on Friday.
You guessed it, your friend and favorite dog trainer has put together a video with the lovely and beautiful Rachael breaking this down showing you how it is done.
The video comes out this Friday, you may want to head over to my channel and subscribe so you don’t miss it. Here is my YouTube channel:
See you Friday!
Eric Letendre’s Dog Training School
1180 STATE ROAD, WESTPORT MA
774.319.635