Questions about Training

My little rescue dog's name is Bent! He is the inspiration behind launching an online dog training service accessible to dog owners everywhere, so it was only right to make him the namesake. 

This is a very common issue. Usually, there is one primary trainer in a household and the other family members are expected to know the rules for the dog and help enforce them. To help, we added a short, paper review with each level to briefly explain what the steps are and how to implement them so the non-trainers in the home can know what the dog is learning without having to participate in the whole lesson themselves. Getting on the same page about expectations for the dog is crucial, so even going over the provided written synopsis with your family for a few minutes could make your training experience so much easier.

In the future, we will complete our series providing more complex content geared towards dog trainers that are interested in showing their dog competitively. Since these courses rely on the owner and the dog already having a strong foundation of basic training and can be quite challenging skills that take years to master, they are labeled "advanced." 

Yes, you do have time! If you have 20 or more minutes of screen time a day on your phone/tv/computer, you actually have more than enough time to teach your own dog. Most of the training can even be done while you accomplish other tasks around your home or on a walk.  The reality is that sending your dog off to be trained will never be a permanent solution. The whole point of dog training is actually empowering and teaching YOU, the owner, how to train your dog. If you send your dog off, they will learn how to obey and respect that trainer. As soon as they return home, they will revert to their old habits if their owner does not know how to teach and reinforce the lessons they learned.

Positive and negative seem like polar opposites in the context of reinforcement styles. Positive reinforcement is rewarding your dog for any behavior you want to see. This typically looks like treats, toys, happy voice, and petting. Negative reinforcement has a bad connotation with some people, but it actually just means a lack of positive reinforcement for behaviors you do not want to see. This typically looks like not using a happy voice, not giving attention, using gentle but firm pressure, or withholding a treat until the behavior is correct. Let's be clear, a person hitting a dog is NOT negative reinforcement, that is abuse.

In our content, we go over how to appropriately include positive and negative reinforcement into your training  to yield the best results.

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