Owning a dog should be enjoyable!
Let Mark help you change your dog’s behaviour, while improving your relationship at the same time.
Mark provides individual advice based on your unique situation,
using exclusively positive reinforcement techniques.
Raising a puppy gives you a unique opportunity to prevent nuisance behaviours from developing into major problems. Learn how at puppy school.
Attending a professionally run puppy school is critical to having a well behaved dog joining your family. As we learn more about dog behaviour and development, there has become an increased emphasis on early, thorough, positive socialisation of young puppies. Research has shown that it is vital that this occurs during the Critical Socialisation Period […]
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Mark offers private, personal dog training sessions to help with most behaviour issues. Why Hire a Professional? It is quite normal to try and fix your dog’s behavioural issues by speaking to friends and family, searching Google, reading books, and watching videos on the internet. Often times this advice can contradict itself, and it can […]
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Mark Ehrman of Canine Counselling by Mark is the first Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Trainer (VSPDT) in Australia. After completing a certificate in dog training and behaviour in 2006, Mark continued to study and learn about dogs and dog training. As a result of his continuing education, Mark changed the way he trains, adopting the […]
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Read the latest news and advice from Mark and other dog training experts
My biggest piece of advice to people with new puppies is to BE PATIENT.
This applies to adult dogs as well, but especially to puppies.
It seems that in every class I hear "sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit..." given in such rapid fire that it all streams together. Yet, somehow I can get puppies to sit usually by saying it only once.
Why?
Because after I cue them to 'sit', I wait and give them time to think about it and then do it. If it goes more than about 5 seconds, I'll ask again, and wait again. If they still don't get it, I'll give them an assist with a luring hand motion, or a change of position.
Yet it seems that most owners give their puppies about 0.5 seconds to start sitting, and if they haven't sat yet, they feel compelled to give the cue again and again. They teach their puppies to 'sit' at home while they are standing up, yet expect their puppies to instantly generalise that to doing the same thing while the owner is sitting in a chair also (hint: this needs to be taught!).
You will achieve so much more if you are just patient and allow your puppy time to think about what you are asking for and then do it. It will get faster over time and with more repetitions, but at the beginning they need time to become fluent. Think of everything as a process that takes time and gets better.
Happy training!
©2019 Canine Counselling by Mark
