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Proofing
The Surefire Way to Good Behavior
You’ve put the time in, done all the hard work, and you now believe you have the most well trained dog the world has ever seen. You decide to take him out of the house and show him off – and he promptly lifts his leg on your best friend’s couch and refuses to sit on command in favor of chasing leaves across your neighbor’s lawn. What happened to the dog who would follow commands over and over again in your living room?
Don’t worry. Your well-behaved dog hasn’t turned into the hound from hell. He is still the same dog you’ve always loved. You’ve simply missed a step in the training process – proofing.
Most of us teach our dogs at home, and expect them to exhibit the same good behavior when we take them somewhere new. The problem is that dogs don’t think the same way people do. They don’t have the same ability to generalize. For example, you may think your dog is completely housetrained because he hasn’t had an accident on your living room carpet for months. The truth is, however, your dog may know it’s not okay to urinate in your living room, but he may not generalize that to all living rooms – hence lifting his leg on your friend’s couch. The same goes for following commands. Your dog may be a quick learner in your kitchen, but take him outside and suddenly you’re competing for his attention with a whole world of new smells, sounds, and experiences. This is where proofing comes in.
When it comes to training your dog, proofing a behavior means that you teach your dog to behave well in a variety of different settings with a wide array of distractions. There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re working on proofing a behavior:
- Start small and move ahead in small increments. It’s not reasonable to train your dog in your quiet living room and then move right to working with him at the dog park, a place that’s high in distractions such as other dogs, new people, lots of noise, and a variety of new scents. A better idea would be to start in the quiet living room and then add a distraction like an extra person or the radio. You can then try practicing in your quiet backyard, and then add some distractions. In this way, you can slowly work your way up to practicing in the dog park, on a city street, or any other place that with a lot going on.
- If your dog fails to perform a behavior more than once or twice, move back a step. The best way to ensure good behavior and enjoyable training sessions is to set your dog up for success. If you are moving to a new location or adding more distraction when practicing a behavior, and your dog stops performing the behavior, move back a step – take away a distraction or move back to the last location your dog had success with the behavior.
- Stick to one behavior and one setting per training session. Training sessions can be short (as little as five minutes will do the trick), but be sure to only use one command at a time and keep it in the same place. For example, if you’re working on the "down" command, don’t ask your dog to "give paw" in this training session. And if you start in the kitchen, don’t move things out to the backyard in the same session. One command and one setting per training session keeps things simple, and makes things really clear for your dog, ensuring good behavior.
Taking the time to proof a behavior will ensure your dog will be putting his best paw forward no matter where you take him.
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