The Value of Structure in Dog Training
A lot of people call me to get a feel for what my dog training program in Portland, Oregon looks like, so I want to take the opportunity to lay some of this out in this blog.
Everything I do as a balanced dog trainer comes down to the foundational work of laying out a very structured environment for your dog. Structure means some key things:
- Dogs sleep in a crate
- We use specific training collars to optimize our results
- Dogs have to walk in a heel position
- We hold the dog accountable for commands
- During the training period, free roaming is limited or eliminated
- We reward behaviors we want and correct behaviors we don’t want
These are just some of the basic elements to what I teach in my dog training and rehabilitation program in Portland Oregon. Some of it may seem really strict but the thing is that it really works to get dogs into a better state of mind. All of the structure I add in works with the basic idea of pack hierarchy in dogs. Dogs are constantly looking for leadership and if they don’t have it, things like, behavioral issues, aggression issues and separation anxiety can set in. We may at first see an increase in the behavioral issues or fear states in a dog when we begin to add in structure, but what we are actually seeing is the dog’s deepest issues underneath all the behaviors we don’t like. Then we can work the dog through all of that stuff and start to bring in the positive reinforcement training, and clicker training in Portland.
If your dog is struggling with any behavioral issues and you are looking for a balanced dog trainer in Portland Oregon, check out some of my videos.
