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Sylvia Bishop is, in my opinion, the finest dog trainer ever to grace dog owners and trainers. She uses the following as a foundation of her training:
When a dog fails to respond to a command, we humans tend to repeat the command in a louder, and sometimes authoritative, if not downright angry, voice. It is an essential part of dog training to use quiet voices and quiet hands. Buddy can't learn when he is nervous, upset and agitated. Buddy isn't a bad dog just because he didn't respond quite they way you wanted, he's just wrong. We need to show him how to perform the task correctly and carry on. A couple of canine psychology principles will assist us in understanding how to teach Buddy what we want with quiet voices, quiet hands and in a manner that allows Buddy to remain calm and focused. An unconditioned stimulus is something that brings about a response from a dog without any training. It is a natural reaction that is called an unconditioned response. If we show Buddy something really delicious and feed him a couple of tidbits, Buddy will begin to give you his undivided attention in order to be ready for any other offerings coming his way. Buddy's response to the food is an unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus. In other words, it's a natural reaction. On the flip side of these terms, we have conditioned stimulus and conditioned reflex (response). These are called conditioned because Buddy will associate one with the other through learning. When he hears a certain word and performs an action, he will get to have a bit of the food. These are not natural responses, but rather we have trained them. Let's use the command "Sit" - it is going to become the conditioned stimulus (trained). The command "Sit" together with the action of sitting, is paired with the delivery of the food. Buddy will begin to respond to the command of "Sit" because he is associating the hearing of the command and the action sitting with the food. The command is the conditioned stimulus the act of sitting is the conditioned reflex (response). There comes a time in dog training when the dog must understand that he is required to respond to your commands. We are introducing a new command - "With Me." "With Me" will simply mean to stay near you as the two of you walk along. This isn't a heeling command, but merely a command that gives your dog the cue to stay near you. Take Buddy to a new environment (on leash), tell him "OK" and let him begin to sniff around. When something has really taken his attention, give Buddy his hand or voice cue and additionally say quietly "With Me". Turn and begin walking away. Don't stop walking, don't turn and look at him, and don't feed him more line. Just keep walking. Eventually Buddy will follow and begin to walk with you because he doesn't have any choice. When you feel the tension releasing on the leash and you know his is walking with you, praise him, feed him, play with him for a few seconds, and do it again. Take him back to whatever it was he found interesting repeat the whole procedure. Continue with this exercise until you are beginning to see Buddy responding consistently when you give the "With Me" command and begin to walk. The two things that are really important her are that you only say "With Me" once and that you don't keep tugging on the leash. Just turn and start walking briskly. Ten repetitions on any given distraction are enough for one lesson. Continue to return to the interesting item, until you can give your hand or voice cue followed by "With Me" and Buddy begins to turn toward you before you initiate your turn. Buddy will begin to learn that where you go, he will follow and when he does, nice things happen (conditioned response). If you think you haven't made any headway, don't worry about it, just resolve to work on the same distraction - or a similar one - the next opportunity you have to train.
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