When training your dog, do you ever ask yourself, “Why does my dog only listen if I have treats?” If this is happening, it isn’t because your dog doesn’t love or respect you enough. Instead, your dog simply doesn’t understand what you expect from them.
To help them understand what is expected of them, you can teach your dog obedience skills and practice these skills around various distractions. These training sessions can help teach your dog how to respond to commands, even when around distractions, and when treats aren’t immediately visible. Let’s discuss how to teach your dog around various distractions.
Training your dog around distractions
Does your dog get startled by the sounds of children playing at a park, seeing other dogs walk past, or hearing the loud noises from passing cars? One of the biggest mistakes we see people make is expecting their dog to listen around super difficult distractions without ever practicing in front of them.
You may be saying the same command in all these scenarios, but each situation is providing your dog with a different challenge. To help prepare your dog for distractions, we have compiled a list of steps to help your dog reliably listen to commands, no matter the setting.
Practice training throughout the day, even when you are doing regular activities.
While checking your emails, you can have your dog practice a down stay. Or you can have your dog sit while you are loading a round of laundry or unpacking the dishwasher. Having these short training sessions throughout the day can help teach your dog to reliably listen to commands across different settings.
Target problem behaviors during difficult times
Playbiting and jumping are two common problem behaviors that occur during distracting times. They often happen when the dog has been separated from people, with children being a prominent target of a puppy’s attention-seeking behavior. Ideal situations include after you return home from shopping or during a walk.
Have your dog practice obedience commands outside the house
Your dog has better senses than we do and can pick up sights, smells, and sounds that we wouldn’t find very distracting or even notice. By having your dog practice commands with all these distractions, you can help teach them to be calm and confident, so that you and your dog can go on many adventures together outside the home.
Practicing commands in different positions
Do you find that your dog only listens when you are standing or sitting in a certain way? Once your dog responds to verbal cues, you can start changing your positioning and stance during training, such as looking away or sitting down. This helps to encourage your dog to listen to commands as you are both going about your day.
We are here to help
We hope that you have found these tips useful for teaching your dog to be more reliable, so that you don’t always need treats to get them to listen.
You should remember that treats are very useful for dog training as a reward for obeying commands. It’s important to remember that your dog won’t respect you more if you refuse to use treats to train them.
Would you like help teaching your dog high level obedience commands or addressing reactive behaviors? You can also contact our Pet Behavior Team for a free consultation, where we can chat with you and provide a personalized recommendation that meets your needs. We also recommend you check out our puppy training blog or our Tik Tok channel.
Beyond the Dog Sarasota offers personalized one-on-one training sessions, including training at your home and local Sarasota neighborhood, board-and-train programs, and virtual training programs.
We use scientifically proven training methods, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog Sarasota is led by our co-founders, Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and Sean Savage, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).
