Tips For Anyone Who Need to Get a Dog to Listen Better

For this Glendale puppy training session we worked with 6 month-old Mini Poodle Coco; sharing tips on how to get a dog to listen better.

We started the session by going over a lot of dog and puppy training fundamentals. Many people make small errors that actually cause or greatly contribute to their dogs behavior problems. When this happens to a young puppy, it can actually teach them the things you don’t want.

I started off by going over marker words and explaining how to use them. This is the fundamental building block that all positive dog training is built upon. Its a powerful tool that makes a big difference if your dog ignores you.

After loading the marker word I tried to walk the guardians through a hand targeting exercise. This is a great way to reposition a dog without having to physically manipulated and can be a nice alternative recall as well. I generally use the lesson to help the humans practice their timing.

Coco struggled a little bit with this exercise so I wanted to make sure that I included a link to the training video that we share with our puppy parents. Many people think when a dog ignores you it means they are being disobedient. But in some cases, it means the odg wasnt fully trained or the environment is too busy.

I’d like to see the guardians practicing this exercise for one minute each practice session and practicing three times a day; breakfast, lunch and dinner. They should practice in different parts of the house and always end on a good repetition.

Once Coco has figured out hand targeting and can run across the room to touch his nose to their hand, I’d like them to teach him some other basic obedience cues. Practicing basic obedience is a great tip if your dog ignores you as it provides them motivation to want to do what you ask as there is something tangible in it for them.

Teaching a dog to sit, lay down, sit up and stand are ubiquitous parts of dog training. These fundamental building blocks are important to have in place for obvious reasons. Just like hand targeting, I would like the guardians to practice these exercises in short, one minute practice sessions, three times a day.

It’s important to not introduce the cue or label for the action until the dog is able to be lured into position easily. Once that is the case then I usually practice a couple of lures in a row and then on the fourth or fifth repetition, I say the cue first then lower the dog into the position.

Coco is also having a potty training issue. I made sure to go over tips on how to positively potty train a puppy and the importance of a human staying outside with the dog during this action so that they can properly mark and reward with good timing. Failing to be there to monitor your dog during potty training is a very common mistake many new puppy parents make.

Once Coco has fully learned how to sit and lay down and the potty problems are in the rearview mirror, I’d like to have the guardians practice what I like to call, training for attention. This is a simple exercise using basic obedience but it’s a great way to turbo charge your dog listening skills.

Training for attention is simply walking around your home and asking your dog to do one of the cues they know. But the dog only gets one chance. If you ask for a sit and the dog doesnt sit within 3 seconds, you simply walk a couple of paces, then ask for a cue again. When the dog complies, you mark then reward with a treat. Basically wandering around and stopping to give your dog an opportunity to earn a treat. Not asking more than once gives your dog motivation to listen to you.

It would be great if each member of the household could practice this training for attention lesson a couple of times a day, walking around the house. If your dog motivation is low, its going to be hard to get them to listen. But just like humans, if you want the benefit or reward, you want to do the activity.

Next I tried to show the guardians how to teach a dog to come when called. Unfortunately, by this point in the session, Coco was pretty full of treats which took a toll on dog motivation. I made sure to recommend to the guardians to use the smallest portion and lowest value treat that they can get away with. This is especially important with petite dogs like Coco.

Once Coco has learned the other exercises, it would be great if three or more members of the household could practice this recall exercise a couple of times a day.

Speaking of exercise, I recommend the guardians practice feeding Coco out of a snuffle mat. Since the dog has to use its nose to find the food, this makes it an energy burning exercise. It can also increase the dogs confidence because it’s learning problem solving and finding the food on their own. So we provide dog motivation. This is a wonderful way to get a dog to listen and want to do what you want.

How to Get a Dog to Listen

One of the issues we ran into throughout the session was Coco lacking motivation to listen. This can often happen in homes where people love their dog too much. I hate to even type that sentence, but sometimes people give dogs attention for everything, including the things they don’t want. This can cause the dog to offer those unwanted behaviors to get attention. This is the opposite of when a dog ignores you, but not in the way we want.

If you want to learn how to get a dog to listen better, you need to prioritize building motivation. Using different treats that have different levels of value can help as well as giving attention at the right times.

Another easy way to get a dog to listen is to reward the desired behaviors they offer when you don’t ask for them. I like to call this celebrating. Some of my clients disregard this pro dog training tip because it seems so easy.

But celebrating is probably the most powerful and effective lessons that I teach my clients. However, it will only work if everyone in the home celebrates consistently. You need to celebrate often. In fact, you need to do it so often it becomes a habit.  When you do this on the regular, you will find you no longer have a situaiton where a dog ignores you. Instead, they will pre pay for attention by offering desired behaviors.

There are a number of other ways to get a dog to listen and I wanted to make sure I shared these tips in an easy to access way. To make sure the guardians could remember everything, I pulled out my camera and had one of them filmed me as I sat down on the couch to break dog motivation down.

If you’ve been searching for a way to get a dog to listen, do yourself a favor and watch the free positive dog training video below

These tips to get a dog to listen may seem simple but they’re effective if used frequently. These will help Coco practice listening to the humans, teach him that listening is rewarded and will also boost his confidence which will make him more likely to want to do the activities again.

I made sure to point out to the guardians that they need to stop asking Coco to do things multiple times. Since all attention from humans is rewarding for dogs, it’s important for us to stop giving attention when dogs don’t listen.

If a dog doesn’t listen, it tells me that either the dog doesn’t fully understand the lesson or is overwhelmed emotionally. If the dog doesn’t know the lesson, going back to some basic training is the way to go. If the environment or location or situation is too much, moving to an easier version is the best plan of action.

We covered quite a bit in this in-home dog training session, to help the guardians remember all of the tips we covered, we recorded a roadmap to success summary video that you can watch below.

I’d like to see the guardian and other members of the household watch these videos weekly until they know them like the back of their hand.

It will take some time and practice but Coco showed a lot of promise. And his people are amazingly dedicated to his well-being. I’m looking forward to hearing some progress reports as they put the positive dog training tips we covered today into action.