• Nougat@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    Yes.

    My experience with this one dog says that simplicity, consistency, and immediate reinforcement with rewards are absolutely necessary. We watched a whole lot of puppy training videos before bringing him home, they all said essentially the same thing.

    I have also come to know that in the early training process, if the dog even barely does what you want, treat shower. You’re not only training them “how to do the thing,” but that “this is how training works.”

    Arlo knows lots of words now, and lots of body language. Most of his communication to us is in the form of body language, and it can be very subtle. On the super obvious side, he has a mat/blanket in his crate, and he wants it to be straight in there. If it’s not, he’ll turn circles inside the crate for “fix it.” Or if we say “fix it” first, he’ll turn circles in response. That didn’t require any treat training, because he’s already self-motivated to have the straightening out of his blanket as the “reward.”