The three D's of dog training.
Labrador Retriever Dog Training
When I first started to learn about dog training and I was told about the, "three D's" there was a pretty big light bulb moment that happened. It pretty clearly explained why I was seeing a lot of what I would call mistakes from my dog. It helped tame my frustration. It even gave me more training ideas and drills that I could start working on. It is so easy to forget that our dogs are just dogs. They are so smart and it does genuinely seem like they can understand every word we are saying to them at times. I constantly remind myself that they are still just dogs.
In short, it helped me understand how to more effectively communicate with my dog. I was able to see through their eyes for the first time and comprehend on their level.
Duration
The first "D" comes into play in via the amount of time a dog can do something. Dogs have a short attention span, something I'll touch on later. Having a dog sit for extended periods of time takes training. Having a dog stay on place for an extended period of time takes training. Getting a dog to walk next to you at heel for a long distance takes training. The extended duration of a behavior needs to be slowly built up over time.
When it comes to any of the four basics I have found that slowing working on the duration of a skill is a recipe for success. I have used a timer frequently in training when teaching extended sit or place. I feel that made it easier to increase the duration in an incremental way. I would work on having my dog sit for one minute, two minutes, and increase that time to five minutes one week. Then the next week continue to increase that time to the desired amount. Rewarding the dog before they fail is key in them understanding what is being asked of them.
Distance
"Distance erodes control."
I have heard this comment so many times that I do not think I could pick someone to quote it from. This is fact though. The farther I am away from my dog the more uneasy I get about whether or not they are going to respond to a command. This is because they are a dog with a short attention span and sometimes whatever smell happens to be a foot away from them is going to outweigh my telling them, "here," from 100 yards away. I have to make sure to get their attention first. That is a sure fire way to get success in that situation.
Telling my dog to sit when she is right in front of me will elicit a quick and snappy response. In my early training I would be lost as to why she would not respond, even when I was only ten feet away. Upon learning the "three D's" I was able to gradually increase my distance in training and get much better results.
Distance is also a reason that a lot of owners and trainers use electronic collars. Without going too far into detail, the e-collar provides a way to communicate effectively with a dog at greater distances that a standard leash. I believe there are circumstances that warrant an e-collar and some that do not. I do think that a dog should be properly conditioned to an e-collar whether the owner is planning to use it or not. Then the collar conditioning is already out of the way if a situation arises where it is needed.
"Dogs don't generalize well, meaning if they learn to sit in front of you, they don't automatically know that "sit" means the same thing when you're on the other side of the room. - Stephanie Gibeault
Distraction
My own experience has shown me that people can be a big distraction for labradors. They love people and need to make sure that they say hello to everyone they see. I don't necessarily consider this a bad thing but it can cause mild frustration during training.
With dogs having such a short attention span, they are easily distracted by the simplest thing. With their noses being so tuned in, they can smell something extremely far off that will distract them for a solid 3-5 minutes. I actually consider these two traits to be amazing qualities, dogs move on to the next thing quickly which is why they are so loving and their nose paints them a picture I can only imagine. These traits can also be distracting for them while they are in training. I think it is important to train in the face of as many different distractions as possible. The more times that a dog has seen a certain situation or worked through a certain situation the more likely they are to respond appropriately.
Now get out there and TRAIN!
The "three D's" of dog training are great to keep in mind when training a dog. I have found that when something is not going according to plan, if I step back and examine things more closely, the issue is usually related to one of these common hurdles for dogs. The only way I know to get over those hurdles is to get out there and train through them.
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