{"id":11262,"date":"2016-01-29T14:30:51","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T20:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=11262"},"modified":"2016-01-29T14:30:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T20:30:51","slug":"security-how-to-train-your-dog-to-military-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/29\/security-how-to-train-your-dog-to-military-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Security: How to Train your Dog to Military Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"tpArticleSubtitle\" style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Canine Connections : Mike Dowling at TEDxNapaValley\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zMeLHZjYOrI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/h2>\n<h2 class=\"tpArticleSubtitle\" style=\"text-align:center;\">A Marine veteran and former military working dog handler offers some tips on how to train your dog.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"tpArticleBody\">\n<div class=\"tpArticleContent entry-content \">\n<p>While training your dog can sound daunting, and after trying to convince my own dog that my bed is not in fact, her bed, or that squirrels are not plush chew toys she should eat, I realize that it\u2019s also sometimes frustrating.<\/p>\n<p>But it doesn\u2019t have to be a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>For some dog training tips, Task &amp; Purpose reached out to Mike Dowling, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, and a former military working dog handler. Dowling also does work with <strong><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/houndsandheroes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hounds and Heroes<\/a>,<\/strong> a nonprofit that provides service dogs to military veterans, and is the author of <a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sergeant-Rex-Unbreakable-Between-Military-ebook\/dp\/B005GG0MT2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201c<em><strong>Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dowling explained that training actually starts the moment you meet your dog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou immediately want to build trust with your dog and be positive with them,\u201d said Dowling, who said that a strong bond between a dog and its owner or handler is an essential pillar in training.<\/p>\n<p>And the foundation is obedience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything spawns from obedience, because if they won\u2019t sit when you tell them to sit or heel when you to tell them to heel, they won\u2019t do anything else,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cIn a human to human relationship they\u2019re equals. In a human to dog relationship you\u2019re the alpha, and that\u2019s important because they rely on you for protection and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Dowling explained that there\u2019s no set timeline for training your dog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt starts when you feel the dog trusts you, and you have a good enough rapport and strong enough bond that they will listen to you, and there\u2019s really no timeframe for it,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cIt\u2019s really just dependent on you and your dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If your dog is getting on in years or came to you with a number of bad habits, and you\u2019re worried they\u2019re too ingrained, Dowling insists that the adage \u201cold dogs can\u2019t learn new tricks,\u201d is just that, old and out of date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery dog can learn no matter what age,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cDogs, like human beings, are continuously learning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s one thing to understand the importance of obedience in training, it\u2019s another thing to put into practice.<\/p>\n<p>You need to do three things when training your dog, explained Dowling: Be consistent, positive, and patient.<\/p>\n<p><b>1. Be consistent<\/b><\/p>\n<p>First, you need to find the right place to start training.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t want to train your dog in your living room, or a public crowded place,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cYou want to bring them into an environment where it can be just you and your dog. Whether it\u2019s in a park, or some place where you know you\u2019re going to have limited distractions. Preferably in a fenced in area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve found the right spot, you need to return there so your dog comes to understand that this is where you go to train.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you go there every day, or every other day the dog is going to understand that in that area, it\u2019s time to train,\u201d said Dowling, but adds that it can\u2019t feel like a chore for your dog, he or she has to enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p><b>2. Keep it positive<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When you enter the training area, you should start off by letting your dog run around and play, you know, be a dog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou enter the area in a really lighthearted way and let them run around and be a dog,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cThen you slowly and gradually bring them into the training.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the ways to keep it light, is to find out what your dog wants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo keep it positive, you find out what our dog likes as a reward, whether it\u2019s a kong or a toy,\u201d said Dowling, who adds that he would discourage food, because if you run out of treats, not only are you not rewarding good behavior, you\u2019re not being consistent.<\/p>\n<p>You also need to end the training session the way you started, on a good note.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you leave the training session, make sure you end on a totally positive note.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dowling explained that you should \u201cnever ever end on a negative note,\u201d because it undermines the work you\u2019ve been doing with your dog, and could cause him or her to be become anxious or confused.<\/p>\n<p>Which leads us to the last tip.<\/p>\n<p><b>3. Be patient.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The worst thing you can do is to lose your cool or take a bad day out on your dog, explained Dowling, which is why patience is so important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t overreact or take it out on them,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to cause stress or anxiety and that can develop into worse things down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Training your dog is going to be gradual, and isn\u2019t going to happen overnight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to take you a while for your dog to learn,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cSome will learn quick, some will learn slow, but if you\u2019re consistent in rewarding them and how you give them commands and what your expectations are of them, then your dog will eventually pick that up, whether it\u2019s within days, weeks or a month, whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, your dog will learn so long as you remain consistent, patient, and positive, because really, all they want is to please you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDog\u2019s like to have a purpose, they want to please their handler, they want to please their owner, but really above all of that, what they really want is your love and affection,\u201d said Dowling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a lot of ways a dog-human relationship is like a human-human relationship but with less work,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cThe only key difference is that you want to make them feel like they\u2019re part of the pack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re patient and consistent with your dog, he or she will eventually learn, said Dowling<\/p>\n<p><b>Read the Original Article at <a href=\"http:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/how-to-train-your-dog-to-military-standards\/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=tp-today\">Task and Purpose<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Marine veteran and former military working dog handler offers some tips on how to train your dog. While training your dog can sound daunting, and after trying to convince my own dog that my bed is not in fact, her bed, or that squirrels are not plush chew toys she should eat, I realize&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,2086,1189],"tags":[4190,4191,4192,4193,1582,4194,874,4195],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}