No matter what you’re trying to train your dog to do (or not do), the key to success is to start slowly and work gradually. One baby step at a time will bring you and your puppy to the goal, bit by bit.
It’s like grades in school. In preschool and kindergarten, you learn what numbers are. By third grade, you’re adding and subtracting. In high school, you do geometry and algebra. In college, you get to calculus or statistics.
If you tried to teach calculus to a five-year-old, the child would learn nothing, and you’d both get frustrated. You’d probably decide that the child just couldn’t do math—but that wouldn’t be true. That child’s only problem is that you tried to teach her calculus when she’s still learning how numbers work.
OK, your dog won’t be able do math no matter how advanced he gets. However, he can learn all sorts of behaviors that will make your lives together go more smoothly.
He just can’t learn them all at once.
One of my own favorite teachers described this idea as grade levels: kindergarten, grade school, middle school, high school, college. You want to get your dog to college—for example, coming when you call even though there’s something really interesting to chase. But you have to start with kindergarten—coming when you call because the dog already was on his way back to you.
For dogs as for humans, learning takes time. Give your canine companion the time and attention he needs to learn the college-level behavior you’re trying to teach—generally a matter of a few weeks (or months), not a few days. Make sure your dog has mastered one level before you go on to the next. I once read you need 40 successful repetitions until you can expect something to sink in. I don’t know if this number is accurate or not, but it emphasizes how important it is to practice, practice, practice!
