How to motivate and praise a dog?
How to praise a Staffordshire Terrier?
The key to successfully training your Staffordshire Terrier will be to find what he enjoys or what he loves to do. Because all this should be used both to motivate your dog and as a reward for a job well done.
Many amstaffs get excited at the sight of food. Most staffs love to play. All Staffordshire Terriers are oriented towards us, their owners, quickly reading our mood based on our posture, facial expression and tone of voice. And, of course, most dogs enjoy being touched and stroked.
First determine what type of food will make your dog the most excited, and then determine how it should be given. If you have already chosen a treat for future use, do not forget to exclude it from your amstaff's daily diet.
As an alternative to food, experiment to find out what kind of toy your dog likes to play with. What words of yours, tone of voice and body language resonate with your Stafford. Work on figuring out where your dog most likes to be touched. These are all critical to getting your dog motivated to do something and then rewarding it once it's done. Be creative when you train your dog - his biggest reward could be doing tricks for you, swimming or walking with you - this can also be used as a reward when possible.
Steps to motivate and praise your amstaff
Choose a quiet place in the house to help your dog concentrate. Take a favorite reward (a treat or a toy) for your dog and it will motivate him to do things for you.
Start your dog session with you and facing you. If your dog tends to wander, you can use a leash for more control.
Dogs willingly repeat those actions that they find useful or that are followed by a reward. They will also begin to find doing previously boring activities rewarding if they are always followed up with something that the dog likes or likes to do. Thus, training a dog with reward-based methods has a domino effect.
You will need to understand how to use motivators and rewards to get the most out of your amstaff. You also need to regularly evaluate these rewards and understand when you might need to change them. A piece of dry food can be reward enough for a dog practicing a known behavior in a familiar environment. But something tastier might be needed to teach her a new behavior or perform a known behavior in a more distracting environment. A tasty sausage is not likely to be good enough to bring your dog back when he just spotted a running squirrel or cat - that might require playing "toy chase" with you. It is always worth teaching your dog to play games with a toy.
If you're having a hard time getting your dog to play with you, consider using a longer toy so it doesn't overshadow the dog and brings the toy to life.
It is also important to teach your dog to give away a toy when asked, as this skill will carry over into everyday life. It's much easier to ask your dog to come up to you to hand over the remote control he just stole than to chase him!
Please note that there are many different ways to train a dog. The one described above is just one of the teaching methods. If you have any doubts while training your dog, please seek professional advice.
© Tatyana Lazko, co-owner of the American Staffordshire Terrier kennel "Strider in Diversity kennel"
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