Training system helps teach dog good manners

“Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff!” “Quiet!!” “Ruff, Ruff!” “Quiet!” “Ruff Ruff Ruff! “Oh, I’m sorry about the dog. No Rover! Stop!” “Ruff Ruff!”

How many of you answer the door with a similar scene? How many of you try to answer the door with an out-of-control dog at your side that barks, lunges or jumps on people at the door?

And how many of you do what I usually do – yell at the dog, trying to maintain a tiny measure of control in a sea of chaos?

How many of you wish you had a dog that was polite and well mannered when someone comes to the door?

Are there more raised hands besides mine?

Dog owners often list “bad door manners” as a high concern, and it is no wonder it occurs. Dogs have a natural desire to protect their homes.

Someone approaches, they warn them to go away, and lo and behold, the intruder leaves. It worked!

Gee, thinks the dog, maybe I’ll bark even more furiously next time. And when my person is there beside me, my pack is united in driving off intruders because she is barking (yelling) too.

We take a natural behavior and unintentionally train our dogs to do it even more.

“You don’t have to yell at your dog to get them to do what you want,” says Sophia Yin, DVM and author of “How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves.” “In fact, yelling can make your dog worse.”

“Everyone wants a well-mannered dog,” says Sarah Richardson, Ph.D., CPDT, and professional dog trainer. “Good manners at the door are hard to train because the person is doing multiple tasks at the time, and it is difficult to set up training opportunities for this particular problem.”

Positive reinforcement training involves rewarding the dog for doing the desired behavior. But how can I train good door manners when, in order to reward him, he needs to enter the very space where I do not want him – next to me by the door? What I want is for my dog to be quietly lying down away from the door.

It was these challenges that led Dr. Yin to suggest to the Sharper Image Co. to combine research and design to develop Treat & Train, a system for training dogs to be polite when people come to the door.

Treat & Train is a two-part system.

One part of the system is a really cool gadget, a remote-controlled, dog kibble dispensing machine. When activated, it emits a tone and then dispenses a piece of dog kibble to the dog.

The remote-controlled treat dispenser can then be set away from the door while you control it to reward your dog for doing the desired behavior, which is to lie down and be quiet.

The second part of this system, the part that makes the gadget functional, is a scientifically researched and well- explained training protocol that teaches you step by step how to shape your dog’s behavior to lie down and be quiet, even in a room full of distractions. The protocol is taught through a DVD and accompanying booklet.

“A great advantage to the system is that it allows people to train for the desired behaviors at a time when there isn’t a person at the door and in a way that is fun,” says Richardson.

“Fun” is the operative word here. The system is great fun for the dogs.

“It is very joyful to be successful and to be able to discover that a certain behavior can result in a desired reward,” says Dr. Richardson. And it is fun for people also. As you work through the protocol, designed in a series of games shaping your dog’s behavior, you can see your success every step of the way. You will end up learning as much as your dog.

“The gadget makes it fun,” says Dr. Yin. “The protocol makes it work.”

“I have been training my 10-year old greyhound Zorro with a Treat & Train,” says Dr. Richardson, “and I am impressed with how he gets both mental and physical stimulation with the system. It really turns training into a game.

“He’s having a blast, and I didn’t realize he could still be so energetic.”

Bookstores are full of books that tell people how to train their dogs. I have read many of them and have seen everything from good advice to a few things that make my blood run cold.

This training system, build on solid scientific principles backed with research and clinical trials and combined with state of the art technology, represents a real advance in a humane and enjoyable way to get a well-mannered dog.

You can find out more about Treat & Train at www.sharperimage.com, (800) 344-4444 or Dr. Yin’s Web site www.nerdbook.com/sophia/treat&train.