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Teaching Exercises : Basic Exercises

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Five Basic Exercises

There are many avenues a trainer can take to teach exercises to a dog using positive methods. Starting from the simple exercises such as sit to more complex exercises like loose lead walking, different methods are more suited to each exercise in order to efficiently reinforce the exercise to become a learned behaviour. This essay will cover five basic exercises – sit, down, loose lead walking, greeting behaviour and leave it – and the methods a trainer could use to teach them.

One of the easiest behaviours, Sit, is usually one of the first exercises taught to pups. A Sit comes naturally to most dogs, although for some may find this position uncomfortable due to breed specific abilities or their physical health. The method I would use first to teach a Sit is using luring, which uses a primary reinforcer like food/treats to lure a dog into position (Miller, 2008). To lure a dog into a sit, make sure you first have their attention and that they know you have a treat in your hand. Then hold the treat near the dog’s nose and slowly move it above the nose and back towards their tail, luring them with the treat.

While it may seem easier to just physically move or place the into position, a compulsive method called modelling, this a) will not teach them to think for themselves, b) might scare them and c) they might not be offering the behaviour because they are in pain and pushing them into position might be causing them pain (Miller, 2006).

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