by Carol Coleman

Created on: May 27, 2009

Friendly training methods to communicate with your dog. This article will examine the friendly communication methods used with Dinah, the German Wirehaired Pointer. Dinah is short for Dynamo or Dynamite. Dinah firmly believes in the chaos factor and food. Since she believes in food, that is the method used to get her attention. To date, she recognizes, McDonalds, Wendys, Penguin Point and doggy bag. Her intelligence level has increased to the point where closed ziplocs indicate food and she is extremely incensed when the ziploc contains bobby pins, or other non-edible items.

Dinah has learned to sit when you twist your right hand from palm down to palm up. It merely took a half-bag of jerky treats to teach her. We began with a 6 foot leather leash and choker chain. The choker was around her and the leash was wrapped around my legs. She was on my left side and I pulled up on the part of the leash closes to her choker and pushed down on her rear, firmly saying, "Dinah, SIT!" She sat for a second then sprang to a stand. We repeated the process, with me saying, "GOOD DINAH" when she was in the sit position. If she sat long enough, she received a jerky treat. With in 5 minutes, she associated SIT with jerky treats. We proved the association to our instructor by saying JERKY! and Dinah sat perfectly.

For fun, I taught Dinah the poison trick. It was where I put her in a Sit position and showed her the jerky treat and said "poison" emphatically, followed by no. She caught on with two treats. To get rid of the poison, I blew on the treat. It only took once for her to know she could eat it after I blew on it. Dinah is very good at positive food reinforcement.

Next lesson in our obedience class was down. Dinah caught on fast with that word and hand signal, especially when the hand held a piece of baked liver. When we were doing down and stay, I told her stay, placed the liver in front of her and said, "POISON". Dinah's drool almost caused the nearby chihuahua to drown. In fact, I had to pay the grooming bill for 3 dogs because of Dinah's and my special way of communicating. I learned to always stay at the end of the line and use towels around her. Who says an old owner can't learn new tricks?

Heeling was easy. I kept a piece of meat in the hand closest to Dinah to start. When the trainer reminded me that Dinah was to watch me, I started holding a jerky treat between my teeth letting it hang out of my mouth. I got more doggy kisses that night from strange dogs. I wonder if there is something that would cause the same interest with men? Back to Dinah's obedience and communication lessons.

Dinah learned to heel, sit, down, stay and poison - not only the words, but the actions. She learned hand signals, voice signals and the food associated with each command. Her father (4-legged) and I are attempting to teach her fetch. She thinks "fetch" means take away from Daddy and keep it away from me. We won't give up though. Dinah knows what she is supposed to do. She looks at me with a grin in her eyes and a smile on her face as we practice talking. I am learning, also. I am learning to listen by what I hear and what I see. Dinah makes sure that I know she loves me even when I ask her to do undoggylike things - like obey commands. She loves to sit quickly and has learned that a "good girl" means "I love you and am proud of you". She knows that she is part of the family and has a forever home. I know that I have a companion that will keep me amused and on my toes. Learning to communicate with your dog is worth the effort.

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