Bentley's Website
Website last updated Saturday, April 30, 2004
Bentley is learning to be a Therapy Dog and to react nicely around other dogs and people. Therapy dogs visit nursing homes, hospitals, and other places where people need the love of a dog to help them get over their illness. We have been delayed because of a vet check up so we won't be visiting our nursing home until June. This means that Bentley will have more time to learn how to handle different situations, which may be a good thing because he needs lots of different experiences. He will have already learned all the things needed for being a great therapy dog:
Sit
Come
Leave it
Drop it
Gentle
Quiet
No
Off
Heel
In addition, Bentley needs to know how to approach people nicely. We have been working on this, and it is going well. Bentley can pass another person with a well mannered dog without even reacting most of the time.
To train Bentley, I use mostly positive training methods. I don't do clicker training, but I use lure training to teach my dog his commands. We work for short times together, so we don't lose our attention span, and we always end training sessions on a high note. We use treats, the leash, and sometimes when practicing heeling a choker chain.
Our training equipment consists of treats, a Kong, leash, choker chain, and nylon collar. We don't usualy use his choker chain for training. Bentely knows how to fetch, and I use this as a reward for good behavior when he completes his work for the day.
In Obedience work Bentley is working on his down stays for five minutes. These are difficult for him, but we managed it once without a problem. He has only been practicing these for the last week. These are some of the words Bentley knows:
Come
Leave it
Drop it
Roll over
Sit
Stay
Heel
Gentle
Down
Lay
Off
No
Out
Treat
Kennel
Walk
Fetch
Ball
He knows so many others I wouldn't be able to think of them all! He is extremely smart.
Here are some websites that I'd reccomend:
http://pets.ca/
http://www.canadastrays.com/
http://www.kongcompany.com/how2use.html
http://www.apdt.com/
http://www.bowchow.com/treatref.html
http://www.dogomania.com/
http://www.doglogic.com/obedmain.htm
These sites have great information about dogs, training, Kongs and treat recipies.
If you have any questions, comments, or would just like to get some more general information, you can email me at:
dogtrainer@hotmail.com
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