Week 1 of NO MORE BEGGING

So the training begins. I have to reverse 4 years of behaviors that I have been reinforcing and this is not going to be an easy task.

So one of Mr. Tye's major behavior flaws is begging. I take complete responsibility for this act because he has been fed scraps from the table from me, from my sister as well as my mom since the day we got him. I mean look at that face on that puppy, who could say no to that.

Well that is where we are going to start. I am going to take advice from Victoria on "It's Me or the Dog." I have to say this is one of my regular shows that I watch weekly (even daily) when I have enough time. One of her ideas of training is the idea of positive reinforcement and making sure that it is pleasurable for the dogs.

So I am going to work on "place" training. I am going to teach Tye to stay on his bed while we are eating. I will be using his bed that I would say is about 5 feet away from the eating area. He will be allowed to sit, stand, lay or whatever his heart desires as long as he stays on that bed. I will be using the "sit" and "stay" command while he is on his bed and I am conditioning him to learn the word "bed." I have read that some people like to use the word "place" but I like "bed" so that is what we are going with.

This is much more difficult than it sounds because I live in an apartment full of three college students, we eat at all different times, so Tye is on his bed quite a lot. Well good thing he loves his bed but not nearly as much as he loves his food. So this is the first thing that I will be working on consistently as the weeks go on and I will update on his progress.