After having a dog for fourteen years our house felt empty when our Lexi passed. We hemmed and hawed for over a year and finally decided to get another dog. As previous dog owners, we were sure that it would be a piece of cake sense we were veterans at this. We forgot to take into consideration that when we got our last dog, we were much younger and had a much higher energy level. We decided that we would go through a proper dog people training class. We signed up for classes and went faithfully every week. We had our ups and downs but dredged on. When P&G Iams invited me to Love the Pet, Not the Mess pet conference in Cinncinati, Ohio, I was more than thrilled. It was a bonus when I found out professional animal trainer Andrea Arden would be speaking! Andrea is author of “Top Dog and Purrfect Cat Training Tips”. I thought this conference would benefit me (and my Gemma) because we get to speak one on one to the pet gurus!

The conference started out in downtown Cincinnati at Washington park. P&G had events throughout the entire park for all pet owners. They could sign up for the Iams Flying Fur Run and we were invited to Yappy Hour with food and drinks. Of course they put our knowledge to the test with fun trivia games and what would an Iams event be without a guest appearance by Pawl Griffin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we were off to the Cincinnati Zoo for a day of learning how to Love The Pet, Not The Mess.

Andrea spoke about relationship based training. Relationship based training is off the principle of rewarding the good behaviors as opposed to punishing the bad behaviors.

Rewarding good behavior ensures your pet will want to do it again to receive their reward! We need to help our animals do what we want and remember NILFF (Nothing In Life For Free)

• If behavior is good, reward
• Find what motivates your dog- Is it food or a toy?
• Consistency- You have to be consistent
• Practice training every day
• Use the same word for command- Sit, Down, Off, Leave (these are some of our words)
• Dogs don’t understand when you use “Their” word in a sentence

Example- The word is Bye Bye- If you say:

Let’s go bye bye! OR We’re not going bye bye! You just told your dog “bye bye”. They don’t know what the surrounding words mean so they think it’s time to go bye bye.

The number one thing that I have found as a non professional is to have patience. I sometimes forget Gemma is only a little over a year and I get frustrated when she doesn’t listen to my commands. We’re still learning and have a long way to go but every baby step is a plus.

After the conference Iams sent us some Shakeables. I use these when I’m training outside because they’re now “special” treats. They make a distinctive sound when you shake the can (which is maybe where they came up with the name) and Gemma knows when she hears that can shake, she did something great!

Check out these great videos about some lucky pets and their owners!!

 

disclosure- My travel and expenses were paid but all opinions are my own