Halloween is a fun and exciting time of year. People dress up as their favorite spooky characters, towns are painted orange and black with festive decorations and kids go door to door getting candy. This all sounds like a great time – at least if you’re a human.
For a dog, all of the Halloween activity can be overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of trick-or-treaters coming to your house. The constant flow of new people coming to your door can make your pet want to run for the hills. However, you can also use the day as a great way to train a dog in your care or to reinforce obedience training.
What you’ll be training is a command for your dog to go to a specific spot. To start, you want to make sure that a dog stays hungry before beginning your training sessions. This will allow your use of treats as positive reinforcement more effective and motivating.
First you will need to set out a sheet, towel or dog bed for your dog to lie down on and attach a short leash to your pup’s collar. In the days leading up to Halloween, practice having your dog go to the designated area by using a command – most often something like “on your bed.” Once the dog obeys, give the dog a treat as a reward.
On Halloween night, do this whenever the doorbell rings. This helps keep your dog away from the visitors and helps prevent him or her from trying to run out the door once it opens. Plus, with practice, you can train your dog to associate the sound of the doorbell with the “on your bed” command, meaning that your dog will be well behaved every time a guest rings your bell. With the high foot traffic that comes each Halloween, it’s the perfect day to reinforce and practice this command.
This is just one of the many training techniques that you will learn in behavior and obedience trainer programs offered by Dog Trainer College. We will show you how to get dogs to behave positively and respond to commands so that they become well-mannered members of their owner’s families. We also now offer this dog behavior and obedience course online as well, giving people an additional option that can be more convenient for the active or busy student. To learn more about our behavior and obedience trainer programs, give us a call today at 812-650-2394.
