Free seminar for dog owners

Have you ever asked your dog to do something and have it do the opposite? Does your dog stand when you say sit? Run away when you say come? Or jump when you say down?

Meren Roberts is the owner and operator of Clever Canines, a Taranaki-based dog training and behaviour modification business, and is very familiar with these problems. “It may be as simple as you saying one thing with your words and the opposite with your body and tone of voice” she says. “Dogs need to be actively taught what we would like them to do as they are, in fact, not born with an understanding of English or human morals and rules.”

Meren says “good behaviour often goes unnoticed by owners – it needs to be recognised and rewarded for the dog to want to do it again. You need to change the way you interact with and react to your dog if you want it to change its behaviour.”

“There are no quick fixes. Having a well behaved dog takes time and effort. The more you put in, the quicker you will see results.”

Meren’s dog training skills come from her prior work as a vet nurse, running puppy-preschool, and as a dog trainer for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People NZ.

Her dog training methods are similar to those on TV1’s popular show ‘It’s Me or the Dog’. Meren says the idea behind it all is positive reinforcement. “Try to notice the times when the dog is doing the right thing and reward it, or teach it to do something acceptable (and mutually exclusive of the naughty behaviour) and reward it for doing that. Dogs will always repeat the things which they find enjoyable, so you need to make the ‘right’ option more rewarding than the ‘naughty’ behaviour.”

To help dog owners communicate more effectively with their pets, Meren will be holding a free seminar at 7pm on Friday 6th June at the War Memorial Centre in Stratford. The seminar is for dog owners who would like to know more about how to have a happy, healthy and obedient dog, will offer advice about how dogs think and learn, and give some helpful techniques for overcoming common problems.