What’s Your Favorite Part About Training Your Dog?
Question by Aluka: What’s Your Favorite Part About Training Your Dog?
Mine is the ‘A-Ha’ moment. The single moment when everything clicks and that light comes on and they know what you want now. There’s no guessing, no luring with food. They just GET IT.
I recently had that with my puppy who is in training for Flyball. They wanted her to hit a target with her paws. For weeks I worked with her and she just wasn’t getting it. She would nose touch, but she wouldn’t jump up and hit it with her paws. Well finally in class (I guess the need to show off was in order) she finally smacks a paw on there. I almost screamed in joy (instead gorged her with treats) and by the next night she was jumping up with both paws and hitting it.
Do you have a favorite part of training? Do you just love spending the time with your dog whether or not they actually get it? Or do you love the “A-Ha” or light bulb moment?
Best answer:
Answer by $ arah (account suspended)
Seeing the outcome of all the hard work, and seeing them mulitple commands with no problem.
Add your own answer in the comments!
JVZoo Product Feed
I love when my dog learns something, especially knowing i taught him
I like bonding with my dog. Just the fact that were spending time and just having fun. She knows all the basics so all the things that im teaching her now is just for fun. I also love having all the laughs when she does something really funny. And when she finally does get it, I praise her a lot and she gets really excited
Oh gosh, I love the first time they do it without the motivation of a treat or clicker, its SO wonderful!
Max’s first heel had me so giddy I nearly cried!
My favorite part is when they stare blankly at you and you have to wonder do they get it or do they know and are faking you out..I am happy for you and your dog for that A_HA moment. It is a thrill I still get after years of working with animals. I had a person say to me about all this money they had spent on a trainer and how they still had this one rather major problem..I explained in detail why that method didn’t and would not work..I am all for positive training techniques. It took the dog they thought was so not thinking about 15 minutes of total training and no more problem! I am now the dogs AUNT..as per there humans!
I love it when you think you’re wasting your time and your dog(s) is looking at you like an idiot and then you see it pay off. When I first adopted my mini dachshund, he loved to escape and run. For MONTHS we worked on “front”. My other dogs knew what to do, but Romeo couldn’t care less! One day he got out and almost got to the street. When I yelled front, he came back and took his position! I swear, that was the best “trick” he has ever done! We’re on to more advanced stuff now, but I’ll never forget how amazed I was when he finally listened to me. And yes, I’m like you, Romeo basically had a steak dinner I was so excited!
While the bonding time is great, seeing the rewards is even better!
I love it when they finally get it. I was teaching my GSD pup how to shake paws and he just did not understand what I wanted. Finally I got my other dog and I did “shake paws” with her. When he saw her do it and get a treat he immediately understood and started trying to paw at my hand. It was cute, I think from now on I’ll have Bernice around at training sessions with him.
Yes.
Even when it’s an ongoing thing…not finished, but in progress, and I stand back and think..”just a week (or two) ago, they weren’t even this far….”
I have a sweet little dog whose personality never seems to obviously show the AHA moment..he just does it, and looks up at me with those sweet brown eyes like he has known the command all along. I’m still so proud
Add: I love spending time with all of my dogs, they are extremely smart. I am truly blessed to have them (even if they weren’t as smart as they are).
Well there has been many things i trained my pup to do, and has learned them all over time …. but i would have to say the one thing in training that makes me the happiest is when i got him house trained! He was about 5 month’s of age when i finally got him fully house trained; which i think is pretty good, I often hear of dogs still messing in the house at a year old. It was nice to know that he knew he had to go outside to do his business and the best part was waking up in the morning with no mess to clean up anymore
He is now almost 8 months old and has never messed up in the house since he was about 5 month’s old 
I love everything about turning their personality into something that’s special. Our friends and family think she is the neatest little dog because of the things she can do. We get a daily reminder as she rings jingle bells hanging on the door knob everytime she wants out. It makes me smile every single time I hear it.
My best thing about Training my
American Pit Bull Terrier ( not him in the photo ) is
Using the Tricks in Front of people… show them that all APBT are not mean and aggressive , like they think ……
The best part to me is when we put it all together & we run that perfect agility run. Me & my dog, in that perfect partnership, everything clicking, both doing what we’ve trained so hard for & love. It don’t get no better than that!
both that lightbulb moment — and the satisfaction of the result.
i’ve always seen a certain satisfaction in each dog’s eyes that i’ve trained [to any extent] afterwards — knowing that they had another job well done.