| alaskayorkie | 08-23-2012 10:05 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blessedbee
(Post 4000618)
I have had some pretty smart dogs and I did not necessarily find this to be true. They were all big dogs, though. Are the small ones more stubborn? Maybe so....
| This may just be my perception, but I think small dogs can appear more stubborn than big dogs because they tend to have a natural fear of their surroundings. They're the littlest life form in their world, and there's a lot of things that can hurt them.
My feeling is that you have to be even more positive in training a small dog than you would a big dog. You don't want to do anything to scare them. It has to be fun, and I think the best training is when you make them WANT to do the behavior instead of MAKING them do it.
But I'm just an amateur. I've never really trained a big dog and have only tried my hand at training two little dogs. My little dogs are very well behaved, though, and are both therapy dogs.
And as long as I'm blathering on, Blessedbee, you mentioned you hadn't taught stay yet. The way I learned was to put them in a sit, then stay right next to them. Don't put any distance between you and the dog. Say "stay," and maybe put a hand out to indicate stay, wait 15-30 seconds and say "good dog" and give a reward. Build up the amount of time you make them stay before worrying about distance. | 