Start right with passive training

Whether you’re working with a new puppy, a fully grown rescue mutt, or an old dog you’ve had for years but never got around to training, one of the best things you can do for yourself and your dog is what I call “passive training.”

Active training is what happens when you get out the clicker and the leash and spend time trying to teach your dog to offer a specific behavior on command — for instance, walking at heel, sitting, or lying down.

Passive training is what happens the other 23 hours of the day.

To get your dog to behave the way you want, you have to be very intentional about which behaviors you reward — not just when you’re actively training, but all. The. Time.

One of the fastest ways to accomplish that is by using your dog’s leash to tether him to your belt. For the next week, keep your dog tethered to you as much of the time as possible. Let him tag along with you while you clean the house, check your email, take out the trash, hang out the laundry, have lunch on the patio at Del’s, pick up feed at the Tractor Supply, go for a walk, etc., etc., etc. If you go somewhere the dog isn’t allowed, put him in his crate. As soon as you get home, let him out of his crate and tether him to your belt again.

While the dog is tethered to you, pay attention to what he’s doing so you can respond quickly. If he jumps on someone, marks the furniture, or steals your sandwich, run interference immediately. If he does something you like, reward him immediately. That instant feedback helps your dog understand precisely what you want and provides an incentive for him to offer desirable behaviors. You’ll probably correct misbehavior automatically, but you might have to train yourself to reward things like sitting quietly or looking up at you for direction. That’s OK. Do the best you can; you and your dog can learn together, and you’ll both get better with practice.

If you feel ambitious, the tethering period is also a good time to charge a clicker, start some basic threshold training, and work on impulse control. We’ll cover those concepts in future posts.

Here’s the Instagram video I posted about tethering the other day:

Happy training! If you try tethering, leave a comment to let me know how it went.