Hello! Im trying to teach my dog the meaning of NO but he doesn't understand it. If hes about to jump on a chair and I say NO he will jump on them! It seems as if hes not listening to what im saying. Can anyone give me any tips on how to teach him? 

Hi Sarah, when hes about to do something you dont want, instead of saying no try telling him to do something you approve of  eg if he jumps up on visitors try sit, if its the chair try calling him to you for a game or treat or even direct him to a bed/cushion on the floor next to you. If its a situation where only NO will do, eg in our case its running into a culvert, then put as much force as you can into NO then as soon as you arrest the behaviour call him to do something else in a happy voice. Learning to vary your tone is very important as is really meaning it and expecting to be obeyed, and being able to enforce your command before you give it. How old is your dog?

Try not to teach by negatives, it works much better to teach positives. If when he is doing something wrong ask for another behaviour and then if he makes any move at all toward that behaviour, reward. If you need to correct a behaviour just push him off and walk away, forget the word no, if it is chair climbing make it impossible for him to do it wrong by putting something on the chair or tipping it up.

It's easy to assume that dogs understand english - when infact all they are doing is connecting the sound you make with what they are doing at the time (which is why saying 'heel' when your dog is at the furthest extent of it's lead will NOT teach it to walk to heel ;))  At the moment your dog is learning that 'no' means 'jump on the chair' because that is the sound you make when he does it.  As the others have said - you need to direct your dog, and reward him for doing what you do want him to do instead, so make the effort to praise him when he's lying quietly at your feet (or where ever you feel he should be) - you can use a word like 'settle' while he's doing it, so he can connect the word with the correct action.  Lure him off the settee and get him to 'sit' before giving him the treat, sometimes dogs can feel threatened if grabbed by the collar, so to avoid getting into that situation you can leave a short (6-12" depending on the size of the dog) length of cord attached to his collar so you can manage the situation without getting confrontational

HTH

Do you normally allow him on the furniture or that particular chair? If you allow sometimes and not other times you are sending him mixed signal which he will not understand ....I personally don't care for the word NO because it is used so much. If I don't want my dogs on something I use the word off which means get off of it, if I want them to lay down I use the word lay down or just down. This way it's not confusing for them.

Try putting about 6 pennies in a soda pop can.  When your dogs starts to do something like jump on the couch, pee on the floor or eat your favorite shoes shake the can at them as hard as you can and say "NO" in a very deep low voice  (so as to almost imitate a growl)  The key to stopping their behavior is to catch them in the act. It does no good to tell them No after the deed is done.  The can causes a loud growl telling your dog you are unhappy.  As soon as they stop the behavior praise them in a high voive and lots of petting.  You can even set your dog up by putting something on the couch he would jump up there for. And as his front feet leave the ground shake the can and NO.  After about 6 times the behavior should start to changs..  Remeber at the first change in behavior lots of praise.   Hope this helps

Thanks everybody for your help! I didnt just mean saying ''no'' just for the chairs. It was just other naughty things he does and we all wanted a word we could quickly use! The thing is we never let him on the furniture when were in the house but when were out he will go on the beds and such because were not there to see him. I dont know if we can do anything about that? (he can open doors) I will definitely try the shaking coins in a bottle and see how that does! We do give him lots of praise when he does good things but with wheeler ,we feel, he doesn't know whats 'wrong' and its something he needs to know.  Again thanks for the advice! Very helpful!  

If you want to keep a dog off the furniture use tin foil to cover the seats as they hate it. The trick is to let the dog think his/her behaviour caused the negative consequence so s/he wont do that behaviour again whether youre there or not eg our dog used to dig up all my plants so I made a digging box with treats hidden in the soil and watched him in the garden. Any digging outside the box met with a squirt of cold water from my hidden water pistol, so he would jump back and look at the plants as if they did it! :D My plants are safe from digging now as he never knew it was me who squirted :D

SaraN - 'tohme' (another champdogs member) recommended a book called The Culture Clash to me (thank you so much!) - its about the differences between us humans and dogs. I think that you really really really should purchase this book as even after only reading a bit of it has made SO much sense to me in understanding our older dog and our new pup better.  It would definitely help you with your doggy. You can get it on amazon and if you order it tonight you will have it by monday!

Dogs are Amoral - they do not know the difference between right and wrong like we do. they only know 'safe' and 'dangerous'.  He knows that he's not allowed to go on beds when you are in the house (dangerous) but then when you are out (safe) he has a good old riot.  The book i just mentioned will help with all this kind of stuff, its the best read ever.  It will help you stop sending confusing signals to your dog (unconciously as alot of us do) and start getting the best out of your relationship with him.

ps.. i really really think you should get this book! ;)

Because this book was recommended here so often here I bought a copy a few months ago. It's probably my fault, but I was not at all impressed by it. Dogs are not humans, and a warning against treating them anthropomorphically is fine. But nor - IMHO - are they the Skinnerian rats Ms Donalson appears to think they are. So she reduces dog training to simple operant conditioning. Again IMHO there is just a wee bit to training - and to dogs - than that. The book disparages every other method of training past and present, which I found arrogant and very annoying. Even more annoying is the lack of anything approaching a logical progression of ideas or methods through the book.

To me most behaviourist books take a 'one size fits all' view and Ms Donalson is no exception. She makes no allowance for breeds / dogs that are not at all interested in tug games and have an 'eat to live, not live to eat' view of food rewards and makes no suggestion about how to motivate them. Most behaviourists disapprove of 'aversives', but Ms Donalson goes over the top on this: a jerk on the leash seems akin to murder in her eyes.

I'll freely admit that I have reservations about what 'behaviourism' has evolved into, but I've enjoyed reading many books on the subject and learned something from most too. The Culture Clash is one of the very few that made me wish I'd saved both the money and the bookshelf space.

Edited to say - the rant is at the book, not at you MadMarch. :)

No worries jas - i'm a rarity (it seems) amongst posters on forums who doenst take things personally!

I know what you mean about her saying they are out and out stupid is a little harsh (although she did say taht this does not take away from their good points, as they have many)- but i'm sure i read somewhere in it about differences in dogs in that some will like the tug game and some not. but to be honest i have read sooo much about dogs in teh past two weeks i cant figure out where from!  I do think that jerking the leash is unnescessary though and not good for the dog  - i have heard some nasty horror stories of what it does to them, even small tugs.
I did think her idea though about stopping dogs jumping up was excellent - the cue for the dog to sit being a person patting their thighs (as they do when they meet new dogs often) i thought it was so clever. i always find it a nightmare when peopel stay and undo the training that has been done on a particular thing by encouraging behaviour you dont want!
Jas, would you have any other dog books to recommend? i'm trying to expand my mind as much as possible. :)

Hi Mad March, I can't think of a single book I'd recommend because I've taken bits and pieces from so many. On the whole I still prefer the 'old-fashioned' training books written by trainers to the majority of behaviourist output. Behaviourists are too inclined to tell owners what not to do while failing to tell them what might work for my taste. :) I've always had suspicions about a lot of the 'dominance' and '(wolf) pack theory' stuff that much behaviourist writing is based on and a good deal of it is now falling from 'official' favour. Although it is not exactly a training book, one I did enjoy and that made me think is 'Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution' by Raymond and Lorna Coppinger. Another I liked is 'So Your Dog's Not Lassie' by Betty Fisher & Suzanne Delzio. It is aimed at those of who own breeds that are not motivated by the standard rewards.

My big gripe about almost all training books and methods is a tendency to take a single approach without making enough allowance for individual breeds and for individual dogs within those breeds. And while I would never want to train a dog by punishment only, I think asking most people to train most dogs by positive reinforcement alone is throwing the practical baby out with the theoretical bath water. My breed is most definitely not Lassie, but I always have one or two shelties as well, and I love the contrast. I've had dogs that I've - shock! horror!! - smacked and smacked hard on occassion and I've had dogs that I've never so much as raised my voice to. I've had a dog whose cleverness scared me and her son who was as thick as two short planks. But even with the shelties - the epitomy of trainability - I've never had two dogs that were exactly the same. :)

Very interesting jas.  I have a dog (the border collie x australian cattle dog) and he is soo clever and so willing to learn. however i brought him up  in arizona (wher ei was working with horses at the time) and they were tough there and dogs got 'thrashed' if they chased the horses or whatever. this usually involved being taken by the scruff and wolloped over the nose. its not nice (and i think in most cases) not nescessary because a)its natural for a dog (particularly cattle x sheep herder!) to chase a horse (so i should have found out ways to change hsi behavioru before it began and b) i'm anti physical stuff unless its absolutely honest and not done in anger or in an emotional way.  I study Pat Parellis natural horsemanship and one thing he does do is get VERY firm with horses (when its needed) he states that you have to, as if you have watched horses in the wild, they will let out a whacking great kick to someone who has not listened to the first three warnings it gave.  The one thing he does teach humans to do is not to get emotional as horses never do. everything is very ordered and done in phases. Its fascinating learning it, and interesting in how different it is to speak 'horse' as it is 'dog'! (horses will not do anything for food for instance! only for comfort and safety).

I'm sure the same goes for dogs as they are pretty tough towards each other at times, and although we dont like seeing it, its natural to them, and they are going to understand that kind of thing. I think where it goes wrong is when people dont punish on time and also do it out of anger or taking something they have done wrong out on the dog. my dog Indy (the cattle one) is a happy chap, and is no worse for wear since his upbringing in america. he's tough and was bred that way and is a delightful boy.  Our new pup (leonberger) is soo bright and very chatty and i can see will not really need much telling - however i dont think leonbergers were bred to do anything specific, which is quite useful as shes not going to be going off hunting like a terrier might do!
Not sure if ive made any sense there, but its just a stream of conciousness in response to yours jas!

It made sense MadMarch, and I agree with every word. What I do for getting basic civility through to pups isn't based on a book at all - it's based on watching bitches with their pups and you're right they are tough but there is no emotion involved, no nagging, no anger. An escalating warning or two, then a fright but it's done, dusted and forgotten, all with perfect timing. I had one litter of pups where the dam had read the books - she did not discipline her pups at all, just cried herself when they chewed lumps out of her. Before those pups were 4 weeks old they were inflicting real damage on each other and were acting in a seriously abnormal way. Mum was removed from the litter and a very tough old granny put in charge. It took her less than 24 hours to have them behaving perfectly normally. A couple of weeks later when the pups were in the kitchen with all the adults they had little interest in mum, but they adored tough old gran and acted as if they were her puppies despite the fact that the older they got the tougher she was.

Pat Parelli sounds interesting and very sensible. Has he written anything?

Hiya jas, very interesting story - it shows that children (of any species) prefer to have boundaries and are much happier. (in my opinion!).

Yes pat parelli has written alot - if you go to his website http://www.parelli.com which is his main website (the american one) there are endless articles (read the stallion one its very interesting if you are into horses!) and lots of  stuff on there. The only 'down' on al his stuff is it costs money - i mean if you wanted to start up on parelli (with the first level video and kit etc) it would probably cost you around £200 - however it would be the best 200 you've ever spent if you have ANY kind of 'problems' with your horse. (in fact its problems caused by us all the biting, kicking, bukcing, rearing, weaving, cribbing etc). Just email me if you are interested in it as i can talk about it for  hours! our horses are so well behaved (you would never get ears back from walking past their stable for instance) and they are loving that we are understanding their horse language instead of them trying to understand us!

Different people will "gel" with different authors and methods, for sure :)

Personally speaking, Jean D. "does it" for me. I have put a lot of her methods into practical application -which is for me the real test - and so far, have  got the results i wanted too. I do tend to be quite critical when reading new books - for instance i never took to Jan Fennell as apart from her work being a repeat of other's work, she didn't seem to have much genuine success when faced with problems that couldtn' be cured by eating a biscuit first or ignoring the dogs for 5 minutes; plus she charges a disgusting amount for her advice :D Donaldson i like because she has historically been associated with Ian Dunbar and is one step on from him i feel. I trust certain people where dogs are concerned i guess. In my view, she does use classical as well as operant conditioning to solve problems, but that comes out more in her next book i feel :)

I do agree absolutely that the Coppingers' book is excellent :) Really makes the old grey matter work. I was fascinated with Belyaev's fox.

Lindsay