Cascadian Nomads
  • Pet Adventure Blog
  • Cascadia- About Our Area
  • Nomads- About Us
    • Cascadian Nomads Advertising Opportunities
  • Humans
  • Canines
  • Psittacines
  • Felines
  • Contact

Positive Reinforcement Training For Five Worthy Pets In Six Simple Steps | #MultiPetMania

6/1/2015

13 Comments

 
Positive Reinforcement Training For Five Pets In Six Steps | #MultiPetMania: Adventure cat Amelia and Triton Cockatoo Leo (in stroller) with dogs rough collie Huxley, Cardigan Welsh corgi Brychwyn and miniature dachshund Wilhelm.
Typist: Bethany
It never fails. Every time the pets and I are out and about, someone asks me how I manage three dogs, a cat and a cockatoo. At a neighborhood street fair on Friday, a woman came near to say hello to the pets and queried "I could never take my pets out like this. How do you do it?" Ensuring the dogs were focused on their greeting a stranger skills and that Leo and Amelia felt safe, I replied "Well, it takes a lot of training." The woman seemed stunned, "You train all of them?" If only she knew how many times (and in how many locations) I have had this same conversation. Sadly, a busy street fair is not the place to explain my passion for and all the benefits of positive reinforcement pet training. Later, I wondered if I could have done better to inspire her to train her pets than my
quick "yes, of course" answer. Maybe it wasn't so much that I felt gypped in not being able to thoroughly address my sadness in imagining that this woman's pets never get to experience the joys of training and socialization but my disappointment was in that she asked the wrong question. What I would have responded had she asked, "How do you train all of them?"

1. Individual Time
Training time is individual time and separate time for each pet is one of the most important part of life in a multiple pet family. In parrot training, time set aside just for the bird is called "focused attention." Leo is particularly fond of time when I focus on him and only him. Actually, in Leo's perfect world, he would have all eyes on him all the time. But all of the pets love some time in a room, in the yard or in a class when it is just me and them. In fact, every living creature ever loves on-on-one time with someone they love. Training is a perfect way to make special separate time happen on a regular basis.
Positive Reinforcement Training For Five Pets In Six Steps | #MultiPetMania: Training triton cockatoo Leo with his ball while rough collie dog Huxley watches calmly from his bed.
2. Taking Turns
As important as focused attention is, anyone who has ever known a dog or other pet with separation anxiety knows how detrimental too much together time can be. When training one pet, the others are behind a closed door or gate or at home. So it isn't just the pet getting the one-on-one time with me that is learning. The pets who are waiting their turn to be trained are being taught patience and independence. Changing the pack/flock/family dynamic briefly is excellent for the pet's relationships with each other as well.
3. Get Organized
I finally started a training journal! Now I will be able to keep track of what each dog has been working on as well as steps in cat and cockatoo training. Not only do the pets each need individual time but they are also individuals. They don't all like to learn the same things nor do they all have perfect training sessions each and every day. My training journal is going to be my guide to where each pet has been in their training and what we should work on next.
Positive Reinforcement Training For Five Pets In Six Steps | #MultiPetMania: Rough collie dog Huxley, cardigan welsh corgi dog Brychwyn and miniature dachshund dog Wilhelm pose with the pets new training journal
Our new training journal has "Fearless" scrolled across the cover in gold.
4. Handle With Care
Obviously positive reinforcement training is about taking exceptional care of a pets physical, mental and emotional well being. But don't forget that the trainer needs just as much positivity as the trainee. I am taking care of myself every time I take my pets out for a walk.
I am taking care of myself when taking pride in seeing any of my pets succeed. I don't see training time as a chore but I that hasn't always been true. There are plenty of ways out of feeling negative about training time and when the positivity is kept in training, for trainer and trainee, everyone wins.
5. Ask The Pros
The best way out of a training rut is to seek professional help. This can be as complex and pricey as attending positive reinforcement training workshops or classes or as simple and free-from-the-library as checking out a new training book or DVD. There are dozens of pet sports to try and new pet activities pop up constantly. Enlisting the help of a professional positive reinforcement trainer can also help you with managing multiple pet training time.
6. Tick Tock
Time spent training means less time spent doing other multiple pet managing. As I continue teaching the dogs to behave less rowdily when any one nears our house, I recently realized that despite how slowly this training process is, I have spent a lot less time wrangling crazed lunatic dogs than I used to. Even if they never sit perfectly on their beds in silence the moment they hear the sound of a neighboring dog several blocks away, the time I have spent training them is already making my life easier.
Perhaps all of this is still not constructive conversation for a street fair but I might have left the conversation I had with the woman of Friday feeling as if I could have inspired her to be at the next event with her pets. All pets deserved training. All pets deserve socialization. I am proud to be walking, talking, traveling, typing, photographing proof that any adventure with pets is possible. Too many times I have walked away from someone telling me they could never do what I do with their pets feeling sad for those lonely animals trapped in a home or yard somewhere. While it is true that not every pet wants to travel the country or spend an afternoon at a street fair, every pet deserves the opportunity to try something new. Even something as simple as training a few minutes a day can make a huge difference for every pet and the how to do it as easy as starting right now.
Cat with clicker: Positive Reinforcement Training For Five Pets In Six Steps | #MultiPetMania
Share this post:

Tweet


Positive Reinforcement Training Week hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Rubicon Days & Tenacious Little Terrier begins today, June 1st, and continues through June 7th. Our theme this month is training multiple pets so please join us with blog posts, comments, and/or social media shares and conversations about the challenges of training more than one pet. Anything positive reinforcement pet training is also welcome this and every month. In July, the 6th - 12th, the fallible trainer is our theme. Then in August, 3rd - 9th, we will share stories and work done to correct training errors. Please enjoy all of the positive reinforcement training posts linked below.
Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week Badge

Take the Life With Multiple Pets Survey NOW!
Multiple Pet Mania Month begins today! Through all of June Cascadian Nomads, My GBGV Life and Wag'n'Woof Pets will be posting articles and reviews, hosting weekly giveaways and a month long photo contest and other multitudes of fun for multiple pet maniacs. If you are a blogger, feel free to link a multiple pet mania themed post (or multiple posts throughout the month!) below. If you are a multiple pet maniac sharing life with zero to many pets, join in the mass of fun all month long by hopping around, sharing, commenting, entering the giveaways and photo contest and just enjoying the crowds, packs, mobs, flocks, swarms, herds, families and throngs that is Multiple Pet Mania.
Multiple Pet Mania Month Badge
Multiple Pet Mania Month is sponsored by K9 Bytes, Merrick and The Umbilical Belt.
13 Comments
Emma link
5/31/2015 08:51:39 pm

LOL! Your first two points are so similar to some of my points! Speaking of training, I now have to work on my attitude as I am no longer being nice to other dogs, jealousy. Bailie is amazing with everyone, but I was real bitchy and snappy if other dogs came around me in Nashville. Oh well, always something to work on! Thanks for the hop!

Reply
Beth link
6/1/2015 12:10:10 am

I love all of these pictures and such great points! Even though I train my two pets, I'm still in awe of your ability to keep them all under control in public together! Barley is a handful on her own--when we visit my parents, I can occasionally walk my parents' dog with her if there aren't other dogs in sight, but that's only if my parents have to stop to talk to a neighbor or answer a phone or something and not for a very long distance.

Reply
Lauren Miller link
6/1/2015 02:03:45 am

I think it can be hard sometimes to talk to random people about training, etc. Most of the time they don't take the advice anyways. At least that's been my experience. Most just ooh and ahh and then go on with their day.

Reply
Reilly and Denny
6/1/2015 02:36:33 am

For some reason there was no comment box showing up on your page today - no matter how many times I refreshed it. The only thing it would let me do was reply on someones else post - so that is what I am doing. You know - sadly I am finding more and more people are amazed that my dogs are trained - it is not as though it is hard to do but people just don't want to put in the time :(

Reply
Bethany
6/1/2015 02:41:47 pm

Thank you so much for your comment despite the troubles. The comment system did the same thing to me and I think I fixed it (but I am not sure what I did!)

I would think that with more training facilities, training DVDs, books and even YouTube making dog and all kinds of pet training so much more accessible things would be making an opposite turn towards more people training their pets. But your experience is like mine and it seems that the opposite is true. Why? Training SAVES time in the long run and can even save your pets life! *sigh*

Tenacious Little Terrier link
6/1/2015 07:07:23 am

People marvel over Mr. N's tricks all the time too but I'm pretty sure they think it's because he's innately smart vs me spending time training him! I still marvel at how you find the time and energy to train all five though!

Reply
M. K. Clinton link
6/1/2015 09:34:05 am

You are our inspiration! We did end up taking both Pierre and Bentley with us to the BlogPaws conference. I think that you'd have been very proud of us and the boys. They were very well behaved and it was not nearly as daunting as I first feared. Thanks for your advice and help.

Reply
sand spring chesapeakes link
6/1/2015 02:48:35 pm

Those six steps are great, thank you for sharing them with us. Training is always on going, even if you have the best behaved dog(s) I believe you always have to keep training them to keep them that way.

Reply
DZ Dog link
6/2/2015 07:42:35 am

What a great post! I love that everyone goes with you on walks. :-) We need to work on our distraction stays, during training time I usually end up working with one dog at a time outside while the other waits patiently inside. With our foster dog this has become more important because he is such a treat hog we're working on his self control, but him interrupting can make training the other two hard....it just takes lots of patience and time. :-) LoL
Great parrot by the way!

Reply
Clowie link
6/2/2015 09:24:22 pm

You make some great points. My bipeds are often told that they're 'lucky' that I'm relaxed enough to go to busy places with them. They try to explain it isn't luck, but the person who has left their dog at home doesn't really want to hear that as a rule.

Reply
Bethany
6/6/2015 03:05:11 am

Oh, yes, the "lucky" line I have heard that one many, many times too. I wish there was some way to help those left at home dogs people understand that time and love put in is time and love gained!

Reply
Lara Elizabeth link
6/3/2015 06:51:27 am

We had similar ideas for this month! Your crew is so impressive, and I think anyone with a little animal savvy knows that it takes a lot of time and effort to have them out and about with you in harmony.

Reply
Jan K link
6/3/2015 08:45:05 pm

I am always amazed when I meet people with well trained dogs, so I just might ask "How do you do that?".
I loved your #6, because we just had a similar breakthrough too! The UPS truck was in the driveway, and I got the dogs to stop barking like maniacs at the window, and all three came and stayed in the kitchen getting treats instead of running back to bark again!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Cascadian Nomads
    Pet Adventurers

    Cascadian Nomads adventurous dogs and parrot with pet and travel blogger, Bethany Clochard.
    Cascadian Nomads canines and psittacine on a road trip with blogger Bethany Clochard.
    Pet travel blogger Bethany Clochard shares a lifetime of budget travel experience, camping, and enjoying outdoors & Pacific NW adventures with pets. She currently hits the road with three dogs, a cockatoo & a cat.
    Related
    Instagram Follow on Instagram
    Picture


    Follow on Bloglovin
    follow us in feedly
    Picture

    Never miss a post! Have Cascadian Nomads Pet Adventure Blog delivered to your inbox:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


      Get our e-mail newsletter:

    Sign-Up

    Find anything on our site by searching here:
    Click any sidebar image to learn more!

    Cascadian Nomads only places ads for products we use, made by businesses we like. We highly recommend a click to
    visit our sponsors:
    (not affiliate links)
    WrapSit Quad Folding Chair Slipcover
    WrapSit is the ONLY slipcover crate for your folding quad chair. It makes taking pets and personal items outside or on a trip exponentially easier!


    Join us on the First Monday of Every Month!
    Positive Pet Training Week

    Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week
    Hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Tenacious Little Terrier,
    Travels with Barley, and
    Wag n' Woof Pets.

    Picture
    Celebrate #MultiPetDay June 30th

    Categories

    All
    Adventures
    Amelia
    A To Z Challenge
    Awards
    Birds
    Black & White Photography
    Blog The Change For Animals
    Brychwyn
    Budget Travel
    Camping
    Cascadia
    Cats
    Celebrations
    Cockatoo
    Collie
    Corgi
    Cross Country Drive 2013
    Dachshund
    Dogs
    England & Wales 2014
    Fit Dog Friday
    Giveaway
    Holidays
    Humans Who Love Pets
    Huxley
    Leash-law
    Leo
    Multi Pet Life
    Peeks At The Past
    Pet Fitness
    Pet Health
    Pet Training
    Pet Travel
    Photography
    Planning Pet Adventures
    Positive Pet Training Week
    Product Review
    Road Trip
    Scoop That Poop
    Seattle
    Silliness
    Southwest-drive-2014
    Sponsored Post
    Urban Hikes
    Walk Your Dog Week
    What To Pack
    Wilhelm
    Woof-support
    Wordless Wednesday


    The Cascadian Nomads are:
    Cascadian Nomads Bethany with the dogs and Leo at Wilson's Arch, Moab, Utah
    Cascadian Nomads triton cockatoo Leo enjoys the sunshine in West Seattle, Washington, Cascadia
    Cascadian Nomads adventurous cat Amelia enjoying the view in West Seattle, Washington, Cascadia
    Cascadian Nomads black and tan dapple miniature dachshund
    Cascadian Nomads cardigan welsh corgi Brychwyn, Alpental, Washington, Cascadia
    Cascadian Nomads rough collie Huxley enjoying the green at Lopez Hill Park, Lopes Island, Washington, Cascadia
    Cascadian Nomads Jason with miniature dachshund Wilhelm snowshoeing Silver Fir Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, Cascadia
    Cascadian Nomads founding pets:
    Cascadian Nomads Founding Pets: Cockatiel Bobbie Birdie, cats Emily and Gryphon and dog Tynan.

    Features & Awards

    See products on this blog you like? Find all of our favorites on our Amazon Influencer page!
    Picture

    Bethany Clochard (@cascadiannomads) - influencer profile on Dealspotr
    dealspotr.com

    © Copyrighted Content
    Posts, words, photos or images from or featured on this blog may not be copied, reused or reproduced in any form without the prior express permission from the blog owner.

    The Doug

    The Fine Print
    For more on Cascadian Nomads privacy policy, advertising disclosure and responsibilities to our readers and visitors, click here.

Disclaimer
Cascadian Nomads are not veterinarians, behaviorists or animal trainers. Always consult with a veterinarian before starting or changing your pets exercise routine, before traveling with your pet, before changing your pets diet or before using any new pet products. Since all pets are unique individuals, consulting with a veterinarian, behaviorist or animal trainer about your pets specific needs is always recommended.
Disclosure
Every post  Cascadian Nomads publishes that is sponsored by a company or brand or obtained through an affiliation with a media network will contain a disclosure paragraph.  We do not use any affiliate links,  just regular links to a product or company website.  Cascadian Nomads only shares honest information that we feel is relevant to our readers whether a post is sponsored or not.
Privacy Policy
Cascadian Nomads does not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance for marketing purposes. We do use cookies and add-ons, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings or opt out of  add-ons. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.
Copyrighted Content
Posts, words, photos or images from or featured on this blog may not be copied, reused or reproduced in any form without the prior express permission from the blog owner.

©2013-18
BethanyGO Designs


Cascadian Nomads Pet Adventure Blog: Budget pet adventure inspiration through stunning photography and amusing dog, cat, cockatoo and human stories.