What is the leading cause of death for dogs and cats in the United States? It's a tough question, and to be honest, I wasn't sure of the answer when I was first asked about ten years ago. Upper respiratory diseases, obesity, maybe a gastro-intestinal disease? I wasn't sure. The answer, as it turns out, is much simpler, and maybe scarier. The answer is bad behavior. Bad behavior causes more dogs to be put to sleep, more cats to be turned outside, more animals to be put into life threatening situations than anything else. That is why training your puppy is SO important.

     That is also why veterinarians like myself have become involved in training, to promote safe, effective training methods, and to share information between ourselves and our patients. Together we have come up with an extremely effective method that I like to call "Talk Dog". Talk Dog is simple and consistent, and best of all it is easy for you AND your dog to understand.

     Talk Dog is best explained by example. Consider Max. Max is an adorable 8 week old Jack Russell puppy recently adopted from the pound, and so far Max doesn't know sit from sick'em. The first thing that Max needs to learn is his name. In the Talk Dog training method, the word "Max" should always be a reason for Max to celebrate, because it will always be an opportunity for Max to do something worthy of your praise. In Talk Dog the words Max, boy, and dog will always be separated from any qualifiers (good, bad, no). Talk Dog never criticizes Max, only Max's behavior.

     The next words that Max needs to learn are "good" and "no", these will be used to describe Max's behavior, but never Max himself. The best way to explain this is by example: Max is barking at the mailman, and you'd like him to stop, so you say in a clear voice "Max," followed by a short pause "No Bark." If Max stops barking, it's time to celebrate. Pet Max and tell him "Good Bark! Good Bark! Good Bark!!!!" Always remember to use the word "good" much more often then the word "no".

     This is where Talk Dog diverges from most other training methods. Rather than saying "Good Boy" or "Good Max" which praises the dog, or "Bad Boy" which criticizes the dog, we say only "Good Bark" and "No Bark", which praise or criticize the behavior. The best way to explain why we do this is with the following example: We just used the word "Bark" when we wanted Max to stop barking. To Max, "Bark" means "Silence". Suppose we want Max to bark, what then? We can't use the command "Bark" because to Max, that means Silence", we have to come up with a new command, "Speak". This is where saying "Good Boy" and "Bad Boy" is going to be particularly confusing. By that method, when we want Max to bark and he's a "good dog" and when he doesn't he's a "bad dog" but if we want him to be quiet, and he barks he's a "bad dog" and if he doesn't he's a "good dog". You can see how confusing this could be for Max, sometimes when he barks he's a good boy, sometimes he's a bad boy, and sometimes when he's quiet he's a good boy, and sometimes he's a bad boy. With Talk Dog, Max is always good.

     Now that Max knows his name, "good", and "no", it's time to move on to other words. It's important to choose words that are short (one syllable is best) and that don't sound like other commands or like the dog's name. You would not want to try to teach Max to "Fax", or do "Jumping Jacks".

     Training your pet is extremely important, and if done properly, can be a very enjoyable experience. Using Talk Dog will help your pet become a better friend and family member, as well as a better member of the community, and in our experience, the number of things you can teach your dog is often double or triple other techniques.

Happy Trails
Dr. Mark W. Ford