The “TCC” of Dog Training and why it is so fundatmental in obedience training for your dog.
When training dogs there are many areas that are important, and each area can have an impact on the quality of training and your dog’s ability to understand what you want and what they are learning.
At K9 Culture Dog Training in Dallas, Texas, we use the acronym of “TCC” to stress three components that are each important on their own but when combined they are even more meaningful as well as impactful for your dog’s understanding in obedience and manners training.
TCC means: Timing, Communication and Consistency.
Timing to reward or correct a dog needs to be within 1 SECOND or less of the behavior. Do not confuse the word “correct” with punish, they ARE two completely different terms and actions. Probably the most misunderstood or intentionally twisted term in the dog training world is the word “correct.”
A correction SHOULD mean communicating to the dog when they do something incorrect and showing them how to do it correctly. Unfortunately, there are some groups or training philosophies that misinterpret the word “correct” to mean punish. To be clear, punishment as a form of training is not a proper method of training. But if you do not correct the dog when they are doing something incorrect, you hinder their learning. Which comes to point number 2: Communication.
Communication is critical. It is unfair to the dog to expect them to try and figure out what we are wanting them to do. Good dog training shows them what to do, how to do it and then repeats the process in a fun and engaging manner over and over. After you are certain they understand it, then you put it on a verbal Que and then continue the repetitions on Que to improve reliability and understanding. Communication and Repetition creates understanding.
Communication isn’t just verbal, it includes a lot of body language and part of this language is learning what not to do with your body so your body language does not inadvertently send a conflicting message to your dog that you were not aware of. Your dog is always watching you, make sure your body “talk” is communicating and reinforcing what your expectation or command is, otherwise you will have a confused dog.
Consistency is fairly straight forward in dog training. Have consistent expectations so your dog knows how to “win” and be consistent in your expectations so you can expect CONSISTENCY from your dog. If you are inconsistent in how you say a command or at what times you are serious about about training and when you are not, your dog will begin to pick up your inconsistencies and will either get confused or learn sometimes they have to obey and sometimes they do not.
Being inconsistent with your expectations and how you want things done is not fair to your dog. It would be like having no curfew for your teenager but sometimes you get upset with them if they come home at 11:00 PM and sometimes you do not mind if they come home at 1:30 AM. You will end up with a teenager that learns to push the boundaries for he does not know precisely where they are. Your dog will learn to do the same!
When we train dogs at our training facility in Carrollton, TX we ALWAYS use TCC: Timing, Communication and Consistency and teach our clients how to reinforce that when they go home in their everyday lives.
The K-9 Culture Family
A Dog That Is A JOY To Live With!
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