My wife and I have a 14 week old puppy. When it comes to reading about training and applied psychology, I am a fan and she is not. Odd really as her time at University (50 years ago) included some psychology and my medical training (also 50 years ago!) very little. I am applying the dog psychology I learn here but my wife is is less reliable/interested in applying modern methods. For reasons of our relative fitness, I am the main trainer and she is the main dog walker. So how do we train the puppy and avoid the situation where she (the puppy that is) does what I ask but also does so when she (my wife) issues the commands or cues? Maybe I need to do it the other way round! In short, how do two people train one dog?
Hi @Sigurd, you need the following: Consistency over cues; agreement over when continuous positive reinforcement ends for various cues and intermittent reinforcement begins; common expectations; and for both of you to display leadership and to engage with the dog in a fair manner. How is that to be achieved? Might I suggest you take out a joint membership at a puppy and obedience school that practices modern training methods. And that both of you attend, and actively engage with the instruction. As a couple make a 'constitutional' decision prior to the training of how each of you will be rewarded should you both truly participate in a cooperative venture of building a team of couple and dog. Good luck on achieving a meeting of minds.
It is much, much easier if you're both training the same way, but it can work if you're doing different things too - it just might take longer. In my experience, dogs are very resilient, and cope. Don't come to blows over it.
Hi @Sigurd, I've read on this and other forums that's it's not uncommon for partners to have different views on training their pups but often, when the less interested one sees how well the pup is doing with the positive training methods, they come round. So keep at it and when your wife sees how well you're doing she might join you in your endeavours!
