I'm not a professional dog trainer nor have I ever taken any courses on dog behavior. I just want to make that clear in case you were wondering what my background is. I learn through trial and error like most of you.
How do I teach patience? Took me awhile to figure out that one out as dogs do not know what you are saying. They might understand word association and gestures, but to formulate ideas based off a complex language, forget it. Well, not my dog anyways.
I'll take a simple example of everyday life with my best friend. A dog will show anxiousness when he wants something. Some dogs cry, some bark, others will scratch and bite at the door until the get what they want.
I took a simple daily chore like walking out of the house to take him on a stroll as a way to teach patience. My dog loves walks. He loves it so much that once I pick up his leash he's jumping up and down for joy. When this happens, I don't put the leash on him. That is encouraging a behavior that is unwarranted. I sit down and wait for him to calm down, and then tell him to turn around and sit. Eventually, he knows what that means and will respond accordingly. From there we walk to the front door. I will not open the door until he perform the desired action that I taught him earlier. He needs to sit and wait for me to open the door. When we walk out of the door, again he has to sit and wait for me to close the door. If he responds correctly, we then go far a walk. At anytime during the process if he pauses and forgets the sequence, I give him a few seconds. If that doesn't work I tell him to sit and tug on the leash. 9 out of 10 times it works perfectly.
He has to learn, that if he wants or desires something, he has to settle down, and observe my way of submission and calmness. He then learns to behave and he gets rewarded when he does so. I don't reward him because he's cute. My rewards are pleasures in life, like walking, and playing catch.
I found that helpful. Thank you. I use a similar strategy with my male dog, especially when it's time for him to eat. If you're not careful he'll hit you right over. I'd stand there with the pot with their food in hand and not approach his bowl until he obeys the command to sit. The female dog knows the drill (got the male one as a pup last December, have her for over five years), and although he takes cues from her, his excitement often gets the better of him. We have to be firm and consistent even now. Sometimes just stand there with the pot and say nothing until he moves away from his bowl and sit down to wait until his food is dished out and he's given the command to eat.
I agree that it is very important to teach your dog to be patient. Especially when you have a large dog, if they learn to jump and bounce around, they will soon start knocking over things in their excitement, and sometimes, they will even knock over the person if it is a large enough dog, and he jumps into you just right.
I have a very good friend who had to end up giving away her large dog just for that very reason. He was an outside dog, and had a large kennel and fenced in part of the yard to run in; but when she went out to feed him, then he would get excited and jump around and one day he knocked her completely down on the ground, and then he was pawing and digging at her once she fell down. She was unable to get back up because the dog kept jumping on her, and she ended up badly scraped and bruised from the experience.
Her son had always taken care of the dog, and then he got sick and died unexpectedly, and she was left trying to take care of the dog.
If he had been properly trained, none of this would have happened to her, and she would have been able to keep the dog.
