How to Teach Your Min Pin Almost Anything

Being consistent teaches your dog what it is that you want it to do. If you're like most dog owners, you want your dog to act appropriately in the house (chewing on only its toys and refraining from pottying in the house, e.g.). You probably also want your dog to interact well with people by not jumping on or barking at visitors. Your dog does not know these things until you teach it how to act.

Dogs are good at putting together (e.g, cause and effect). If you are trying to teach it to not jump on visitors, you might command it to "down" and "stay" every time the doorbell rings. When it does, you give it a treat, as discussed below in reinforcement. Soon, the dog will understand what it is you want it to do. Because min pins are very intelligent, the dog learning what you want it to do happens quickly. In fact, this can occur in as few as 2-3 times. Getting the dog to do the behavior every time just because you command it, however, can be a slower process. That is where the next two sections, reinforcement and repetition, apply.

Reinforcement teaches your dog what will happen if it does or does not do what you are asking it to do. Reward or punishment is the strongest tool you have to train your dog. The key here is to identify your dog's favorite and least favorite things. Food is an obvious favorite for most dogs. Choosing a food that you can keep close at hand is important. For example, I simply use 2-3 kernels of kibble. It doesn't need to be refrigerated, and thus can be taken on trips, and is always on hand at our house. For some reason, if it comes out of the "treat bowl" instead of out of their feed sack, it is absolutely wonderful. I think it's hilarious to watch them do tricks and go wild for just a piece or two of kibble right after they have eaten a whole bowl of it.

I must admit that I have been outsmarted by my miniature pinschers. More than once. Here is one story. When I brought Zeus home, he was so little that I thought he was too young to learn commands. I had been trying for months to teach him, "no," but he didn't understand. Since he didn't understand that, I thought there was no use trying to teach him other commands. Then I thought of using a water gun for reinforcement. It only took once, and I found out that he had likely known what "no" meant for quite some time.

Here is one way we have implemented negative reinforcement. Our dogs, like most, would like to bark at other dogs. One of my neighbors has had hunting dogs for years, but my dogs and theirs never paid any attention to each other. However, for some reason unbeknown to me, my dogs started barking at the neighbor's dogsrepeatedly. Every time I let our dogs out, it sounded as if a vicious dog fight had ensued. (The barking was from my two dogs; the neighbor dogs were silent.) I knew it was time to purchase the supersoaker. Now, we can get them to stop barking on command. In fact, they have learned the phrase, "Don't make me get the water gun."

You should only punish your dog if it knows why it is being punished. The goal of reinforcement (positive or negative) is to change future behavior. If the dog has no idea why it's being punished, it can't change its behavior. The decision of whether or not to punish can be a fine line, though. Don't under-estimate your dog's memory.

A perfect example of this was when we were having trouble with Zeus shredding toilet paper. We had read that if you don't catch your dog doing wrong within 5 minutes of it committing the crime, you shouldn't punish it because it won't remember what it did. So, we didn't punish him unless we knew the shredding was recent. One day, I came home, let Zeus out of his crate, and walked down the hall by the bathroom. Zeus was following. As we approached the bathroom door, he screeched to a halt. I peeked around the corner and sure enough, the floor was littered with shredded toilet paper. By the time I turned around to look at him, he was hiding out in his crate. Zeus had out-smarted me again.

Here is an example of when not to punish. Athena is our Houdini dog. I think she can escape from most anywhere. Fortunately for us, she chooses not to run away. One instance of this is when we were taking them to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve near our home in Oklahoma. I needed to go in the visitor's center to get a trail map, but it was a nice day and so I thought I could leave the dogs in the car with the windows rolled down since they were tucked safely in their car carriers. However, as I found out later, Athena proved that the car carriers were not inescapable. When I came back, she was sitting in the front seat (my seat) happily waiting for my return. She had unzipped her carrier from the inside! I didn't punish her for getting out of her carrier because she would not have connected the scolding with her mischief. She wouldn't have understood why I was mad when she was so happy to see me. As you can see from these two examples, it is sometimes difficult to decide whether or not to punish. Many times it is a judgment call. There is one thing to keep in mind: if what you are doing is not working, you might want to try something else.

Repetition solidifies a command and demonstrates your authority over the dog. Any dog can learn any trick given enough repetition-if it is physically capable and the trick does not hurt the dog. Min pins, as a rule, have dominant temperaments. At obedience, school, Zeus seemed excessively dominant. In fact, the dog trainer said that she had never seen a more stubborn dog. We asked how to teach a dog to play dead, and she told us that Zeus was too stubborn, and it couldn't be done. Then she showed the rest of the class how to teach it. But, we were determined to teach this trick, and we worked on it 5 minutes a day every day. A year later, he would finally do it! I think the trainer was correct in one way-Zeus was very stubborn; however, we just had to be more stubborn than Zeus was.

We did not know how thankful we would be for having taught him this trick. This is because we later learned that Zeus doesn't have dominance issues, but he does have aggression issues, and the "dead dog" trick has been a miracle in dealing with Zeus. It seems that it is impossible for Zeus to be aggressive when he is lying on his back. So, if he is growling, we use the "dead dog" command, and the growling immediately stops as he rolls on his back.

Proper training is essential to your pet's safety, and repetition may make the difference between obedience and injury to your min pin. Once, one of our back yard gates had been left open. Zeus was between me and the open gate. I called him, and he started to come, but then, he realized that he had a choice. He looked at me then the gate. He repeated this once or twice. Then he started to trot to the gate. After I muttered a few choice words to myself, I repeated the command firmly, and (thank goodness) he came back. We immediately started remedial sessions on the "come" command. Like the "dead dog" trick, we worked on "come" 5 minutes a day, and after several months of training, he now reacts to it without thinking. I would like to mention that most dogs (even most min pins) are not as stubborn as Zeus, and so it will probably take less repetition (weeks or months instead of months or years) to engrain a desired command. With the core commands, come, sit, stay, heel, and the release command, e.g., whatever length of time it takes to solidify those commands is worth the effort. It will make the difference between having an enjoyable pet or an uncontrollable animal.

One of my min pins, Athena, is an escape artist. I have learned how to recapture her; however, I learned this through a dangerous route. I hope I can spare you the potential grief.

We were coming home from our walk one day, and I tugged on Athena to "come along." To my surprise, I found myself tugging on an empty harness. I panicked, and started chasing after her. She thought this game of "chase" was the most fun game she had ever played. I tried to keep her off the busy residential street on which we live by standing between her and the street, but she figured this out. She started darting by me and running into the street. I, of course, darted out into traffic right after her (not recommended, by the way). After about an hour of trampling through several neighbors' front and back yards, making many vehicles come to a screeching halt, and my heart stopping at least a dozen times, a friend and some neighbors stopped, and they had treats. We finally caught her and took her to safety.

The lesson in this case: be smarter than the dog. Now, if she escapes, which she occasionally does despite my best efforts, I simply turn my back on her, and she comes back to get me-to play our game of chase, of course. I can then scoop her up and return her to captivity.

Redirection is a powerful tool. It teaches your dog what to do, as well as what not to do. The best example of when to use redirection is when your dog is chewing on something inappropriate. Your dog, especially a puppy, will chew. It is a fact of life. Thus, teaching it what to chew is important. In a gruff voice you say "no." Then, in a high-pitched, sweet voice, say "chew this" and give your dog a toy or other appropriate chew. Tone of voice is as important as the words you speak.

Sometimes, it is best to remove the temptation. When we moved to a new house, Zeus started pooping in the spare bedroom. I was bewildered because he hadn't messed in the house in years. When I caught him in the act, I said gruffly, "no." Then I carried him outside and told him to do his business. He watched me suspiciously the entire. I suspect that he thought I was going to scold him. Then I gave him a treat, and he was totally bewildered. From his actions, I'm guessing that he didn't see the spare bedroom as part of the house because we rarely went in there. He just thought it was a nice, warm place to do his business. Since he was so bewildered, we just started keeping the door shut.