How is it that Frenchies have such big ears but many of us are googling how to train your French Bulldog to listen to you? Hehe! I believe we’ve all had the experience when you call your little angel and he just looks at you in bewilderment like why the heck would I listen to you? Many of us have said it’s because they are stubborn and they might just be a little bit more stubborn than the average fido.
I have noticed there are quite a few more behavioral complaints since Covid and I believe there is a correlation between the secluded lives we led and several newbie pet owners. Due to this and my passion to keep Frenchies in their homes, I have started a dog training certification program. As I learn from the best, I will be sharing information you can easily use to train your French Bulldog to listen to you.
What is Classical Conditioning?
Classical conditioning is bascially learning through association and your Frenchie knows one event will lead to another. Once the association is made, he will repeat the behavior in order to get something enjoyable out of it. Sounds a lot like us, right? Here are a few examples of how we classically conditioning negatively.
- Your Frenchie whines when placed in a playpen or crate and you rush to pick him up. Your Frenchie associates whining when left alone will lead to being picked up by my human.
- Someone new enters the home. Your Frenchie jumps on them and then is petted and spoken to. Frenchie learns when I jump people pet me and speak to me.
- Mailman comes to the door. Your Frenchie barks. Mailman leaves. Your Frenchie thinks his barking ran the mailman away.
- Your dog begs at the kitchen table. You feed him scraps. Begging must mean I get yummy food.
Operant Conditioning to Train Your French Bulldog to Listen to You
When we want to change or create a behavior we use operant conditioning. This is a learning process where the behavior is changed with reinforcement or a negative consequence. What this means to your pup is his response to an action causes him to get something enjoyable or lose something enjoyable.
Use Clear and concise instructions
Imagine you are at an event and no one speaks your language People are trying to communicate with you and they become impatient because you don’t understand them. Would you become frustrated with their lack of understanding? This is how your Frenchie feels when his human doesn’t take the time to teach him the language. How do you do this? Provide clear and concise instructions.
Use single word commands like sit, down, heel, come, off, etc…
Your Frenchie understands sounds rather than words. To help him understand you it’s best to use single word commands. For example, use the command come instead of come here or comer over here. Your Frenchie will likely not respond.
Give each behavior it’s own command.
There are two examples where we need to give our Frenchies a specific command. The misuse of down and come is the prominent. People often use down to tell your Frenchie to stop jumping on guests and they want to use the same word to tell him to lie down which is confusing for him. “Mom, what do you want? All four paws on the ground or to lie down on the floor?” Down is the appropriate term for lie down. Off is the appropriate command to get off the couch or to stop jumping.
Come is confusing as well. Come means come to me. Let’ s go means follow me. To come, your Frenchie needs a target and when your back is turned he doesn’t know who he is coming to.
Come=come to me
Let’s go=follow me
Homework to train your French Bulldog to listen to you.
Your homework this week to train your French Bulldog to listen to you is to begin using the proper single word commands even if your Frenchie doesn’t listen. When your Frenchie jumps on you or is on the couch, say off. If you want him to come to you say come. When you’re leaving the house and you want him to follow you to the car say let’s go. You are training yourself first. Next week we will work on training your Frenchie via a rewards system.
Did you find your perfect Frenchie pup?
Start planning for your new French Bulldog puppy to join you!
Need help planning? This is include for free when choosing a pup from The French Bulldog of Colorado. No worries if you don’t. You can still get the same training our puppy parents receive.
Still Looking for the Perfect Frenchie to add to your family?
Check out our available Frenchie pups at our sister company, The French Bulldog fo Colorado.