Many dog owners and trainers will tell you that training your dog can take weeks and months. Some owners think that after a couple of training sessions that there dog will understand and instantly obey all commands. This is not the case, and it can be a lot more difficult than expected. However, dog training can often be made much more difficult due to common mistakes made by owners. These mistakes cause training to take longer, and be more difficult than need be.
Tips on Dog Training - It Should Be Positive:
Dog training should be a positive experience for you and your dog. Don't concentrate on the little mistakes that he does and punish him, but instead focus on the correct or positive things he does and reward him for these.
These rewards can be a 'good boy' vocal command, a stroke or fuss made of him, an edible treat, or a play with his favourite toy. If you positively reward him he will want to please you all the more, but if you constantly nag and punish him he will lose interest, lose confidence and will not want to do anything. So, positive reinforcement is much more effective.
Tips On Dog Training - Why Doesn't He Understand:
People often forget that dogs do not understand every word you are saying, they are not brought into the world fully tuned to our English language! They do not have a memory that functions like ours. For example if you have been out and left your dog alone, you then arrive home to find he has messed on the floor, you will do absolutely no good at all by shouting at your dog or punishing him, he will not understand, they cannot connect between what you are shouting about now and their messy actions of 10 minutes ago.
In order that your dog understands a reprimand it has to be done at the time that the undesirable action is occurring in order for the dog to understand. It may be frustrating that your dog may do the undesirable actions a few times before you catch him in the act to deal with it, you must have patience and persevere, do not give in and punish after the event because it is pointless and will be ineffective, and in actual fact may make matters much worse.
You should obviously ask yourself why your dog is doing the undesirable behavior too, for example he may need a good walk before you leave him so he has been to the toilet and is a bit sleepy and may then sleep whilst you are out.
Tips On Dog Training - Don't Get Angry:
If your dog misbehaves or is not making progress as you would like, do not get angry with him. Dogs are not calculating animals; they do not misbehave on purpose to make you angry. If you are getting frustrated with training, then it's time to take a break, and go back to that lesson at another time, it will do no good for you or your dog if you get angry. He will sense this and you will not get the results you want, a dog will work much better with a calm owner rather than an irritated one.
However there may be particular points that you simply cannot get your dog to do. So, if these points are reasonable and well within your dogs capabilities, and if your training methods are correct but you are still not getting the results, you may want to consider the help of a professional trainer. They will be able to help you overcome training problems, and may advise you on points that you may not even have considered. A good trainer is a fantastic help to someone having training problems with their dog, and can be worth every penny of help and advice they offer.
These tips on dog training are points to consider when training your dog, and don't forget, a well trained dog is a happy dog, and is a joy to own.
