Train Your Dog The Right Way.
Part of training your dog is first training yourself. An owner who wants a well trained dog must first correct their own behaviors and train themselves. Training a dog is not an innate skill; it is something one must learn. This article provides excellent dog training tips that can help develop a better understanding of the process.
Your dog should be eating the right amount of healthy food. If the dog’s diet is poor, it is not good for their health. If your dog isn’t getting what it needs to stay healthy, it could really struggle to find the energy for training or may act out in other ways. Something as simple as improving their diet can sometimes have a huge impact on how receptive they are to training.
Timing is everything in training your dog. While you want to devote a good amount of time to it, you do not want to go too far. Begin with shorter training sessions and gradually increase the time each day. Try to determine when your dog stops paying attention to you during your sessions.
Keep your dog well exercised and active. Dogs can get bored easily. When a dog is bored, he will be hard to train. Your dogs will obey more quickly if you keep them well exercised. A long walk or a brisk run are great ways to get rid of some of your dog’s excess energy.
Avoid restraining two dogs too closely together. One dog’s chain might become entangled with the other, which could lead to serious injuries. For example, a large dog could tangle the chain with a smaller dog, wrapping the chain around the neck of the small dog, causing it to die.
Make sure you aren’t enforcing bad behavior without meaning to. This means you must not reward your dog with attention or treats for doing something you don’t want it to do. For instance, do not rub its head when it comes and jumps at you when you get home when you do not want your dog to do this.
If you intend to use a crate in canine training, make sure the crate is an appropriate size for your dog. Keep in mind that puppies grow big. Choose a crate which will be suitable for the puppy when he matures into an adult. Your dog needs to have the room to get around the crate and not feel cramped.
Be consistent with your dog training to make sure your animal stays obedient to the rules it has been learning. A lot of owners will train their dogs once and not conduct any refreshers. Dogs forget things just like humans do; however, and the dog will lose discipline without practice. For this reason, you need to reinforce what your dog has learned in training or better still, teach him a new trick every now and then.
If you need to approach a dog that you are not familiar with, approach it slowly and allow it to sniff your hand. Extending your hand lets the animal familiarize himself with your unique scent, making him more receptive to a friendly interaction. When a dog recognizes the scent, they won’t fear you and will follow commands.
Make sure you are having fun when you are training your dog each day. Taking some time to have fun with your dog makes your dog like you more, which means fewer problems when training him. In addition to your daily training sessions, take time out for simple play. Make this uncomplicated and fun for your dog.
Remember it is important to be patient when you are training your dog. Using patience helps prevent frustration for both you and the dog. Keep in mind that dogs do wish to please their owners, but cannot always understand what is desired of them.
Take note of the tone of your voice as you discipline your pet. Dogs pick up on subtle changes in their owner’s voices. An appropriately stern tone can reinforce discipline.
“Leave it” is an important command to teach, starting when you bring your dog home. This little command will save your furniture and possessions from getting chewed up, plus it keeps your dog away from dangerous or unclean items outside.
Introduce social places frequently and early to your dog. Your dog must learn how to behave when other people or dogs are present, and there is no other way to teach this skill. This will help reduce any sporadic behavior within new environments, too.
Primary Reinforcement
If you are consistent, your puppy can learn to “hold it.” When you’re at home, spend enough time with your pet and take him out of the house every hour. When he goes potty outside, tell him he did good. Never scold your dog for going in the house. In the beginning, they won’t understand what they did wrong. Have the dog outside around 15 minutes post-meal or drink to ensure he can empty himself.
Use primary reinforcement when training your dog. Primary reinforcement uses something that is inherent for the dog to love as a reward for good behavior. Examples of theses types of rewards are treats and belly rubs. This way, your dog learns the right way to get what he wants.
When training your dog, it is important to remember to keep the training sessions relatively short. The ideal time to spend on a task is about fifteen minutes. When you exceed this amount of time, your dog can become frustrated and set your progress back. After each time you do some training, spend time horsing around with your dog, and let him know what a good boy he is.
If you use a leash to train your dog, keep it loose. When dogs are going for a walk, they will often want to check out new territory. This makes them excited and want to pull on the leash. Smart pet owners will make sure the pet walks on a leash with some slack to it.
If you happen to be concerned with the dog’s agility, take some time to research various breeds and find the one you prefer. A dog can be trained in agility, but there are breeds out there that are naturally more adaptive for it.
A spray bottle filled with water can be an invaluable training tool when your dog engages in bad behavior like barking, biting or chewing. You dog needs to learn what behaviors are acceptable as well as those that are not. Before long, your dog will no long display these behaviors.
Before you correct your dog for barking, find out why he/she is barking in the first place. When you know what the triggers are, you can fix the problem. If your pup barks when visitors arrive, enlist the help of a friend.
Praise is key to reinforcing good behavior during training. Simple things like smiles, praise and even tiny treats help to reinforce the desired behaviors. Avoid rewarding improper behavior since the dog will relate this to positive reinforcement too.
Learn your dog’s signals to help prevent accidents inside. Dogs will behave in a certain way when they start to ‘feel the need’. By taking the time to learn this, you are better equipped to help your dog learn where to go. House training is simpler when you make yourself aware of the natural tendencies of your dog.
If you are consistent, your puppy can learn to “hold it.” Be sure to take your puppy out for scheduled, hourly potty breaks when you’re home. When he eliminates outside, give him praise. If your dog has an accident in the house, never harshly reprimand it. Your dog doesn’t come out of the womb potty-trained, and it takes time to learn. Yelling or punishing is not helpful. Have the dog outside around 15 minutes post-meal or drink to ensure he can empty himself.
Magazines, dog-training books and the Internet are all great resources to help you train your dog. Chat with others who own the same breed you have in order to gain new ideas. Create custom training for your dog’s special needs.
Now that the people who are interested in training their new pet dog have, hopefully, learned some new tricks, they can proceed to pass them along to their pets. Once a dog is on its way to learning, the owner will begin to appreciate the dedication that he or she has shown for doing the right thing for man’s best friend.
While it is definitely possible to teach an older dog new tricks, you want to be mindful of medical issues or conditions that may limit his ability to engage in some behaviors. For example, you don’t want to have a dog with arthritis to crawl for long distances. Training stimulates your dog’s cognitive functions. This is especially helpful if your dog is getting old. But you want to be sure that the dog does not experience discomfort or pain.
