Many who are unfamiliar with dog behavior find that training can be a difficult task; however, it does not need to be. Dogs are loyal, affectionate animals who desire to please their owners, which means that they are easily trainable, if one has the right tools and knowledge. This article will show you several strategies that are sure to give you a well behaved dog.
Your dog’s diet plays a huge role in their training and establishing a definitive feeding routine is important. Your dog should be fed at the same time everyday and they should only have a certain amount of time to eat. Your dog will eat their food in the time that you have alloted.
Be aware that you are not going to have a perfectly trained dog overnight. Changing behaviors is a lengthy process that will involve a lot of successes and a lot of setbacks. If you are not training from a puppy, the process can take even longer as your dog will need to both unlearn bad behaviors and learn new ones. Be patient and you’ll start to see results.
Always keep fresh water available to your dog when he is being trained using a crate. One way to do this without making a mess is to furnish the crate with a rabbit water bottle. Just attach it to the outside of the crate with the tip sticking inside. Your dog will quickly learn to drink from it.
Crate training is something that is accomplished over time. First, you should only expect your dog to stay in the crate for short periods of time. As your dog grows older you can gradually extend this confinement, which can eventually stretch out to much longer periods of time without any ill effect on your pet.
If you are trying to train a dog that seems unresponsive and even aggressive, check to see that the dog’s basic needs have been met. A dog that doesn’t get enough attention, for example, will be grumpy and not respond well to training. And of course a hungry dog will be unlikely to respond as well.
There are many different ways to train a dog. Just like all humans learn differently, all dogs learn differently. You should research some different training styles and see which ones work best for your specific dog. When in doubt, contact a professional and get their opinion or seek professional training services.
Repetition is one of the most important aspects of training any pet. Simply showing your dog how to behave one time only is ineffective. Reinforcing ideas is essential, and your dog will eventually be much more responsive.
After your dog training session is completed, finish with a command that you know your dog already can do. This allows your dog’s subconscious to remember that it has completed the days training, and can also help your animal to retain the information it has learned from the training session. It also will help maintain the routine.
Many people make the mistake of calling their dog to them when they are bad. If you are currently dog training, it is essential that you do not do this. Your dog will begin to associate you calling him over, as a bad thing and the dog will want to avoid you. So make sure you are calling your dog when he has done something well.
When training your dog, keep your goals and expectations for your dog reasonable. Just like when you try to learn something new, your dog isn’t going to learn new tricks the first time you teach them. Different breeds and even different dogs within the same breed, will have different levels of receptivity towards training.
Training should be completed in small spurts. Since dogs have a tough time paying attention, you do not want to draw out the process. If you want to engage in additional training, allow the dog to have a break in order to get some exercise.
A great dog training tip is to assume the role of the pack leader. All dogs have a pack mentality. There is typically a pack leader that influences the behavior of the rest of the pack. By acting as the pack leader, your dog will become more obedient.
Sometimes a dog trainer must punish their dog. Punishment does not eliminate the behavior the trainer wants to discourage, though; it merely suppresses it. Canny trainers know that punishing a dog only encourages them to hide the behavior for which they are being punished. It is better to entirely replace an undesirable behavior than to punish a pet for engaging in it.
When training a new puppy to come, a long rope is a great aid. Call the puppy while gently pulling it toward you and praising it for coming. When it reaches you, praise it even more and offer a favorite treat. Soon the puppy will associate its name and coming to you with praise and treats, then you won’t need the rope anymore.
Teach your dog to lay down on command. This command is a basic one that can be built upon. If you teach your dog how to get ‘down’, this might help in an emergency.
Social sessions with new animals should be very controlled and done slowly. Give your own pet great consideration before bringing another animal into the house. Ideally, your new pet’s personality should mesh well with those of your existing pets, which makes it likelier that they will bond.
Once you know the right tools, dog training becomes a very feasible task. Even problem behaviors can be effectively targeted with the right skill set and knowledge. Our dogs are our best friends and as such, they desire nothing more than to make us happy. In turn, it is our duty to teach them skills so that they can be happy as well.
