Don’t let your dog train you! Use these tips to help turn your pet into a responsive and obedient member of your family. Dogs are a big responsibility, but once they have been trained successfully, they serve as priceless, loving companions. Follow the simple strategies in this article to turn your dog into a best friend.
Dog owners should learn to listen to their pets. When a dog indicates that he is uncomfortable in a situation, such as with another dog, it’s never good to push him further than he wants to go. Take a step back and re-evaluate the situation, or come back to it at a later time.
If you don’t have the time, money or inclination to take your naughty dog to a professional trainer, you can obedience train your pooch at home to turn him into a well-behaved family member by following a few simple tips. Within a matter of weeks, your dog should be able to “sit,”� “stay,”� and “come”� on demand. Some dogs learn at faster rates than others, but prepare yourself to be patient. Use positive reinforcement in the form of praise and treats to reward your dog each time he listens. If he makes a mistake, correct him in a firm voice without yelling. Limit your training to a few short sessions per day, approximately 10 minutes each. Make sure you are in a quiet room or yard with no distractions. Be consistent with your hand signals and verbal instructions. Once your dog has mastered these simple commands, it’s time to train him how to fetch your slippers and bring you breakfast in bed!
When training your dog, it is important to add play into the training sessions. This will help keep your dog interested. Play with his toy and show him how much fun you are having. This will help a dog with low motivation to stay interested. When you want him to take a toy, don’t shove it at him, make him take it from you.
Setup a solid plan for what you want to accomplish with your dog training. If you have goals marked on your calendar it can give you a way to measure your progress with the dog training, and offer you hints about whether or not you would need to change anything in your routine.
Make your dog training fun for both you and your animal. If you are not having fun then more than likely, your dog is not either. This can lead to you both having a bad experience. The more fun you can make your dog training the faster it will go for both of you. Try to look at dog training as a game, and not as a chore.
Consider moving your voice up or down in a specific manner associated with individual commands, to help your dog remember them better. Dogs are fantastic at understanding pitch differences, even more than understanding the sounds of the words. So if you alter your voice slightly when you say a certain command, the dog will be more likely to remember what to do.
If you have a dog with separation anxiety, you can train him out of this anxiety by varying your routine. If you act like you’re leaving the house, but then don’t or store your jacket in the car instead of the closet, you can break the cycle of actions, that get the dog hyped up with anxiety to begin with.
Get in the habit of only giving your dog a direct command one time. It will seem easy to just repeat it over and over until he responds, but don’t do that. Instead, revisit the training until your dog understands that you expect him to react the first time you say something.
If you’re tired of your dog pulling on the leash while walking with you, here’s a simple training method. Take your leashed dog to an outside place that is familiar to both of you – such as the backyard – then begin to walk. If your pet stays beside you, right at your thigh, reward it with a treat. If the animal rushes forward, stop walking. If it wanders off for some reason, say “let’s go” in an upbeat way and turn and walk another way. When it catches-up with you, give it a treat, and if it doesn’t catch-up, pull gently on the leash until it gets the point. In this way, you reward good behavior and don’t have to be unduly harsh for bad behavior.
Train your dog so that living together is fun for both you and your dog. Living with a dog should not be a hardship, but it can be if you don’t take the time to research the type of training a dog understands. A dog does not think like a human, so learning how to train in a way they understand will make it easier for both of you.
To train your dog to stop begging for human food, you should completely ignore him when you are eating. If you pay attention to him, he will think he has a chance of getting your food, and therefore he will never stop begging. If you ignore him during your mealtime, he will soon learn that begging is pointless and stop.
When puppies are little, they might develop biting habits which can easily be solved by placing a chew toy by your dogs mouth whenever he or she begins to nip at you. This will quickly teach your puppy that it is allowed to bite at toys but not at you.
If you can stick to the tips in this article, your dog will show improvement. Training your dog can be an enjoyable part of ownership. It will be difficult, frustrating, and dirty at times, but if you keep at it, your pooch can learn to be a pleasant and helpful companion.
