Dog Training: 8 Dynamite Tips

By Scott Erickson

Using good info and a tolerant attitude, tutoring your pooch can be lots of fun for both of you. Not to mention the benefits of you having a well behaved dog, AND your dog will love you even more than before. You'll see how fast your dog is learning the new commands, which will make the lessons become fun, and something that you both are keen to take part in. Also, it's important to keep your dog out of harms way in dicey situations, such as around traffic, and strangers, by knowing a few basic commands, such as Come, Sit, Stay, and Heel.

Make one person responsible for training your pet. This is important because the dog will find it easiest to become familiar with one person and their training methods because of the consistency of the training method. All the people that share a dwelling with the animal need to know that they must follow the training formula of the head trainer. When kids assist, they'll need to be supervised, hopefully by the chief trainer.

Your training appointments need to be less than 15 minutes, because of the dogs limited attention span. Appointments can be about 15 minutes long, every second day, or even every day. If you don't feel your best, feel free to skip an appointment every now and then.

For fastest results, blend the commands you've been working on into the dogs daily life. For example, if you've covered the Sit command, try using that throughout the day. Remember to reward your pooch every time he displays the correct behaviour.

Since using food rewards offer a powerful incentive to your dog, it's good to use them. However, it's important to schedule the lessons for before mealtimes to make sure that he's hungry, and keen to earn the reward.

Begin training in a quiet environment with few distractions, making it easier for her to focus on learning the new command. If you remove distractions, you will be the most interesting item in the room to your dog. Try to choose a quiet room, where you and your dog are alone. After she has learned the command, start adding distractions, such as having other people in the room.

After she's demonstrated proficiency with the new commands, reinforce them using your body in different positions, then in other rooms of your house, and finally in the park with a leash. Verbalize the new commands while she is on your left or right, and with you standing and sitting. She will soon realize that no matter where you both are, or what your body language is, you want her to do the same thing each time. It's crucial to reward her every time that she's successful with the command. Don't react when she is unsuccessful.

If your dog isn't a puppy, don't despair. Older dogs frequently have longer attention spans than puppies, letting him learn faster and easier. This will balance out the fact that he may have had previous training that was less than ideal, that will need to be unlearned.

Previous training could cause her to link a certain behaviour with the command word that you're using. Maybe your dog is having trouble grasping what response you want for the word Come, use the same training sequence using Here, instead.

Every time that you move to a new location or situation using a newish command, you might need to back up a step in your training. This is very normal, and not a cause for alarm. It's part of your dog learning to focus on your command, despite many possible distractions.

8 Fantastic Dog Training Tips:

* Make one person the primary trainer

* 15 minutes of lessons every day, or every second day

* Quiet area with few distractions to start teaching each new command, indoors is best

* If you're using food rewards (recommended), do the lesson before the dogs mealtime

* Mastery of command? Alter body language, use distractions, change environment

* During daily life, use learned commands to reinforce lessons learned

* Reinforce commands by using during daily life (that's the funnest part!)

* Substitute command words for adult or previously trained dogs

Who's a good dog?

I hope that this article will be helpful for you.

How to train a dog for great behaviour in less than 30 days! - 29957

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