Saturday, April 28, 2012

7 Puppy Training Methods Worth Using

By Jarred Riley


Your body language is an important tool that will help you as you begin training your dog. Even more than words, the way you act tells your dog a lot about what you want. Stop talking as much and start showing your animal what behaviors are important to you.

Some training techniques advise that you give your dog a treat as a reward for good performance. This is a great method, but be sure you're not giving your dog a treat every time they perform the task. If you do, they come to expect the treat each time and when you stop with the treats, the obedience stops as well. Instead give the dog a treat randomly so that they don't begin to expect when they get a treat.

Don't expect too much of your dog, too soon. Puppies will be puppies. That is what makes them so cute. The key to training them to act appropriately, is consistency. Be consistent in immediately reinforcing good behavior and eventually, your dog will get the message. Just don't expect them to become fully trained overnight.

Dogs benefit from being trained to respond not just to verbal commands but also to the body language of their owner. Consider, for example, a dog that is approaching its owner from across a busy highway. The dog who is trained to stay in response to the proper hand motion will be more likely to survive this experience than the dog trained only to verbal commands.

Create a bridge between the dog's response to a command and the reward for success. By saying a bridge word such as "yes" or "good", you will reinforce that the behavior is acceptable and the reward will follow. Keep using this bridge word even after training is complete to be consistent with your pet.

Training doesn't only happen during designated training sessions. Every time you interact with your pup, you are training him. Make sure to stay consistent in your commands and requests and to continue to reinforce those good behaviors. If you are training him to stay off the couch, don't let him jump up there while you are watching a show. Stay consistent at all times with what you want him to do and you will see the rewards.

When you are working on commands with your dog, work only on one command at a time, and only say the command one time. Do not say the command word more than once. Your goal is for your dog to obey the command immediately. You don't want to have to say the same thing over and over.

When training your dog, it is imperative that you remain patient at all times. Moving too quickly or losing your temper can confuse your dog and cause him to mistrust you. Without proper trust, your dog will never fully submit to your training and your relationship with your dog will surely suffer.

Dogs often become destructive because they are bored and lonely. Consider a house dog that destroys the sofa while you are away from the house. Consider the larger outside dog that chews up the shrubbery. The answer to alleviating their destructive behavior might be as simple as spending more time with them or buying them a new toy.

Show your dog that you love them and are proud of them. It's easy in dog training to focus on the negative and try to show your dog that what they are doing is wrong. Make sure that you also work to accentuate the positive and praise them when they are doing well.




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