Saturday, July 28, 2012

Dog Training Tips To Improve Your Pooch's Behavior

By Kirk McGee


A lot of people are trying to maintain a clean home these days, and a big part of maintaining a clean home is to keep your dog properly trained. Yet there are a lot of people who don't know how to properly train their dogs, the best way to do that is to learn as much as you can about how to train your dog. Tips like the ones in this article should help you do that.

To help your puppy learn good bathroom habits, training them using a crate is a great idea. Dogs don't like using the bathroom near where they sleep or spend much time, so take advantage of this natural preference of dogs and teach them to use the bathroom outside or in a desired area.

Focus on being aware of the signs your dog gives you about what he does not want. If your dog is showing you he is uncomfortable when meeting new people or animals, do not push him. Your dog is letting you know that he is uncomfortable for good reason, and it is important to honor that. Pushing your dog can cause him to bite or act out with humans or other animals.

While the occasional punishment will probably be necessary, dogs generally respond much better to rewards than punishments. This means you should always show praise and treats for good behavior in an effort to recognize and reinforce it. Additionally, you should reserve punishment and shame for only the worst moments.

Specific feeding habits should be established with your dog. Training your dog to expect that when fed, once or twice a day, you will be removing the food bowl in 10-15 minutes, will lay down a feeding schedule that your dog will adhere to. Soon your dog will be finished with the meal before you are ready to remove the dish.

Research how to show your dog leadership in a way that a dog understands. Dogs are not humans, and do not think as humans do. Not knowing the proper way to teach leadership to a dog, allows him to assume he is your leader. If you confuse the dog, it may stress him and cause him to act out in negative ways such as barking incessantly, biting, or tearing up your property.

When you train your dog it is important to reinforce every example of behavior you want to encourage. Whenever your pet behaves according to your wishes it should be rewarded. This will prevent your dog from becoming confused and establish positive reinforcement associations. Behavior that is rewarded is behavior that will be repeated and eventually become habitual.

One tip to keep in mind when training your dog, is to always reward good behavior, and discipline bad behavior. This is important because your dog needs this stiff structure. Otherwise, it may get confused. Your dog can not comprehend many human emotions and needs a strictly on/off type of response from you.

With all the information you just learned you should now have a better idea of how you're going to maintain a properly clean home by training your dog. You should be forming strategies that you can apply in your household towards your dog and applying those strategies on a daily basis, if you do that then you should have a well trained dog before you know it.




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