Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Dog Training Repetition Works

By Michele Jarvis Wonnacott


Congratulations on the newest member of your family. Introducing a puppy into your home can be a very rewarding and loving experience. But just like deciding to have children, having a dog is not an easy task and should not be entered into lightly. There are a lot of responsibilities that come along with owning a pet and one of the biggest things to get right from the get go is training.

In order for you to really enjoy your time with your new pet, you really need to spend the time in the beginning especially in training your pooch so that you will not end up with a problem child in the future!

So, there are many dog training courses and dog obedience schools that might work for you. There are usually a lot of dog training classes in larger urban centers, but if you live in a more remote area, this might prove trickier for you to attend. They can also be quite expensive and sometimes adding those few extra dollars to you budget might just not be in the cards for you at this point.

However, having a properly trained pup does not have to be that expensive or out of reach no matter what your budget or where you live. You can easily train your dog at home using effective techniques that have been proven to work. You want to start your training early and there are a few key things that you need to keep in mind when working with your pup.

Of course, the sooner you start training the better. And though we know you can always teach an old dog new tricks, it is harder the longer you wait. Remember to never ever give up on your dog and realize that it takes between 3000-6000 repetitions in order to create a perfect behavior.

Young puppies are eager and willing to learn but they have a very limited attention span so that is important to remember. You can't blame a pup when their minds wander when we are trying to teach it something new. The trick is to keep grabbing this unfocused energy and keep the pup engaged in game playing while you are training. As you play the obedience games you will find that your dog will learn while having fun and using repetition is critical to your success.

Try not to let the pup going into the wrong position or that will lead to even more confusion, then you will get frustrated and the whole training session will be in jeopardy. You will both get edgy and then if you find that is starting to happen, again it's much better to just take a break.

Keep things simple as well - therefore only try to teach one or two commands at a time. It is much better to focus on doing a couple of things well before you move onto something else that might be a bit more challenging. It can be overwhelming for pup to be expected to learn a lot of commands and remember, just like a child you need to keep reinforcing the behavior that you want to see. And never ever give up on your dog and realize that it takes between 3000-6000 repetitions in order to create a perfect behavior.

Remember to have a perfected response to a dog training command takes time and patience!




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