Thursday, December 1, 2011

Canine Training: 4 Keys to Using Diversion

By Regina T. Roby


Dog training is often as simple or complex as you allow it to be, but the most productive approach is to reduce the procedure into a selection of straightforward steps. Whether or not you're attempting to provide basic obedience training or teach a more complicated ability, the most crucial training phase is arguably the elimination and reintroduction of distractions into the procedure. As most of us can recognize, learning is often best accomplished with a minimum of distraction and this is similar for your dog. Nevertheless, disturbances may be used to strengthen the lessons learned and make sure that your dog understands how he should act. Let's consider several keys to using distraction.

Remove Disruptions to Start

Distractions can be a pleasing diversion, but for dog owners during the early stages of training their dogs, distractions can be a real disadvantage. Attracted by a world full of many sights, sounds and smells to investigate, dogs can be difficult to teach, so it's better to get rid of any temptation to wander off the task at hand. A typical example is seen when an owner attempts to teach their pet to sit in the center of an active kitchen. With the buzz of youngsters, the scents of food and the noise from a nearby TV, it's no surprise that the dog could have trouble working on the desired action. Therefore, distractions should be minimized during early education to be able to develop a strong foundation.

Pick the Appropriate Time

Even though many people believe that external distractions are the biggest obstacle when training a dog, internal distractions produce equally as much difficulty. Often, conquering inner distractions such as restlessness, hunger and the need for a bathroom break ought to be among the initial orders of business before training can start. Undoubtedly, a dog that's been alone all day or is extraordinarily hungry will be distracted and less likely to focus on the training lesson. Therefore, owners must select the best time to train their pets. While subjective based on your surroundings and pet, training should take place when your dog is relaxed, attentive and without the internal distractions mentioned earlier.

Add Disturbances Later On

As if to add a challenge to one's training regimen, distractions can in fact be good later in the training process. As soon as your dog has a solid comprehension of the required behavior and performs it easily during managed training lessons, it's then time to slowly add back some distraction to perfect and strengthen the behavior later on. For example, after your dog can sit on command at home, he should be asked to carry out that behavior around children, outdoors and even at a downtown outdoor cafe. As your dog becomes familiar in a variety of settings, the behavior will become much more strongly engrained.

And Don't Forget the Treats

Of the many kinds of distractions, the dog training treat just about the most useful and shouldn't be overlooked. The use of this modest distraction accomplishes a couple of important actions. First, giving a treat to your dog for exhibiting the correct behavior is a nice attention-getter that will focus him on the task at hand. Second, the steady use of treats for good conduct will develop trust between you and your dog. This can be incredibly useful once you've progressed to a new behavior from where the dog may need an extra incentive to get started. Therefore, using dog treats as a small distraction will help you reinforce your training and the resulting behavior of your dog.

Dog training doesn't have to be difficult and despite the perception that distractions are bad, their selective use can deliver dramatically better results than eliminating them altogether.




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