The Basics Of Training Your Dog
As a new dog owner and trainer, you may find yourself a bit
overwhelmed at first. Do not be discouraged by this. It is quite
common and shows a healthy concern for your pets well being. This
being said there are a few very simple rules to remember when
training your pet.
If you can remember to remain consistent, keep a level head and
reward your pet appropriately then you have won a large part of the
battle. What do these three basics entail? We shall discuss that in
the following few paragraphs.
Dogs are creatures of habit. Every part of their daily life revolves
around an internal schedule and routine. They anticipate the return
of their owners at a certain time of day and know that meal times
occur regularly. Once trained, they will even exhibit certain
behaviours to mark these times of day, such as bringing their empty
food dish to their master or waiting near the door for their owners
return. To us humans, this may seem a dull existence but our canine
companions thrive on consistent routines. This fact is very useful
to a new trainer as it can make your job much easier if you use this
knowledge. Why? Because canine obedience training revolves around
repetition of certain actions.
The goal behind obedience training is the idea that a dog will
respond with a certain reaction every time a certain command is
given. This means that every time you tell your dog to sit, this
will be exactly what will happen. To make use of the animal's
instinctive behaviour in this regard, one must remember to be
consistent with training. Go thru the routines exactly the same way
every time with no variation until they are well in hand. If you
tell your dog to sit, make certain your pet does so before moving on
to the next point, even pushing their hindquarters down if necessary
to accomplish this end. This rigid consistency will go a long way
towards achieving a well-trained pet.
Let's now move along to the next point of keeping a level head,
which is also one of the more difficult points. At the end of a long
day of work, you are tired, the dog just doesn't seem to be
responding and tempers can flare quite easily. You may decide this
dog is just one of the few who can't be trained or that you just
don't have the skills.
You might be feeling completely discouraged by a seeming lack of
interest on the dogs part to learn even the simplest of behaviours.
You will most likely encounter this scenario more than once in your
venture at dog training.
Just take this moment as a queue that the lesson is done for the
time being and retire to some less strenuous amusement such as a hot
cup of tea. Dogs are like children and will find the ways to
irritate you for amusement it seems. Just like children, they take
time and patience in teaching anything worth training them for. Rome
wasn't built in a day and your dog won't become a well trained
champion over night either.
Now let's move on to the third major point in being a successful
trainer. The reward for doing a behaviour or trick correctly. This
is a very important part of the training process as it builds your
relationship with your pet and shows them your appreciation for
their good behaviours. Again consistent treatment is important in
training and a reward should be given every time a performance of a
given command is executed properly.
This is not saying to give your dog a food treat every time. While
an occasional titbit of food is a great reward doing so consistently
is not. This would result in an unhealthy pet and be
counterproductive to your training efforts. Rather than doing this,
offer other forms of reward such as rich verbal praise, play with a
favourite toy or petting your dog to show affection. These rewards
will enhance your relationship with your pet and make future
training sessions even easier as your pet will anticipate these
rewards and want to please you.
If these simple steps are kept in mind, your pets training should be
an easy task with many rich rewards. Enjoy your pet and make your
bond stronger while training with these three principles.
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courtesy of I-Love-Dogs.com