How To Train
Using Your Dog's Personality
This type of
training is effective because it takes the dogs natural tendencies
and just reinforces them and focuses them into proper channels. Let
us now look at some of the behaviour and personality traits that can
be advantageous to training.
For Curious
dogs, it is quite easy to train in all manner of tricks and
behaviours. These dogs are naturally inquisitive and can be taught
such tricks as opening and closing doors or fetching cold drinks
from the refrigerator. An easy trick for this dog is fetching ones
slippers or even bringing you the food dish at your dog's meal
times. These dogs love to perform so give them lots of chances to do
so. They are most easily trained by giving them a challenge to work
out. Perhaps hiding a treat under a box or playing games such as
hide and seek with them. These dogs are excellent for tracking once
they learn to focus their attentions.
The Aggressive
dog can be a bit harder to tame but does have its useful areas. A
dog with aggressive tendency will be very defensive of its master,
including the master's house and belongings. This animal should be
trained with this thought in mind but it is of great consequence to
also teach this animal proper outlet for its aggression and also,
when enough is enough. In other words, clearly and consistently
teach the no and leave it commands or you run the risk of finding
this dog mauling a neighbour’s child for getting too close to the
fence.
The Friendly
dog is a pure pleasure to train as they truly want to please you and
will do almost anything to gain your attention and approval. These
dogs are wonderful companions and are awesome when trained for
specialized uses such as visiting nursing facilities or hospitals in
a pet therapy usage. These dogs do require a bit of training in how
to contain their sometimes over friendly advances and must be taught
the "down" commands and the "lick / no lick" commands as their warm
personalities can be a bit overpowering for some peoples liking.
The Shy or
Reclusive dog will be in adventure to train, as first you have to
find the pet. This animal will make it a point to stay out of your
reach and usually out of your sight. These animals can be stubborn
during the training process and they must be taught to answer when
called. Leash training most easily facilitates this with a lot of
rewards for appropriate behaviour. Negative reinforcements rarely
work with these animals, as they perceive this is a further reason
to avoid your presence.
The Nervous or
Easily Frightened dog is very similar in training technique to the
Shy pet. They require patience and understanding during training and
much in the way of positive reinforcements. Avoid using negative
reinforcements unless a particular behaviour could prove immediately
harmful to you, the pet or another individual. This animal will not
respond well to negative reinforcements and these will damage the
trust relationship between you and the pet. Trust is a very
important issue with these animals and this must be established
before any other training will have any effectiveness. These dogs
almost always have had prior abuse or neglect issues.
Learn as much
as possible about the past of the animal and find what behaviours
trigger the fear responses of the animal. For example, if you raise
your hand when you say "no" and the dog whimpers, drops to the
ground or tucks its tail and runs, you can safely assume someone has
struck this dog at least once. If this is the case, modify your
training behaviours and hand movements to be less threatening to the
animal. Perhaps, instead of raising your hand with the command, just
give the verbal cue. This still implies the same lesson to the
animal without producing fear, which is contraindicated in training.
After the dog learns to trust you, hand gestures can be added later
at the animal's comfort level.
As we
discussed before, each animal is different and you may see traits of
any or all of these personality types in your pet. You should use
this knowledge to modify your training and achieve a happier,
healthier bond between you and your pet by reinforcing the animal's
own personality.
Recommended Resource Dog Trainer Pro
Dog Article
courtesy of I-Love-Dogs.com