Having a dog can be one of the great joys in life. But when they aren’t acting the way you want them to, they can also be the most frustrating. Don’t lose heart; there are some effective ways to get your dog to behave. Here are some good ways to start training your dog.
Consider using a crate when house training your dog. Because dogs do not like to eliminate where they eat or sleep, keeping your dog in a crate at night or when you are away works with a dog’s natural instincts. Be sure to let your dog out regularly and on a consistent schedule to make crate training effective. Given time, a crate trained dog is much less likely to have accidents inside.
A great dog training tip is call your dog by its name when you are trying to get its attention. You must have a good response from your dog in order to have a proper amount of control. Do this ten times per day. In addition, you should never punish your dog for coming to you when you call its name.
Start potty training as soon as possible. While an eight week old puppy will not have the vaccines required to go outside for long periods of time, they can have short trips outside to learn how to do their business. Every time they do their business, treat and praise excitedly. Your puppy will be a potty champion in no time.
Be a leader first and a “friend” second. From the moment you bring your dog home or begin to train him, you must constantly be leading. Attitude is your key to successful dominance and alpha behavior. Giving in to the playful side of your pet degrades the role you should be creating for your dog.
You shouldn’t wait for bad behaviors to start to begin preemptively addressing them. Most new dog owners can expect at least one bad behavior to crop up during their time as a dog owner! Start addressing inappropriate soiling, destructive chewing and separation anxiety as if they’re likely to happen, and make sure your environment makes those things hard to occur!
Dogs benefit from being trained to respond not just to verbal commands but also to the body language of their owner. Consider, for example, a dog that is approaching its owner from across a busy highway. The dog who is trained to stay in response to the proper hand motion will be more likely to survive this experience than the dog trained only to verbal commands.
Keep training sessions short. Dogs have a short attention span, and keeping the training sessions short and sweet prevents them from becoming a boring chore your dog dreads. If you wish to do more training, give your dog a play break to stretch their legs and relax before resuming their training.
The best way to crate train an adult dog is to allow the dog to train himself. Put the crate in a quiet room with a comfortable blanket and a favorite toy inside and leave the dog alone in the room with the crate. This way, the dog learns that the crate isn’t something to be afraid of.
When you give your dog a command, state it once. If your dog does not respond, do not repeat the command. If you do this he may learn that he can ignore you. If the command is ignored, say the command one more time and gently reinforce it. If after you say the command for a third time and your dog does not obey, it is probably time for a break.
As stated before, training your dog is a task. Most people don’t know where to begin or how to do it. Using the tips provided in the above article you will be able to train your dog by yourself without having to spend money to have them trained by someone else.
Want to find out more about dog training advice, then visit Steve David’s site on how to choose the best dog psychology for your needs.
