Most dogs are eager to please and respond better to rewards than punishment. You must first show your dog what you expect them to do and then repeat the process until they get it. This is the most effective way to modify a dogs behavior or teach him a trick. You must show them through repetition and reward.
Your puppy may need obedience classes so that it can listen to you. The instructor can give you ideas about how to handle problems like not listening, and excessive barking.
Use the dogs name often when training to ensure that you have their attention. By using his name all the time in the first month of having our dog, he should associate his name with focusing on you. Choose a short name that is easily recognizable from other words.
To ensure your training sticks, everyone in your household needs to treat your dog the same way you do and use the same training methods. Consistent methods is your best bet to get your dog to remember something. If teaching methods between people differs, it is easy for your dog to get confused.
If you catch your puppy chewing on things, stop him. By doing this, you are teaching him what is okay to chew on.
Playing tug-of-war with your puppy when you are working on training him is a bad idea. In addition to tug-of-war, games that involve wresting something away from your puppy or chasing each other in any respect, can entice the animal to bite or nip at your hands. You want to avoid having your puppy become accustomed to this behavior, so it is better to postpone these games until the dog is more mature and fully trained.
Dogs can learn a multi-step behavior by stepwise refinement just like humans can. One example might be to teach him to fetch your daily newspaper. You will need to teach him or her how to hold something first. Next, your dog will need to learn the objects name. After that, he needs to learn how to lift up the object. Finally, he should learn to bring the object to you. If you break it down, your dog will understand the linear relationship of the behavior.
Destructive chewing is often a result of anxiety. Putting your dog in his crate with a chew toy will reduce the chance of destructive events and give him something to do while he waits for you.
Introductions to new dogs or any other animals should occur slowly and carefully. Consider your pet at home before adopting a new one. In order to maximize bonding, a new pet will need a personality which complements the personality of the pet you already have.
If your dog chews things when you leave him in the house alone, consider building a doghouse and leaving him outside when you go out. When this is not possible due to weather or living in an urban area, close your doors to all of your rooms. This keeps your dog out of your things. Be sure to leave chew toys out for them.
Keep count of the number of treats you feed your dog because you do not want him or her to get fat. A lot of people forget to account for treats given during training when considering a dogs diet plan.
You cannot rush through the training process. Remember that all dogs have short attention spans and puppies even more so. A training session that wears your puppy out is going to turn into an unpleasant memory, making him less likely to respond well to subsequent sessions, and more inclined to ignore what you are trying to teach him.
Obedience classes can help you with any training issues you face. These classes can help deal with various issues such as stopping disruptive barking, not sitting when told, and not listening to you.
It is vitally important that your dog is treated in the same manner, given the same commands and rewarded similarly by every member of your family. This is the only way to ensure the training sticks. Consistency is the best method for training a dog. If you train your dog in a certain way while another family member encourages a different behavior, your dog will not know what to do.
If you teach your dog the right way to act at the beginning you will have a good dog. It is much more difficult to break a dogs bad habits, than to teach it correct behavior in the beginning. For example, if you are adamant about your dog not being a beggar, then never make any exceptions to handing him food from your table.
Keeping your dog outdoors when you are not home is a good way to prevent chewing. If you cannot put your dog outside make sure you do not leave anything out that your dog can ruin.
If your puppy is caught chewing on something unacceptable, stop him immediately. This will help your puppy understand what is acceptable and what is off limits.
Although a harness is more comfortable for dogs, it does not offer as much control as a cinch-type collar. Keep your dog on his harness, but also use your cinching collar. Tug on his collar when its absolutely necessary, and your dog will soon learn how to obey wearing the harness alone.
A clicker works well when training most dogs. Using a clicker is as simple as showing your dog that good things happen when the clicking noise is heard. Try using this technique right away, doing it frequently over a span of a few days. Your dog will soon know that the clicking noise means that they are doing a good job.
Utilizing the fore-mentioned tips can enable you to curb common training problems and misconceptions. If you keep these tips in the back of your mind when its time to train your dog, it will kick-start your training into an ultra-efficient routine..