The trainer learns just as much as his or her dog when teaching. This is due to a dog owner training themselves before they can train their dogs. Training a dog is not an innate skill; it is something one must learn. This article offers some good guidelines for first-time dog trainers.
It takes small steps to crate train your puppy; they must become accustomed to it. When they seem comfortable in it with the door open, try shutting the gate and feed them treats through the wires. Start off only putting them inside for 10 seconds, and when they seem okay with that, slowly increase the time they are inside. If the dog doesn’t like it, slow the process.
Keep your dog on a healthy diet. A poor diet is bad for your dog on several levels. It can negatively impact a dog’s health and disposition. Feeding your dog quality food can greatly affect what you accomplish during training sessions.
Dogs only have the ability to focus on one thing at a time. If you get your dog to focus on you, it will help his behavior.
Do not reinforce any negative behaviors accidentally. In other words, you must avoid showering your pet with treats or rewards in response to performing some unwanted behavior. If you wish to keep your dog from begging for table scraps, don’t encourage him by slipping him a morsel one night or allowing others to do so.
The first thing your dog must learn is who the boss is. Otherwise, the dog will think that he is in charge and will not respond to your training tactics. Do not let your dog walk ahead of you when you go on walks.
When it’s time to introduce house training to your dog, put him on a consistent schedule of eating and elimination. Your dog will adjust to the schedule and he will quickly learn that his outside time is when he should go to the bathroom. Conversely, this also teaches your dog that he may need to wait to go to the bathroom.
Whenever your dog jumps onto you, grab their paw and gentle squeeze to make sure they understand that jumping is not good behavior. The dog will not experience pain, but just a brief discomfort. Before long, they will stop their habit of jumping on people due to this association.
Make sure that both you and your dog enjoy the daily training. When you engage in play with your pet, your relationship becomes stronger; your dog will often respond better to you while training because of this enhanced bond. While training can be fun, try having play time with your dog every day for a period of time.
Primary Reinforcement
Primary reinforcement is critical to puppy training. With primary reinforcement, you use something that your dog loves when it needs to be rewarded for positive behavior. This may mean giving food items as treats or scratching the dog’s tummy. This lets your dog know how to earn something it wants.
Accidents are bound to happen while housebreaking your puppy. Always immediately clean-up any messes your dog makes. If the mess stays on the area for too long, it can leave a scent behind that your animal may return to in the future to do his business. Many products are sold that will neutralize these odors, so ask about them at your local pet store.
When dog training, be sure that your dog’s leash has some slack in it. When dogs go on walks, they frequently want to explore all the new sights and sounds. Because of their eagerness; they tend to strain on the limits of a leash. Great dog owners don’t allow this behavior. Instead, they encourage their dogs to walk with some slack in their leash.
Now that the people who are interested in training their new pet dog have, hopefully, learned some new tricks, they can proceed to pass them along to their pets. Once a dog is on its way to learning, the owner will begin to appreciate the dedication that he or she has shown for doing the right thing for man’s best friend.