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Training Your Dog? Try These Ideas For Assured Success

May 15, 2012

If you want a well-behaved dog, there is a lot that relies on the dog’s personality. However, nearly any dog can learn, at least a bit of manners. Depending on the dog’s personality and desire to learn, you may need to work a little harder or try some different methods to get the results you desire.

It is important to understand that training your dog will require a lot of patience and repetition. It often takes a dog between 25 and 50 repetitions before they are able to learn a new command. Getting frustrated will only delay your results and may hurt your relationship with your pet.

Give your dog plenty of positive reinforcement. Discipline isn’t only about punishment for bad behavior. You should make sure to reward good behavior with lots of affection and praise. It will ensure that your dog understands when it is doing the right thing, and it will help it develop trust in its trainers.

If you want to train your dog, you should wait until it is at least six weeks old. A younger dog will not understand what you are expecting, and not be able to control itself enough to obey your commands. The first weeks of your puppy’s life should be about creating a bond with you.

Dogs can get bored easily. If you are training a young dog, keep your training sessions short as his attention span is short. To keep older dogs from getting bored, vary their training routines and change up his rewards and treats. If you notice your dog is bored during training, take a break and resume at a later time.

While training your dog, observe his body language and general behaviour closely. This is especially important during dog obedience training as the physical signals shown by the dog are a great way to spot naught behaviour about to take place. Look for signs of enthusiasm. Is his tail wagging? Does he follow you around? This shows he’s ready to learn. If you see your dog is scared, bored or nervous, stop what you are doing and reevaluate.

To teach your dog not to chew inappropriately, be sure to provide him with plenty of appropriate things to chew. Make sure they are dog toys, not cast off human belongings. Whenever your dog begins to chew inappropriately, redirect him by giving him one of his own toys and take away the inappropriate item.

If your dog does not respond well to you during training you should not get mad at him or her. You are the teacher and he or she is the student, so if they are not responding very well to you it could be the fact that you are not such a good teacher.

Do not make the mistake of giving your dog too much freedom in your house too soon. It is a mistake to keep the doors open to all unoccupied rooms in your home when you have a new dog because it hands your dog the privacy and ability to chew things out of your view, or to have house training accidents. Be proactive about closing doors and using baby gates to stop a problem before it starts.

Applying the advice given here will help your dog to be the best behaved pet that he can be. Remember, one of the most important parts of dog training is patience. Pair your patience with some creativity and more often than not, you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

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