The most important things in dog training are consistency,
keeping dog's attention and understanding your dog.
To get the respect of your dog you must be consistent. You
should make a set of do's and don'ts for your dog. Follow these
guidelines to the letter, if a dog does something desirable
always reward it, if a dog does something bad punish him or her
appropriately. In dog's world consistency is a sign of a leader.
You will make your training my easier and effective by being a
leader who the dog respects and follows.
Ninety percent of training will be spent getting his or hers
attention and keeping him focused on yourself. If your dog
cannot focus on you, it will not listen to you, and thus making
the commands you give fall on empty ears. I will describe a
technique on how to get and keep your dog's attention with few
very simple exercises. First, most dogs will respond to their
name, so call them and when they look at you tell them "watch".
After doing it few times the dog will associate the command with
looking at you. After you have perfected the "watch" command,
start doing exercises aimed at expanding your dog's attention
span. A good technique is to hold a treat with your teeth and
while standing in front of your dog give it a watch command.
Stand in position for a few seconds keeping dogs attention, then
praise. Repeat the exercise until your dog focus on you for
about a minute. The more attention your dog can give you the
better student it will be.
A vital part of dog training is the understanding of how a dog
thinks. Dogs, like small children, have a very short attention
span. Most dogs can be focused on training for about ten to
twenty minutes, after that time they will start loosing focus
and will require a small break. A good idea is to make regular
training sessions of 20-30 minutes per day. Another important
thing is to make the training fun for the dog. Make the dog look
forward to the training time instead of dreading it. To achieve
this you should always make their effort worthwhile. After every
successful command make sure to give them a treat or praise them
with very excited voice. The more willing the dog is to train
the more effective the training will be!
Incorporate these techniques into your training sessions and in
no-time you will be ready to proceed to much more complex
obedience training exercises. You and your dog will both enjoy
the time spent together, your dog will respect you for being a
responsible owner and other people will appreciate your dog's
great behavior after you are done!
Basic Dog Training When you adopt a new dog or puppy, you may be interested in getting some basic dog training. Obedience classes vary in price but you can .....read more ....
