Easy Tips For Successful Dog Training
One of the biggest struggles for pet owners is training, especially for parents. Where dogs are concerned, training can be especially difficult, even if it's your first dog or if it's not. There are so many things that you'd want to teach, your pet, manners being one of them. But it's difficult when you don't speak the same language and you have no idea whether your dog is understanding what you speak.
Positively influencing your dog's behavior is important, and you can do that with the help of dog treats, positive affirmations and lots and lots of practice. You can train effectively and ensure that your dog learns faster and easier than ever before, and we've put together some tips to help you to do just that as easily as possible.
Don't expect your dog to do anything for free. When you work hard, you expect to get paid and your dog is the same. That's why good dog treats are really helpful when it comes to training. Give your dog as much positive reinforcement as possible, and you can do that without training treats if you want to, but with praise. You can even do it with games of tug of war. Without that positive reinforcement from you, your dog will seek out their own rewards, and that's not usually the behavior that you want. When your dog makes good choices, acknowledge them and your dog will come to learn that the praise is something that they love to get from you.
Learn what your dog finds rewarding. As we've just discussed, positive reinforcement training is important and it's a powerful way to maintain dog behavior. Dogs will repeat behaviors that earn them rewards in the same way that they will repeat negative behaviors that are ignored. Rewards have to be from their point of view. So if you notice that your dog responds to dog treats more than they do praise, then make sure you have a bag full of treats ready for you.
That, with good manners, gets good rewards. There is a hierarchy when it comes to dog treats, from the pieces of carrot and biscuit to high level treats such as chopped steak. The world is packed with things that your dog will want and delicious food and comfort is one of them. You control their access so if they are giving you good behavior then make sure that you are giving them what they want. Keep those high level treats for their excellent behavior and ask your dog to perform tricks before you reward them. So for example, before you clip their leash, ask them to sit and once they do, give them a treat.
Be consistent in all your interaction with your dog. You need to display consistency so that they can see that every time they do a behavior in a certain way, they will be rewarded or admonished for it. If you are consistent then your dog will realize that your reactions will not change from day-to-day and you won't be confusing them or yourself.