Whether you are a first-time dog owner, have a new pet, or want to resolve a persistent behavioral problem, you could benefit from help training a dog. The following tips will provide you with help training a dog to enable you to teach everything from house training and manners to leash skills and socialization.
Communication
Communication is a two-way process: if you want your dog to listen to you, you need to listen to her. This means never putting your dog in a situation where she is uncomfortable, or where she shows signs of fear or reluctance.
Using Rewards
Rewarding your dog is very simple: if she displays a desired behavior, you reward her; if she displays an undesirable behavior, you remove the reward. In the case of the latter, this could be as simple as ignoring your dog until she stops the behavior.
Rewards for good behavior are not limited to edible treats — for some behaviors, you may prefer to use verbal praise, a belly rub, a toy, or play with you or another dog. You also need to find a reward that your dog appreciates; for instance, some dogs can be very picky about food and may not like a some dog treats. This is where knowing their favorite toy can come in handy.
Sending Clear Signals
Rather than simply telling your dog “no” when she acts in an undesirable way, tell her what you want her to do. When she performs the right behavior, be generous with your praise. Your dog wants to please you, and often her only problem is not knowing what you want.
It is important that everyone in the family uses the same cues for a consistent approach that will help training a dog. This means rewarding the same behaviors and using the same verbal signals to avoid confusion.
Immediate Consequences
Consequences to a behavior must be immediate as your dog is not able to make a connection between events if they happen at different times. For instance, you should stop playing immediately if your dog mouths or bites you.
New Skills
Training your dog is an ongoing process. Set up daily training sessions, lasting no more than 15 minutes to avoid your dog becoming bored or frustrated. You can use the opportunity to practice one or several skills, but make sure you frequently return to skills she learned previously.
For any skill, whether simple or complex, you need to start small; for example, in order to teach your dog to sit, you should first reward the behavior immediately for several seconds. Begin to increase the amount of time that she must sit before she receives a reward but continue to reinforce for several seconds before releasing her with a verbal cue.
Once you have taught the foundation skills, you can begin increasing the difficulty. Be careful not to increase the level of difficulty in more than one area at a time. If you begin to work on distance, wait until she has mastered the skill at a distance before adding distractions. As you add complexity to her training, make sure that you continue to reward frequently so that she understands the behavior under these new situations.
Lastly, it is important to train the same skill in different places. Failing to do so may cause your dog to relate a skill only to a particular area. Continue to teaching and practice wherever you go — in a different room of the home, in the yard, on walks, and at a friend’s house.
It’s about Respect
Dog training should never be about dominating your pet and she should feel safe with you. This will both lead to a better relationship and avoid inappropriate behaviors that often develop out of fear.
Through training, your dog learns that in order to access the things she wants, like food, toys, and walks, she must ask you in the correct way. The above tips for help training a dog teach her what these behaviors are while avoiding force.
