Training your dog is an essential part of being a responsible pet owner. It’s also a fun way to bond with your furry friend. The following tips can help you get started in the right direction with dog training, whether or not you’ve had any prior experience with dog training.
Set Clear Boundaries
As a member of your household, your dog needs to have clear boundaries to respect. When training your dog, work on clearly defining these. These rules might include not jumping on people, not licking people, or staying off of furniture. Remember that you’ll need to train your dog to obey specific commands to quickly and consistently enforce these boundaries.
Use Positive Reinforcement
Reinforcing good behavior with rewards is a highly effective way to train your dog. When your dog obeys a command, focus on positive reinforcement by giving praise or a treat as a reward right away. This establishes a strong link between the reward and the correct behavior. Some great training treats are listed below.
Start with Basic Commands
Don’t overwhelm your dog by expecting too much at first. Start slowly by working on basic commands, such as “sit,” and keep training sessions short. You can gradually train your dog for extended periods and move on to more complex commands, such as “leave it,” once basic training is successful. As your dog learns these basic commands, it becomes easier to start training your dog on the more difficult ones.
Reinforce Preferred Behavior
To make sure your dog understands which behavior to perform, it’s crucial to reinforce it immediately. When your dog doesn’t perform the desired behavior or does something wrong, such as jumping, don’t unintentionally reinforce it with attention. Instead, withhold rewards until your dog successfully follows desired commands.
Consistency
Being consistent is one of the most important parts of dog training. Your dog will learn to follow commands more quickly if you expect and positively reinforce appropriate behavior consistently rather than only once in a while. It’s also essential for all members of your household to use the same commands with your dog to avoid confusion.
When you follow these basic tips for training your dog, you should see results fairly quickly. Remember that every dog learns at their own pace, so don’t get discouraged if it seems to be taking a while. If you are worried about the pace your dog is learning at, go back through and check that you are following all five super tips. We are confident that with time and patience, your dog will eventually figure out what kind of behavior you expect and successfully learn to follow your commands.
