Great Advice For Training Your Dog
Great Advice For Training Your Dog
Whether you decide to go it alone or get some professional help, training your dog is bound to bring a few moments of frustration. However, do not fret. As long as you have the right information, you can train your dog without too much stress. This article can guide you in the right direction.
Your dog will get used to its crate if it can feel at home in it. To help your puppy feel at home, place your puppy's food dish inside the crate. The dog will recognize the crate as having delicious food.
Don't interact with your dog when you are frustrated or angry. Simply put your dog up and take a break. Training will proceed much more efficiently when you return. Each of you will be rested, have a fresh outlook, and be ready to tackle that seemingly elusive training task once again.
Do not train your dog through fear of physical punishment. Teaching your dog to respect your commands and dominance will create a healthy and stable pet. Dogs learn to respect the pack leader in the wild by being dominated, not attacked. Physical punishment can lead to an irrational and often violent pet.
Patience is the greatest virtue in dog training. This ensures that you both do not get frustrated. Keep in mind that they wish to please you; however, they get confused because they can't understand your language.
Don't get discouraged when training your dog. You may start to feel as though you will be carrying around messy treats in your pocket for the rest of your life. This is not the case. As your dog learns a new behavior, he will look to rewards less often for that behavior.
Before you ever get a dog, be sure that you have everything you need. You should have: sturdy food and water bowls; a good quality of dry dog food; a comfortable bed; a crate/kennel in the right size for the dog you plan to get; and an appropriate leash and collar or harness. By having everything in place, you will avoid a lot of rushing around and uncertainty with a new dog or puppy. This will help everybody settle in better.
To teach your dog to go outside, you should keep a very close supervision on it for a few weeks. Every couple of hours, take your dog outside to the area that you would like to see it use. Wait until your dog is done, and reward it. If your dog does not go, take it back inside the house and try again later.
If you're tired of your dog pulling on the leash while walking with you, here's a simple training method. Take your leashed dog to an outside place that is familiar to both of you - such as the backyard - then begin to walk. If your pet stays beside you, right at your thigh, reward it with a treat. If the animal rushes forward, stop walking. If it wanders off for some reason, say "let's go" in an upbeat way and turn and walk another way. When it catches-up with you, give it a treat, and if it doesn't catch-up, pull gently on the leash until it gets the point. In this way, you reward good behavior and don't have to be unduly harsh for bad behavior.
Training a dog is never a frustration-free endeavor and there will be moments when you may feel like pulling your hair out. Just relax, breathe and know that a well-behaved pup is just around the bend. Now that you are armed with some great information, training your pooch will be a whole lot less stressful.