Dog Behavior Training - 5 Things Not To Do

By: Adrian Fletcher

Training your dog is a vital part of the relationship that you have with him. A well trained dog will be more confident around people and will be a source of pride to your as his owner. Thus dogs should receive some form of obedience instruction and this is often done at home by the owner. This is an attractive option as it is often expensive to get proper formal classes. When you are doing it yourself there is less of a commitment so you can do the training when it suits your lifestyle too. Unfortunately many people are not very successful, as the flexibility that do it yourself training gives also leads to an unfocused approach. This article will discus five things to avoid so that you have success in your training program.

1. As I suggested at the start, most people fail because they are not committed. I guess this is nothing new as lack of commitment in anything you decide to do will lead to poor results. Remaining committed is a constant process of refocusing on what initially motivated you and then remaining disciplined.

Reinforce in your mind the original reason you started to train your pet. Think of the enjoyment your will get from being able to interact with your dog at a deeper level than just throwing the ball. Think of the peace of mind that will come when you know that your dog will behave in a variety of social situations.

Committed also includes having the energy to learn. Find out more about your breed of dog. Investigate new training methods and determine what works well for your dog. Never stop learning about your pet or the breed of your dog. This will improve your relationship with him and give you inspiration when it comes to training.

2. No consistency in your actions. The biggest problem with this is that it may become boring and you want to move onto something else. You need to teach at your dog's speed of learning not your own. Repeat the same procedure over and over again until your dog gets the command. Keep it simple to begin with. Only teach one command at a time and don't move onto another command until your dog knows the command well. Your pet will also suffer from boredom at times so you should keep the lessons fairly short

3.Teaching commands with negative reinforcement as opposed to positive reinforcement. Never punish a dog for not doing a command or understanding what you want. Cruelty has not place in dog obedience training and it will confuse your pet. Pain is not a good teaching philosophy and will lead to worse behavioral problems than better. There is little doubt that positive reinforcement by giving treats and positive feedback to the dog is the best way to go. If you adopt this strategy, your dog will want to do things for you and enjoy the process, this will improve the training.

4.Not open to new ideas. Don't stick to one idea rigidly merely because it was recommended by the dog whisperer or some other celebrity. Always see techniques as a framework to follow or disregard according to results. Remember that dogs are as individual as humans and some will respond better to one technique than another. The more you work with your dog the more you will understand his preferred teaching methods.

5. Try to keep a balance between being consistent in your training and keeping the process interesting. Avoid getting into a rut that will make the training dull and boring. Try to keep the training fun. Again this will be dependent on your pets temperament but why not try going to different venues. Why not make the lessons short and then add a bit of play time at the end. Alter the incidental parts of the training but don't play around with the core components of the lesson - one command per session.

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