The 5 Fundamentals of Dog Training

Dog Training Pet — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:46:20 +0000

Learning new tricks.

While many of us enjoy the thought of being good at training our dogs, it's admittedly a lot easier to "pretend" to know what we're doing than to actually do the research. After all, we've all been exposed to the basic tricks, such as using food and treats to bribe dogs into doing something - but how many of us really know the fundamentals?

This article will address exactly that, teaching you about the five fundamentals of dog training.

Principle #1: Don't use punishment.

Punishing a dog can have disastrous consequences on its future behavior, so don't use punishment as a way of deterring negative behaviors. Instead, you'll want to get a dog to use healthy, natural behaviors by simply rewarding the right kind of behaviors. This means that you don't abuse your dogs, even if you feel that it is somehow "justified."

At the same time, you can't be afraid to enforce rules and standards on dogs, or even physically move or "nip" them in order to establish clear boundaries.

Principle #2: Consistency.

If you aren't consistent in the treatment of your dog, your lack of clarity will translate over to the dog's behavior. It has to know exactly how to behave, and it has to know that if it tries a certain type of behavior, that that behavior will produce a certain result every time. That's how you'll want to introduce a dog to learning how to "sit," for example - by making the "sit" behavior consistent with the dog getting a treat.

Principle #3: Let the dog do it.

As tempting it is to "force" a dog into a trick so that they will understand what it is they're supposed to do, the only real way that a dog can learn anything is by trying it for themselves. In this way, they're much like your children: you won't be able to take care of everything for them, so your best bet is to reward them when they accomplish something on their own. You can make conditions favorable to a dog's trick at first, but don't force them.

Principle #4: Repetition.

A dog won't learn anything if you try it for a few days and then give up. Just like you learned your new tricks, repetition will be the key here. Don't worry about getting repetitions on a certain day - instead, keep doing an activity every day to help the dog learn it. Puppies have short attention spans, anyway.

Principle #5: Don't throw too much at once.

A puppy or dog will be far more scared to try something totally new than trying something that pushes their boundaries only a little. You can't expect a dog to follow principle #3 unless they feel they can realistically handle it. Work in progressive increments instead of throwing the entire kitchen sink at your dog.