Last Updated on January 19, 2023 by Kunthida
Dog Training Tips: How to Win Your Dog’s Mind!
There are a few real dog training tips, whether you are trying to train your dog to come when called, sit, stop barking, or any other behavior.
Understanding their importance is critical to achieving rapid results that are long-lasting and help develop the bond between you and your dog.
The first is simple: you must win your dog’s mind. If you don’t achieve this first then you will be struggling all the way.
When I talk about winning your dog’s mind what I really mean is that your dog looks to you for all the decisions. Before you do anything else watch one of the amazing video sites that show you the 5 Golden rules to establishing yourself as the pack leader.
If you aren’t putting these in place then you are setting yourself up to fail. Just at the crucial point where you really want your dog to listen they will go and do their own thing. For sure your dog may play ball occasionally or even most of the time, you may even have a dog that is obedient 99% of the time, however, if you want a dog who always listens to you and does as you ask then you need to win your dogs mind.
You are reading an article by Doggy Dan – The Online Dog Trainer
The second key to success is to motivate your dog. It is really important that you discover what it is that your dog enjoys both in terms of exercise and play but also in terms of a reward. If you can make the experience enjoyable then you will both achieve more and look forward to training.
Some dogs love to fetch, others love agility, and other dogs simply love obedience training, or swimming out into the water and retrieving. At least to start with finding out what your dogs love is and help them develop this, what I am saying is work with your dog. The other point to recognize is to make training enjoyable reward your dog.
Dog Training Tips – Food Rewards
The three main rewards are:
– Food: anything from a single dry biscuit to a whole piece of sausage!
– Affection- pats, cuddles, lots of high verbal praise
– Toys- games, throwing a stick or object, chasing your dog, etc.
Your dog is always going to work harder if you are fair in your training. Even if you do not want to use the food you should make sure that you use affection accordingly when your dog does well.
If you want to use food rewards then always follow these simple dog training tips:
– Always vary food rewards
– Do not give food rewards every time
– Never let your dog know what the reward is
– If your dog doesn’t come first time then do not give them the reward
The third key to achieving perfection is practice! Learning how to encourage behavior that is closer to what you want than the last is the third key to success. Again this is where rewards come in so handy! Motivate and then show your dog what it is that you want and there is no need for any negative training!
One of the best sites that shows you all of this and more is The Online Dog Trainer, put together by top Dog Trainer, Doggy Dan. Click here to visit it…
Dog Training Tips – How To Train a Dog to Find Objects
One wonderful way to bond with your dog is to train your dog in some tricks. Training will require a lot of patience and perseverance on the part of the dog owner.
But, the rewards are so fulfilling. Dog training ensures that your animal will become very capable of thinking on its own and thus, able to do some errands when you want them to.
The result is a smarter dog.
Another interesting facet of teaching your canine friend new tricks every day is that often he will comprehend specific words in the human language. As an illustration, here we will demonstrate how to teach your dog to “Find It”. Right after consistent training and exercise of this strategy, your dog will ultimately manage to find a certain item within a heap of various other objects. Besides this being interesting for you, it also activates the dog’s mental process by helping them have the capacity to learn human words.
The Key: Find It!
To commence coaching, line up about six or seven things onto the ground. Next, ask your pet dog to identify a specific one. It is actually less difficult if you begin by sending your canine friend to retrieve whatever he is acquainted with.
Or, it could be that out of the six or seven objects that are lined up in front of your dog, one of it is the object that he is familiar with and that he knows the name of that object. The other remaining objects must be stuff that he doesn’t know about. Then ask him to pick out the object that he’s familiar with. You can say, “find the cookie”, or “find the toy”. As soon as your dog knows which object it is, give him some treat for him to understand that he has done something correctly.
Your dog might have the misinterpretation that looking for only one specific object has brought him the treat. So it is imperative for you not to give him the treat when the object found is just nearby. He might only look for one specific object waiting for you to give him a treat again. This can hamper the newer learning later on.
You can go to the next step as soon as your dog knows how to pick a specific object over and over. Then, you can show him another object, perhaps a small ball. Tell him what it is and show him where you will hide the object. Then, after he is very keen in this particular trick, you can give him more advanced training by letting him search for an object that has been hidden without him knowing where it is.
In case your dog retrieves the wrong object, tell him, “no, wrong.” Let him find the object again until he succeeds. Proper guidance is a must.
When he chooses an incorrect item, say “Nope”, and do “Find The Dish” again and again until he makes the correct option. Ultimately he will be capable to associate the name of each object and retrieve it for you personally.
Want to find out more about how to train a dog, then visit Ed Randall’s site on instructions how to best method inteaching your dog how to find stuff for your needs.
Dog Training Tips: The Sit Command
The sit command is one of the first commands that you want your dog to know and understand, and in the beginning, he will have no clue what you are trying to tell him, so have lots of patience and have fun with it.
You do not really need anything for this command, but treats will help to speed up the process tremendously. So please make sure to have some at hand. Then you can start teaching him:
With your treat in your hand, you need to first get your dog’s attention. So call his name and wait for him to be fully focused on you. Then hold out the hand in front of his nose with the treat inside. And then lift your hand up over his head.
Of course, if he is a healthy dog, he will want the treat. To get it he will move his head up, which, in turn, will cause him to lower is bottom to the floor. And this is the “sit” position you want.
Once he is sitting, you can say the command “sit” out loud. That way he will slowly realize that the position he is in now is the sitting position.
As soon as he sits, give him the treat and let him know that he has done a good job.
Of course, as with most commands, you will have to repeat this exercise many times until he understands what he is supposed to do. Just make sure not to make the session too long for your dog.
Instead, keeping the sessions relatively short is the way to go. If your dog gets bored, that is not a good sign. So keep them short. Also, remember that patience and consistency are the keys to dog training.
Just look at the training sessions as a wonderful opportunity to bond with your dog. Also, his obeying the command “sit” will help you guide him better, especially when you need him to behave and need him to just sit quietly.
How To NOT Train Your Dog
It is the ambition of every dog owner to have a well-trained dog. However, many dog owners do not take into account the amount of effort and time which is needed to train a dog properly. That is the reason why a number of mistakes are made which could be easily avoided with a little bit of common sense and effort.
Dogs are definitely not furry babies and children. Even though an average dog has an IQ of a 2-year-old human child, there are fewer similarities and more differences between dogs and humans. A dog does not understand the reasoning, cause, and effect, and processing language systematically.
That is why plenty of new dog trainers are extremely frustrated when they suppose the dog is ignoring their command, which is being repeated again and again. Many owners consider a dog to be stubborn on one day when he obeyed his master’s commands the previous day. But the owners do not take into consideration that the dog does not understand the command so he does not know how to respond.
That is the reason why owners dub a dog stubborn or disobedient as if it was human. A dog might get distracted while training or not relate the “come” command with the behavior of the previous training session and its resulting reward. There are reasons for this particular behavior.
A dog trainer is going to need a lot of patience. You will need to repeat those commands continuously and again and again. Be ready not to get 100% results every time. Many dogs need more than 2 years of training to get past the simple basic and easy-to-understand commands.
Remember that patience means that you keep your temper when what you really want is to lash out physically. It’s normal to think about taking the easy route of corporal punishment as the first option for correcting the dog’s behavior. However, this should be reserved for only the most severe situations. The dog doesn’t really understand why they’re being smacked. This will not result in trust but instead, fear.
Dogs are just like human beings in the way that they follow people they trust instead of the people they fear. Following a person, they fear is the last resort option for dogs. Dogs also have different reasoning abilities than humans. They are not going to learn from physical punishment, because they do not understand the reason behind it. That is why physical punishment is not an effective training option.
This is how not to train your dog: -Treating and talking to your dog like it is a human, and able to reason like you. -Thinking that your dog can connect cause and effect, and events across different circumstances and time and reach the same conclusions as a human being. -Getting impatient with the dog, as well as frustrated, just because they are not behaving in the manner you want them to behave, and then punishing them for something they cannot understand.
If you follow these ways, you are just going to have a totally maladjusted dog, and are going to be extremely unhappy with the results. So change YOUR behavior now instead of trying incorrectly to make the dog change its behavior.
Learn to pick the right Dog Bedding for your dog. Do not allow Puppy Potty Training to become a prolonged or tedious affair…
Dog Training Tips Using Hand Signals
Are you doing some dog obedience training to fix your dog’s behavior problems? If you are, then you must use hand signals in addition to verbal commands that you want your pet to follow.
The hand signals work most of the time, especially when your pet cannot hear you.
Actually, these are more effective ways to ensure your dog pays close attention to you even from a couple of meters away, as long as it can see you. And these are what trainers of agility dogs and hunting dogs use to control the actions of these dogs while in the field.
By using the right-hand signals during dog training, they can make the dogs turn left or right, go fast, stop, or stay put.
Dog Training Tips: Learn Hand Signals
Now, you can also do these to your pet without using verbal commands. Learn these first three hand signals and teach them to your dog while doing dog obedience training.
1. For the “sit” command, here’s the hand signal: bend your arm upwards at the elbow and then raise your hand with fist closed up to your head’s side while you command your dog to sit simultaneously. Keep on doing these hand movements while commanding your dog to sit. Later on, your pet will soon learn how to associate the hand signal with your vocal command. Now, if you are not able to get your dog’s attention the first time you try the hand signal, don’t punish it. Instead, keep trying or better yet, make sure you have a leash in your left hand.
2. For the “down” command, the hand signal is just like when you are asking someone to sit down at the same time saying, “Have a seat.” To teach your dog the hand signal for down, you need to hold your arm out towards your pet and then lower your hand, on which your palm faces down towards the floor. While doing this, give the “down” command, and your dog will follow your hand signal into the down position. Just like in the sit hand signal, keep repeating this until your dog learns to associate the lowering of your hand towards the floor as part of the “down” command.
3. For the “stay” command, first, put your dog into the sit or down position. Afterward, hold out your arm towards your pet, with your palm’s position similar to that of a policeman who’s using a hand signal to stop traffic. And just like in the previous two commands, do this at the same time command your dog to “stay”, with your firm tone of voice. If at first, your dog does not follow, try it again until he recognizes that hand signal means “down”.
Using hand signals can really do a lot when training your dog. Although you may find it difficult to make your dog obey at first, don’t give up, but instead, keep repeating the signals until it understands what you are trying to communicate. Take note that if you are consistent and thorough in showing your pet those hand signals, the faster it will respond.
Dog Training Tips: Socialization
It is fun to keep a pet at home but it also calls for a couple of obligations to fulfill. Take note that what your dog does is always out of habit. Thus, if you tolerate his bad habits, he will not be able to outgrow them. It will be you who will suffer in the end. So, it is best to start early with dog training lessons.
Puppies are but young and don’t have a mind of their own. They are simply dependent on you so it is your task to assist them to let go of their bad habits and develop good ones. You and your leadership skills will therefore guide your dog towards the right path in terms of honing his behavior, habits, and temperament. This is the main reason why dog training and socialization training are very much necessary.
Dog Training Tips at Home
Separation anxiety often attacks young dogs. So, they normally cry, bark, chew, and do a lot of annoying things. You have to understand that it is also hard for him to adjust to his new environment. Thus, you should start with the house training activities by setting boundaries, introducing new areas, and letting him know those activities that you can tolerate and not.
Don’t be violent when your dog doesn’t seem to understand at once. Potty training, leash training, and the likes are never achieved overnight. You have to use lots of praises, rewards, and encouragement. It is always best to start as soon as possible so his old ways will be corrected. Incorporate fun sessions during the training. Use commands frequently. Whenever necessary, impose a punishment but not something that will agitate him and cause him to fight back. Say for example you didn’t like his behavior, simply ignore him. He will surely try getting your attention but be stern not until he does what he is told.
Leaning the Socialization Skills
The dog’s socialization period is said to fall in his first 16 weeks of puppyhood. It is the time when he develops into an adult dog. Therefore, you must expect that it is also the time frame when he changes his temperament, behavior, habits, and character. The socialization period is also the time that he gets adjusted to his family and the people in the household.
It is best to let him become familiar with the house and the people around him. It helps to expose him to some animals too. This conditions him that it is not only him that exists in that area. Take him out for a walk so he will see what lies beyond the gates of your home. In this way, he will not go wild whenever he sees other objects, animals, and people apart from the members of his family.
During dog training and socialization training, you should arm yourself with a dose of patience. Your pet lacks maturity so it is your own responsibility to handle the matter really well. He imitates what he sees so you better act accordingly.