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Guide to Successful Obedience Training
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- Keep your sessions short: The attention span of a dog is frail at the best of times, thus it is crucial to keep the sessions short. Remember
 keep the sessions short but do not sacrifice content. Rome was not built in a day.
- Keep training sessions fun: Dogs as do people, like to have fun, and why shouldn't they? Training can be fun for you and your pet! Be lively, treat good behavior, praise your dog to no end, make him feel like he is the best dog in the world, even if he's not!
- Never punish your pet for what they don't know!: Too often, I have seen people talk to their pet with the understanding that their beloved dog is a master of the English language, only to punish them when the desired response is not carried out. This really bothers me because it shows me that that person would rather bully their pet into submitting than taking the time to research, develop and implicate an approach to help the dog learn the desired response to certain words or phrases. (No Hungmay Kowaisa!( Did you understand that? Well you would if you researched the Korean language.
- Train to your dog's strengths: As stated above every dog has its own unique personality, therefore we must identify characteristics of our pets in order to take advantage of them in our training sessions. If your pet is very lively, take advantage of that! During training sessions, be lively yourself! Match your dogs enthusiasm, when your happy, your pet will be happy and your pet will be very happy come training time.
If your dog has a laid back shy personality, take this into account when training. Still be lively and upbeat as this will spark the interest of your dog, however keep in mind that due to his/her personality, displaying comprehension may take longer due to the shy nature of your dog. It is really important to make a shy laid back dog feel super great during training sessions as this can only improve your chances of continuing successful training.
- Incorporate training into your everyday routine: It can be very beneficial to perform individual obedience exercises through out the day. Simply by performing the sit exercise while you brush him, or having the dog sit while you attach his leash can help to imprint the sitting position. Keep little things like this in mind as they can only aid you and your pet.
- Be patient: Remember you are trying to teach your dog! Your dog is a non-english speaking individual, lacking house manners, behavioral skills, courtesy, do I need to continue? Take your time, play to your dog's strength, praise, respect, keep sessions short and compact, and have fun!
- Empathize with your dog: The best example I can think of for this suggestion, is going to a foreign country and trying to comprehend what people are saying. Somebody will come up to you and start rambling on in a foreign tongue and you have no clue what they are saying. Your dog is in the same predicament with you. When you start training your dog, he-she has no clue on earth what you are saying. How is he-she supposed to respond if he-she doesn't know what you want? As in the above example, the more time you spend in the foreign country, the more familiar you become with the language. You can apply the same principle with your dog. More training leads to more comprehension, leading to the end result, an obedient dog.
- Reward good behavior: The best way to reinforce good behavior is to reward it. Others may disagree with this statement, but through my experience with my own dog and others around me, I have found that rewarding good behavior can only aid in maintaining that behavior. In my opinion, the best way of rewarding good behavior is through offering toys or treats. Praise is also worthy but would you rather have an ice cream cone, or a good handshakeļ I personally love ice cream and would pick that over a handshake any day. Your dog is driven by his belly in most cases, and you can achieve astonishing success by baiting your dog with the occasional rustle of the treat bag
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This document last modified Saturday, 01-Mar-2008 21:45:31 EST
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