It’s not necessary to have formal training to teach a dog behavioral skills. It is necessary, however, to be consistent, firm and loving, while making it fun. When dogs know what to expect from their masters, they’re much more likely to comply. Here are a few tips to make your training experience a rewarding one for both you and your pet.
First of all, it’s important to begin training as soon as you bring a dog into your home. Whether you have a puppy or an older dog, it’s important that it knows who’s in charge. As dogs are pack animals, they need to know their role in the hierarchy of the home. Once the dog can identify its master as the leader, it will be much easier to teach it necessary commands. Some dogs may always test their boundaries, but knowing they have a set role in the family gives them a measure of comfort.
Secondly, make it fun for the dog. Speaking in a soothing, encouraging voice, and lavishing praise on your pet when it follows direction helps reinforce the lesson learned. If a dog thinks sitting, staying or fetching is fun, it will be more likely to perform on command. When training a dog, it can be frustrating in the beginning if the dog doesn’t follow direction. If this happens, stop the training session. Dogs can sense stressful situations, and react accordingly. Lessons should be enjoyable for a dog. Practicing positive reinforcement goes much further than teaching a dog to fear its master. If it thinks it’s playing a game, it’s more interested in participating.
Next, be consistent. If you’re teaching a dog the “sit” command, and it’s rewarded whether it sits or not, it won’t learn the lesson. Follow through is critical during training. A dog must be able to identify consequences for its actions. If it carries out the command, it’s praised. If it doesn’t do what’s been asked, it isn’t. Sending mixed messages to the dog will make training that much more difficult.
Use the same hand signals and/or simple verbal commands for each lesson. If you’re teaching your dog to stay off the sofa, repeating the same word, such as “off,” each time is much more effective than using different words, like “down” and “go,” interchangeably. The dog needs simple, clear, consistent direction to best understand and carry out its duties.
Also, every member of the family must commit to taking part in training the dog. If one parent enforces the rules, and someone else in the home doesn’t, the dog will quickly figure out that it can get away with misbehaving, and all the work the trainer did can unravel.
Dogs can get bored with lengthy training sessions. Positive gains can be seen in just a few minutes per session. Focusing on one trick for too long can cause the dog to tune out entirely, while shorter sessions spread throughout the week can be effective and enforce lessons. As your dog learns tricks, add new ones. This way, their confidence grows when they can respond to commands they’re familiar with, but they can look forward to learning something new. They enjoy pleasing their masters, and can withdraw if they sense that they’re not doing so.
Formal obedience training is also an option, for owners who would like to reinforce lessons they’re teaching at home. Professional trainers have experience with a wide variety of different breeds and temperaments, and adjust their teaching methods accordingly. Also, group training is a great time to work on socializing your dog, or teaching it to be more comfortable around and tolerant of other dogs.
A common reason dogs are dropped off at shelters is because they’re not trained. Generally, it’s a simple matter of spending enough time with the dog, and consistently enforcing rules. Not only is it rewarding for the dog, it’s rewarding for the master as well. When a dog performs a newly-learned command for the first time, it’s cause for celebration. Not only is a well-behaved dog a joy to be around, but training a dog can create an unbreakable bond between dog and master.
By: David Beart
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Before you think about breeding a dog you need to pay much attention to the dogs parents, their health, pedigree, genetic defects, etc etc, to ensure that they are a good match. Careful consideration should also be given as to what to with the puppies produced. The average litter size for a dog varies according to breed but most breeds average 4-8 puppies or more. There are rare cases when they breed 20 puppies or more, so you should have this possibility planned as well. Taking care of one dog isn’t easy, and taking care of more dogs isn’t any easier. If you breed dogs of well known breeds that can be useful to mankind you can probably make a lot of profit from dog-breeding, but this requires that you train them as well. This requires lots of food, time and careful planning. Most importantly, you must like dogs, if you’re not fond of this species I highly don’t recommend you try this out.
Dogs exist in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are intelligent and well mannered if trained correctly and they learn easily as well. Not only can they be taught to sit, lie or shake hand but also to guide blind people, carry water bottles to the thirsty and pull sleighs through snow covered mountains. Even better they’ll provide a good friend if you’re lonely and will hopefully remain in the service of mankind for a long time to come.
By: John M Williams
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Gun dogs
Gun dogs have plenty of energy, and really enjoy and need work to do to keep them happy. They dislike being left on their own for long periods of time even more than most dogs.
Examples - Springers, setters and Labrador retrievers
Toy Dogs
These breeds were specifically bred to be human companions and as such need a lot of contact with humans.
Examples - Chihuahuas, Yorkshire terriers
Terriers
Are characteristically small but tough, terriers were originally bred to catch and chase small animals. They are stubborn dogs that rarely give in if they don’t want something.
Herding Breeds
These breeds were bred to herd livestock so are naturally full of energy and have incredible stamina. As such they need regularly walking to get the exercise they require. Herding breeds are usually very loyal to their owner.
Examples - German Shepherd, collies
While it is important to all dog owners to have a dog they like the look of, avoid the temptation to buy a dog purely on looks without looking into the characteristics of the breed. You should also consider the differences between male and female dogs.
By: Richard Cross Terris
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