How To Break Bad Habits In Your Canine With Training

Chris Kostopoulos Jan 26, 2013 · 5 min read

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

To help maintain your home, train your dog. But, most people do not know how to really train a dog. To do this, one needs to to learn about puppy training. The advice in this article will help you with that and other aspects of training your dog.

Always use positive reinforcement to train your dog. Use a soft tone to let your dog know you are satisfied and give it some small treats too. Do not ever scream at or strike your dog. Not only are those things ineffective, but they are also cruel. The ideal results from puppy training come from efforts that are positive in nature with consistent and firm applications.

TIP! Do not expect too much out of your dog when training them. If your dog has been allowed to exhibit bad behaviors for a long time, it will be hard to correct those behaviors.

Avoid using edible treats and food as the only means of encouraging or discouraging a specific behavior. Food is necessary to a dog’s survival, so you should offer other types of rewards. Tasty treats make awesome rewards, as dogs are often willing to go out of their way to earn them.

It is possible to teach your pup to wait to eliminate, if you are consistent in your training. Be sure to take your puppy out for scheduled, hourly potty breaks when you’re home. When the dog relieves himself outside, give him praise. Do not punish or yell at your dog for having an accident indoors. He is not yet aware that this is wrong and he is going to learn if you just yell at him. Take your dog out soon after meals and after coming out of the crate.

Do your research and find a training method that works best with your breed of dog. Some dog breeds struggle to learn new things, and some are just more stubborn. Therefore, these type of dogs will require extra time. Two examples of breeds you have to be more patient with are bulldogs and basset hounds.

TIP! Family involvement is important to successful dog training in order to maintain good consistency. It is important that everyone in your household is consistent with training cues.

Make sure that your dog will not need to engage in any type of response when you deny him. Use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. If you just say “no”, your dog might not understand what is acceptable. Tailor dog training to suit the dog and the situation.

Be sure to provide consistency when it comes to your dog’s training. When more than one person is training your dog be sure that you are using the same word as a command and discipline. Your dog will learn better if the commands are ones he is familiar with.

For dogs that bark unnecessarily, do not shout at your dog. Shouting to counteract barking can actually be a positive reinforcement for dogs, since they do not understand that you are not reacting at their barking. This feedback loop leads the dog to believe that whatever they’re barking at is actually a big deal, so stay calm and distract your dog to deter problem barking.

Social Environments

One tip to keep in mind when training your dog is to be sure that you introduce it to social environments early and frequently. Your dog will only learn how to behave around people, dogs, cats and so on by experience. This helps reduce unacceptable behavior in social environments.

Ensure you get your dog’s attention using the same methods. For example, state your dog’s name before giving a command. Then, say the command. Dogs know their name and will be attentive when you speak it.

TIP! You need to reinforce your training as often as possible to ensure that it is effective. Don’t think you’ll be perfect as a trainer the minute you start.

Keep your dogs out of the trash by feeding them well and giving them a lot of toys. Never put items in the trash that your dogs would not be safe eating. If you go out, empty the trash or crate your dog.

Ensure that your dog gets 60 minutes of daily exercise on top of routine potty breaks or training periods. You need to ensure your dog is exercising, you will get more out of training them. When your dog is exercised, he is also happy.

Older Dogs

TIP! Though you actually can teach older dogs some new things, it is important to take note of medical problems or other conditions that could reduce an older dog’s readiness to perform certain tasks. For instance, it may be impractical to ask your dog to crawl for long distances if he has arthritis.

You must understand that older dogs have certain limitations. Older dogs won’t be trained perfectly. They’ll always have some quirks that need to be embraced. There may be strongly entrenched habits and attitudes in an older dog. It is still possible to teach new things, but more focus should be given to negative behavior avoidance.

Short training sessions are the best idea. The average dog will pay attention for about fifteen minutes and will not learn anything once it has lost interest in the exercise. Following every session, allocate some playtime and give the dog lots of praise.

You can show your dog to ‘sit’, just hold a dog biscuit in the air. Pass the treat over his head as you move your hand backwards. The dog will have to look up in order to follow the motion of your hand. When his head goes up, his bottom will go down.

TIP! Teach your dog to learn ‘down’. This is an important command for your dog to know in social settings.

Now you can keep your home clean and peaceful by using these tips to train your dog. Being consistent with your training can help you to raise a well behaved and happy dog.