Hard Time Training Your Pooch? Try These Tips!

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

Remember that your dog doesn’t process thoughts the same way that you do. If you do, you’ll end up disappointed and won’t get the results you expect. Read on to learn the way to communicate on your dog’s level, so that they can understand what you want them to do.

Consider holding a toy to your dogs mouth when you are training him. When you see him mouth a toy, give him a reward or treat and use a clicker. After your dog succeeds in mouthing an object a few times, move on to rewarding the dog for picking it up with his mouth. When the toy is in his mouth, use the clicker and give a reward. After that, only give the reward if he does hold the toy in his mouth.

Before you start training, learn which treats your dog likes best. By giving your dog this food, they will want to follow whatever you teach them. Pay attention to what treats your dog responds the best to.

Social sessions with new animals should be very controlled and done slowly. Before deciding to adopt a new pet, consider how it will affect the pets you already have. Pets have different personalities, therefore, it is very important to pick a pet with a similar personality to your current dog.

Often, bad chewing habits are caused by anxiety. If you keep him in a crate and give him toys that are safe for him to chew on, your dog and your house will stay safe.

Never try to train a dog while you’re short on patience. If you’ve had a bad day or are unusually short-tempered for some other reason today, it’s better to put off training until another day. Your dogs will respond to patience and will lose interest if they feel you are getting frustrated.

Your dog can, and should, find the training experience to be a positive one. Try not to make training sessions any longer than 15 minutes. That will keep his attention. Vary your rewards. Make sure you shower your dog with abundant praise when he does well. If your dog enjoys the training exercises, the dog is more likely to be responsive.

Challenge your dog often. Throw “pop quizzes” occasionally to be sure he is not getting out of practice.

Set your dog up for success when training him to stop chewing inappropriate items. Even more so, an inappropriately-chewing dog needs to be protected. Common items like curtains and hairbrushes are choking hazards that can kill your dog if you aren’t vigilant.

Before leaving your dog for an extended period, make sure your dog gets some good exercise like a walk. If you are able to tire your pets out, they will not be as anxious when it is time for you to go.

The sooner you start training your dog, the better. Much like human children, puppies learn faster than adult dogs. By training your dog when he is a puppy, he will grow up to be well-mannered and respectful.

Dogs have a lot of energy to exhaust so make certain that you provide plenty of outlets for this to happen positively. Dogs need an appropriate diet, a place to run out their energy and lots of ways to keep busy.

Keep the dog outside when you leave to prevent him from chewing on household items. If it is too cold out, or you can’t leave the puppy outdoors for some other reason, you will just have to do your best to make his favorite objects out of reach. Leave him in one room with the door closed, and leave him some toys that are okay to chew on.

You don’t want your dog to have to decide whether or not you should be listened to. Don’t ever give your dog a command if you are unable to follow through with the enforcement of it.

After learning some helpful hints on how to get through to your dog and train it to behave to your expectations you simply need to follow what you have learned. After changing your dogs behavior to fit with the tips suggested you can properly train your dog.