Tips on Giving your Dog or Puppy Obedience Training

by Steven Roberts

Learning how to provide training obedience to your puppy or beloved dog is crucial to successfully integrate your pet into your home life. Our dog often becomes our best friend so we want to make the training experience both fun and mutually productive.
We all love our dogs. However, dissuading our canine pals from disruptive or destructive behavior can be frustrating when we don't know what we are doing. Improper training techniques can be confusing to our dog because they may become confused and uncertain about what we are trying to achieve.
Equally important is to remember that you have to learn and understand the psychology of the particular breed of dog you want to buy or already own. Different dogs like to do different things and for different reasons. So, when you decide on what type of puppy or dog you want, the first important step is to get a book about your breed of dog so you can gain a thorough understanding of any behavior peculiar to that particular breed.
The second most important step is to appreciate the fact that your dog will go through several crucial developmental stages. Dog training techniques should be age appropriate and is best done in stages. Don't try and teach your puppy too much because you'll both end up frustrated. Teach your puppy what they can absorb because they are just a ball of energy and have a limited attention span. The two main issues to address at this stage of development are potty training and excessive chewing. Patience and appropriate awards for good behavior is essential.
As your dog gets older, you can gradually begin use more age appropriate training techniques to tackle such issues as barking, jumping up on people, running, heeling. Again, don't overwhelm the dog by trying to too many different things at the same time. Teach them one thing at a time and when they master it, move on to the next issue.
When you dog does something, they do so for a reason. As a dog owner, it is vital you try to interpret their language and signals to better understand their behavior. When a dog expresses something, it is communicating so it is to your advantage to unravel their signals.
Puppies and dogs are normally very social creatures. They learn a lot from interacting both with other people and especially with other dogs. Puppies for example learn much of their social etiquette from their mother and their other siblings. If a puppy nips another pup, it will get nipped back . This teaches the puppy about appropriate biting behavior. So, it is essential you realize that when you get your puppy, you are the one who has to take the place of the dog's mother and other siblings and train your puppy accordingly.
As a dog owner, you must also learn to accept that certain behaviors such as stubbornness or other traits might be inherent to that particular breed. You can still achieve some degree of behavior modification but it's important to accept that a compromise may be required at some point.
If you plan to train your dog yourself, then you must do so regularly and with consistency. Don't try to train your dog in a foul mood. Shouting tends to frighten a dog. They trust and love us unconditionally so must not betray that trust. However, your pet does need to know who is in charge, so be a stern friend but not a dictator. Let your dog have fun and enjoy what they like doing because you also have to consider their mental health as well as their physical health.They need an age appropriate diet and regular exercise. Dogs can suffer from as many hang-ups as we do.
There are many wonderful expert books, videos and online courses that can help you through this process. Take the time to scope out these dog training materials. Choose the ones you feel not only best suits your needs but the needs of the dog as well.
If you find you can't take the time to teach your dog obedience training you should give serious consideration to taking your dog to a professional obedience school. Even so, this does not let you off the hook as you must make a commitment to become involved as much as possible. You want your dog to derive the most benefit from this expense and the trainer's expertise so you should try to learn as much about what the trainer is doing and why.
Dogs need to be trained, just like children, so pet owners need to do it right. The better we can train our dogs the more we can spend with them as friends and beloved family members. Please feel free to click on the following link or the one in the resource box for more information on this topic.

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