More Basic Training Tips For Your Puppy Or Dog

It’s an exciting time when a puppy joins your family. Puppies are so adorable and playful and fun that it is sometimes hard to imagine that they will grow up to be adult dogs. If you want your puppy to grow up to be a well-behaved and responsible adult dog you need to begin their training right away while they are still puppies.

Housetraining is likely the most crucial training you need to finish and it is often given the most attention. However, in order to grow up to be a well-behaved adult dog you will also need to complete training on leash training, training to come, sit, stay and lie down. A well-behaved adult dog will be trained to do all of these also.

It is important to have your dog master these basics and there are some consistent things about dog training that always work. All animals respond better with positive reinforcement as opposed to negative reinforcement. Your dog wants to please you and make you happy and he will do anything to achieve that. However, if you give him negative reinforcement he will be fearful and less likely to react to you the way that you want him too.

When you train your dog be sure that you enforce the wanted behaviors with treats, affection, verbal praise and more. Most often you should use verbal praise. Praise your dog almost every time but only give him treats once occasionally. If he gets a treat every time his behavior will diminish and too many treats can affect his health and your pocketbook.

Another thing is if you remember your high school science classes about classical conditioning and Pavlov’s dogs, intermittent reinforcement is more effective at confirming the behavior than consistent reinforcement. When the dogs got the treats every time they were less likely to exhibit the desired behavior consistently, yet when they thought they might get a treat the behavior was more consistent and reinforced deeper.

As you are teaching your dog commands you should use hand signals along with the words. As he gets more proficient at the task, use just one or the other. Pretty soon, he will respond to either and that can make things really easy in different situations.

At the very least you will want to teach your dog to sit, come, lie down and stay and to walk nicely beside you on a leash. Extra behavior training may also be a good idea if your dog is frequently out in public with you or if he happens to be somewhat high strung and rambunctious. Well-trained and well-behaved dogs are a pleasure to own and they will bring you many days of fun and pleasure throughout their lives.

As you train your dog, the bond between the two of you will get bigger and it will be a joy to have him as part of your family for a long time to come.