In truth, there is no single best dog training method that will be effective for every breed and each individual animal. Actually, different dogs respond in a variety of ways to different types of training methods. However, there are some methods that tend to work much better than others on dogs. Depending upon your pet's personality, the age at which you begin training, the other pets and people in the home and a variety of other factors, you may wish to experiment with different types of training methods in order to find the one that will work best for the goals that you're looking to achieve.
Read on for a brief guide to some of the most popular and traditionally most successful training methods for dogs.
1. Clicker Training
Using a clicker is a great way to train your pet. A clicker is a small device that you can keep on your person at all times and which can produce a clicking sound that your dog will hear. This sound is not loud enough to startle your dog. Whenever your pet engages in a positive action, you can reward him by praising him, petting him or giving him a food treat and by clicking the clicker.
As time goes on, your pet will begin to develop an association between positive actions and the clicker sound. As you incorporate commands into training, these words will begin to be linked up with that association as well. This method of training your dog is beneficial because it is rewards based.
2. Remote Electric Collar
A remote electric collar is based on punishing bad deeds. This type of training is more effective for dogs that are naturally more troublesome than most. You may find that these dogs require strict admonishment in order to prevent them from getting into trouble. However, if you don't respond immediately to any misdeed that your dog does, you will miss out on your opportunity to train him properly. A remote electric collar will give your dog a very mild shock to startle him whenever he does something wrong. The benefit to this method of training is that you can control the collar and the shock from a distance, keeping your total response time down as low as possible.
3. Play Training
Play training is another positive and rewards based training method. During this method of training, you will reward your pet by playing with him. Whenever he exhibits a bad deed, you'll simply tell him no and will ignore him momentarily. Your pet will begin to recognize the connection between happy playing and good deeds and between your ignoring him and the bad deeds. This method is beneficial because it allows you to spend quality time with your dog that is not in a strict training setting.
For more information about these and other ways of training your pet, ask a vet or a trainer.