If you're going to go about training your pet at home, you may find that it's best to observe a good set of positive dog training tips or guidelines. Dog training can be a difficult and sensitive issue to deal with. Many pet owners attempt to go about training their dogs without a proper base of knowledge on how to adequately instill good behavior in their pet. The result is often that the dog will not learn proper behavior, that the training will be ineffective or slow, at best, and that you may become very frustrated with your pet throughout the course of the procedure. In order to avoid this hassle and the potential harm to your pet's overall and longterm training, follow these positive dog training tips.
Train When Your Pet Is Ready
Training your dog requires that he be at a certain developmental stage. If you attempt to train your pet before that time, it's likely that the work you do will not take hold in his mind. This can be very frustrating, as you may fail to see results, even if you follow a good set of training guidelines and procedures. The exact age at which training can begin varies from dog breed to breed, but it is generally at a few months of age.
Use Positive Guidance
The best way to help your pet to learn about what is right and wrong is to use positive encouragement and guidance. Most breeds and individual dogs respond much better to positive feedback and reassurance than they do to negative responses and admonishment. Therefore, you can help to ensure that your pet will learn how to behave properly by giving him praise when he accomplishes a task well or behaves himself. This can also be tied to subtly and periodic rewards like treats.
Use Negative Admonishment Sparingly
In order to retain a positive overall training experience for your pet, it's a good idea to avoid using negative responses as much as possible. However, there are some times when such responses will be helpful. When you do give your pet a negative response to something that he does wrong, follow the procedures in order to make sure that there is no confusion. If you don't, your pet might think that some good behavior he has done is actually bad.
You should plan to chastise your dog with a single harsh and loud sound like a quick shout or a clap. Do not continue further than that, as your pet's attention span will only be momentary. You should also ensure that you give the admonishment while your pet is in the act of the bad behavior. If you do that, you'll be sure that your dog associates the two. Otherwise, he may be confused as to what he is being punished for.