Archive for January 8th, 2009
Three Basic Rules of Dog Obedience Training
There are dog obedience training schools where dogs are trained to follow simple commands using three basic principles as the trainer’s guide.. Most dog training and dog behavior schools use these rules. They are the following:
Principle One:Consistency. You must be consistent in the use of words, the tone of your voice and your actions, that go with your command. During the beginning of the training, the trainer or the dog owner must decide what should be the parameters of training- what you are trying to teach the dog and how to do it. A word or a phrase, let’s say ‘come’, does not make sense to a dog. Your dog does not understand our language, nor does he understand or think, the way we do.
So to make the training understandable, you should use the command in a very consistent manner such that the dog will learn to associate the word with the meaning you attach with it. For example, if you are using the command ‘come’, make sure that everyone in the household use it in a singular manner. The command ‘Come’ specifically means that the dog should approach the giver of the command and use it in that sense. If your dog does not come to you instantly, do not punish him when he does. Your dog would attribute the command with the punishment.
What could you expect next?He would not follow the same command since this leads to punishment. Consistency also covers the use of the same command by all people. For example, if you use the words ‘come’ make sure everyone in your family uses that word also, not ‘come here’.
Principle Two:The hours devoted to training and the words used as command should be kept short. Remember that the attention span of dogs is extremely short so it is almost impossible to keep them engaged in the one activity. Combining children with your puppy obedience training is an example of keeping your training sessions short as they would lose interest very quickly, so it is best to move on to the next thing.
Your dog simply does not posses the same amount of interest they had when they started the activity, they become easily bored. The same thing happens in training therefore, it should be limited only to 10 minutes to 15 minutes of regular training.
Principle Three: Do not use force and punishment to hurt your dog when training. Also, never force the dog to follow the command if he is not prepared for it or punish a dog for something he did. Whilst training the animal don’t push too hard.
Your dog has no understanding of your impatience for his lack of learning speed. He only knows you are angry. So do not use force as this does not communicate your meaning properly, instead use negative reinforcement. Do not send him mixed signals, by making him feel praised for doing something wrong, only when he obeys the command, should he feel praised.
You have to be understanding and patient, especially during your dog obedience training sessions. The outcome will be a very responsive and well trained dog.
