Dog Training: Get Rid Of Your Dog-Fuelled Stress
Are you having problems with your dog behaving badly? Don’t just put it with it. It’s time to get down to some serious dog obedience training. This means you should proceed with consistency and persistency with your training. However, training should always be fun for your dog or it will quickly get bored!
The Basic Needs of A Dog
With power comes great responsibility. If you don’t fulfill your dog’s basic needs, it shouldn’t be a surprise if your dog behaves badly. What are the basic needs? Here are the main ones:
- water and food
- sufficient exercise
- social interaction with dogs and people
- an environment which stimulates him.
The main point in training your dog is to understand positive and negative reinforcement. When your dog engages in a behavior that is wanted, you should reward him with a treat or affection. The treat or affection must come as soon after the behavior as humanly possible in order for it to be effective.
It’s best to concentrate on positive reinforcement for wanted behaviors rather than negative reinforcement for unwanted behaviors. This has been found to be a more efficient way of training.
Physical punishment is not productive or compassionate way to train dogs and will only lead to a fearful and neurotic dog. You can say a firm “No” in a growling tone of voice to stop him behaving badly. Perhaps most effective is to ignore your dog when he misbehaves. Dogs love attention and being ignored is negative reinforcement enough.
At all costs you should avoid humanizing your dog. Dogs have their own way of communicating which you will not understand unless you study it. You need to learn what their body language means: the position of the tail, the mouth positions, the ear position and the sounds they make.
Another important aspect of training is to position yourself as the pack leader. If your dog is the alpha dog, you will be fighting a losing battle to get him to behave as you want. Why would he take notice of one of his pack member? Some pointers to set yourself up as alpha dog:
-eat a some food in front of your dog just before you feed him. The alpha dog always eats first.
-don’t let him to get on the sofa or bed. The pack leader sleeps on higher ground.
-don’t allow him to go through the door before you.
This is an introduction to some important points in dog training. I recommend you look into the most systematic of training methods: clicker training for dogs.
of the many dog breeds that we have, my personal favorite is the bull terrier coz they are really cute .;’