All dog lovers and owners know how important it is to train their dogs. It helps build a deeper relationship between the dog and its owner that is unique and strong. For practical training, the owner has to build trust with the new dog, and the training process is always much more straightforward with a new puppy compared to adult dogs.
To guarantee an adequate response from any dog training sessions, prepare for the dog training experience, especially if you are a first-time dog owner. Both you and the dog have a lot to learn about one another. You and your family will have to learn some essential dog training tips to ensure the new dog is settled and can quickly start learning.
Prepare Your Home
Before the dog is brought home, go ahead and acquire items like a leash, a sleeping crate to keep the dog safe, a chew toy, and a feeder for its food. If the dog or pup has been at the dog shelter for a while or is still very young, it pays to have a ticking clock and a hot water bottle next to its sleeping crate. These items will mimic the heartbeat sound and warmth of the other dogs in the litter and help your new pet sleep.
If you have your own space with a backyard, any training session will be much more fun. You can use the backyard for all kinds of training, but occasional training at the park may be necessary if you live in an apartment. In the meantime, you can take your new dog through house and crate training to ensure the dog knows what to do in the house and how to react when it needs to go for potty breaks.
Using Consistent repetition To Enforce Dogs Habits
Dogs will learn and adopt behavior that you enforce as their trainer. Start training your dog on positive behavior from the onset by rewarding good behavior and be quick to deter bad habits by eliminating the precursor to the bad habits. While rectifying bad behavior, be keen not to punish your dog; instead, make sure that you consistently reward the good behavior.
Use Treats and Praises during Training Sessions
When a dog follows your basic commands, be quick to offer a tasty treat, praise, or pat. The dog will pick this as a good deed and learn to follow that instruction every time. During obedience training, it’s essential to reward the dog immediately after the dog has executed your commands. By doing this, you keep the dog interested in the training. Still, most importantly, you don’t confuse the dog by rewarding a bad behavior or by rewarding something that it has already forgotten.
Tell the dog what To Do
Dogs do not understand English, and you need to train your dog to understand basic commands. For instance, if your dog tends to jump on people while greeting them and you disapprove of such behavior, it may be helpful to command the puppy or new dog to sit and offer a treat when it obeys any basic command. Repeating this often reinforces its behavior and action, and it will adopt. While commanding the dog, remember to use a confident and calm tone but refrain from yelling at the dog.
Practice short Dog Training Sessions
Having a well-behaved dog doesn’t happen overnight. The process requires patience and positive reinforcement each time the dog follows your command accurately. One of the most crucial training tips for dogs is that puppies and most dogs have a short attention span as you plan to teach your dog. Spend time understanding what distracts your dog, keep the training and teaching sessions short and fun, and gradually increase the training duration. Start training b
Break down the tasks into smaller tasks to encourage faster learning. Start by training your dog on basic commands like come, sit, wait, and how to respond when called. Again remember to reinforce good behavior by offering treats.
Finally, be patient with the pup. If you notice that the puppy keeps forgetting things that you have gone through during the training process, it may signify that you are moving too fast between tasks. It is good to repeat the training session and keep reinforcing good behavior to create the mental stimulation necessary for your dog to grab all the commands.
Keep Track of Your Dog’s Training Process
As you train your dog, keep note of its progress. This way, you will know which basic instructions the dog is comfortable with and which ones you should continue training. Remember, taking the initiative to train your puppy is a test for you and your puppy. Record your progress and share it with your family, and you can even start building your side career as a trainer if you wish to do so based on the information you gather while training your dog.
Remember to Have Fun During the Training Sessions
As you train your dog, there may be moments that drain your energy and make you feel like quitting. Always remember that the process of training your dog will demand more from you and that you should always be patient. As you continue with the training sessions, have fun with the dog by running around with or playing a game of tug with its favorite toy. Playing games with your dog will build your bond and make your dog more responsive to you. Always shower the dog with praise like “good boy” while playing to act as reinforcement for good behavior and a show of affection.
Looking to have your Dog or Puppy Trained in Winchester?
With over ten years of experience in training dogs, Our Ridgeside K9 Winchester dog training facility is truly one of a kind. We focus on obedience training sessions as our foundation because we believe that all other aspects of dog training rely on the success of obedience training. We also pride ourselves on having well-experienced trainers who will train your dog and ensure that the dog is well-behaved when it leaves our facility.
Feel free to call us at (540)270-7132 to book your dog training session with us.