How To Have A Happy Dog

A good trainer will not teach your dog for you, but they will teach you, the owner, to train your own dog. It can be very bad for your confidence in your own ability if your dog will do anything for a trainer but chooses to ignore you!

Your dog should enjoy his training sessions and not appear apprehensive about the experience. You can help him by making training a part of his daily routine, so that it’s not something he associates with a particular place or repetitive sessions and negative experiences. Remember, your dog will be happy to please you, especially if you generous with the rewards you offer him.

Finding a Trainer

If you have attended puppy socialization classes, you may already have learned the basics of training. Make enquiries about finding a reputable trainer for when your pet graduates from puppy school. Your veterinary surgery is a good place to get advice and recommendations about trainers.

Always arrange to meet the trainer and observe a few classes before committing yourself to signing up. Only use a professional trainer who advocates humane positive reinforcement methods that involve rewarding good behavior and ignoring unwanted behaviors.

Your trainer should be someone you can communicate with easily, so ask lot of questions and look for enthusiastic answers that encourage you to ask anything without feeling silly or intimidated by your lack of knowledge.

Top 10 Happy Training Tips

1. Wear a waist bag around the house and out on walks. Fill it with tasty treats so that you always have rewards available when your dog does something that pleases you.
2. When teaching something new, use treats or toys that he will view as high value, such as pieces of chicken or liver.
3. Use treats that are clearly visible and won’t crumble when thrown down. You want the dog to focus on you rather than spend his time sniffing around for crumbs.
4. Carry a clicker in your pocket so that you can mark good behaviors throughout the day.
5. Keep some exciting toys specifically for use in training sessions.
6. If your dog becomes confused about what you want him to do, go back to an earlier stage of his training and start again.
7. Be patient with him - some dogs take longer to train than others.
8. Always end a training session on a good note, even if it means going back to something the dog can do very well such as ’sit’.
9. End the session with lots of praise, treats and a fun game or two.
10. Practice using different tones of voice. Use a lower pitched voice for low commands such as ’sit’ or ‘down’, and a higher pitched voice for more active commands such as recall or ‘fetch’.

Happy Dog Tip Avoid ‘quick fix’ training methods, such as shock collars, at all costs. Although they may interrupt behavior patterns, they do not get to the root cause of why a dog is behaving in a certain way.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Dog Behavior Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.