Teaching your pooch commands to follow can be one of the most rewarding parts of being a pet parent. Commands like sit or down can help your dog both be good at home but also be good outside of home and in the open. But in some cases, it is very difficult to teach your dog because it is unknown what is the proper thing to do with them. There are tons of rules that you can pick up over time, but there are some golden ones that every person who is training their dog should follow.
Here are 5 golden rules that everyone training their dog should follow.
- Don’t Repeat Yourself
Over repeating yourself can be one the cardinal sins of dog training. The constant repetition and no time for the dog to process and do the command can actually take steps back instead of forward in your training progress. There can be so many different outcomes from repeating commands numerous times, most of which can be bad. Not repeating yourself excessively is important to make sure that all training can remain intact.
- Play the Odds
This may not seem like a rule that makes sense so allow me to elaborate. It is important while training to not always expect perfection the first try. Expecting what is not possible can severely damage training progress. There can be multiple distractions in the way of the dog completing the task that is wanted, so it can create damage to repeat yourself and get upset when the correct response comes from the dog. Give the dog a moment to understand and focus so that way the proper response can come through.
- Understand the Price of Certain Behaviors
When teaching in any case, it is important to understand that everything that is done by the student has a price. It goes the exact same way with a dog. Having dogs do difficult commands requires a much larger reward than a smaller command. “Stay” needs some sort of treat as a reward, “sit” could be rewarded with just some simple praise. It is important to see from the dog’s point of view that each command has a different level of reward.
- Don’t Punish
Punishment can really set your training back. One punishment can take away a hundred awards given. Having the dog be excited and understand that what they are doing is right can easily be torn away by a single punishment. Be extremely careful with punishments.
- Let the Dog Choose
It is important to let the dog choose. A dog is a living thing and has wants and needs much like ourselves. It is quite ironic when you think about it, but dogs are learners and learners need to be able to choose for themselves at one point or another because learning constantly can be very taxing on the brain.
Contact It’s A Dog’s World K-9 Academy for all of your dog training needs
If ever in need of a professional dog trainer, contact It’s A Dog’s World for all of your Rancho Cucamonga dog training needs.