Easy Dog Training – by Expert Secrets 4 Dog Training

Are you a new dog owner? Wonderful! You will have so much pleasure from your lovely new pet. Here are some of my top tips to help you do just that. Sometimes new owners find their new dog has a mind of its own – and starts to develop habits you didn’t expect – and just don’t want. Even experienced dog owners can find problems cropping up out of the blue. Whatever your experience, training your dog effectively will make your life – and your dog’s life – so much happier and easier. A well trained dog is such a pleasure to have around – and it really is easy to train your dog well, when you know how. So here are my top tips for easy dog training.

1  Dogs are Wolves!

Well no, they aren’t really. But understanding that dogs are descended from wolves and how that affects their instinctive behaviour really is the key to training your dog. So dogs are naturally pack animals – this means they are comfortable living in a group, with a clear social structure and defined roles, and they have lots of social interaction within the group. In the wild each animal’s survival, security and food depends on these relationships. You can use these principles to help you when training your dog.

2  Be The Leader of the Pack

The alpha male leader role within a pack is very important. In your relationship with your dog, you need to make sure that you are always the one playing that role – and that you are always seen by your dog as the leader. Do remember that it’s natural for your dog to challenge you for the pack leader’s role, especially as a puppy becomes a young adult, but also if you are looking at adult dog training. So it’s very important to establish yourself without question as the “top dog”, right from the very beginning of your relationship. Like the pack leader, you are the source of food and security for your dog. You will also need to use suitable words and body language, to encourage and reward good behavior and punish anything bad.

3  Dogs Love Hugs and Kisses

You will find that your dog is naturally a very sociable animal and that social interaction is very important to him or her. In the wild an animal which is excluded from the pack is very vulnerable, so your dog will naturally want to do everything it can to stay secure within its world – to do the right thing. You can really take advantage of this when training your dog – social interaction in the form of patting, praise and attention are just as valuable to your dog as food treats. So use them to reward your dog for good behavior. In the same way, a very effective punishment is simply to exclude your dog from your attention – all you may need to do is simply turn your back and ignore him – or you might shut him in a room on his own for a short time.

4  Dogs Have Alzheimers

Well not quite, but they do have very poor short term memory. They don’t have good retentive memories – but, don’t worry, they just learn in a different way – they are great at association. So this is how you will need to train your dog. A simple exercise learned one day just through repetition will easily be forgotten by the next morning, but when your dog associates an action with a reward, he will remember what he needs to do without any trouble – probably for years! So, teach your dog to sit and give him a reward every time he does – he’ll very quickly be sitting down whenever you ask. Just try to make sure you don’t always use food treats – use praise and attention instead.

5  Dogs Don’t Speak English

Your dog will be able learn what you train him to do using association, but do remember that dogs don’t understand our language easily. So make it as easy for your dog as you can and always be consistent. Make sure you always use simple words as commands eg sit, down and stay an that you are consistent. Your dog will get confused if you start saying down when you mean sit, or wait instead of stay. You also need to use the same tone of voice with each word. If you can, avoid very common words which you often also use in the middle of sentences, say, when you talk to friends. This isn’t always quite so easy as it sounds – we all know that you only have to mention “walk” when there’s a dog around and he’ll be bouncing up to you, expecting to go out!

6  Short and Sweet

Dogs aren’t great at concentrating for long, so do keep your training sessions short, especially early on. Dogs also prefer routine, so have your training sessions at the same time and place each day or week. Your will find it all much easier and progress quicker when he’s expecting a training session. You may still need to be flexible, so if one day your dog is really not concentrating, you may need to make the session a bit shorter. You don’t need long formal sessions anyway – the most important thing is to be consistent with your dog and to use the same approach to every situation, every day, so you reinforce the messages from your formal training sessions.

7  Have Fun and Learn!

Training your dog really should be fun for both of you – so make sure it is. If you don’t enjoy yourself, your dog won’t either! And the other way around! Training classes are a great idea, especially for a young dog, so he or she learns to interact and behave well with other dogs. You’ll have fun meeting other dog owners, swapping notes and getting some extra help if you need it too. There are also some very good dog training books and videos – and these are a very worthwhile investment – especially if you are new to dog ownership. You’ll learn all sorts of dog obedience tips and tactics – and you’ll have a great resource to help you deal with any bad behaviour issues straight away. So the best advice I can give you is to track down the best dog training book you can find. The more you know, the easier it is – sounds a bit trite, I know, but it’s true. Yours will be the best behaved dog for miles – and everyone you know will think you’re the expert when it comes to simple, easy dog training.

Good luck,  have fun with your dog – and let us know how you get on!

Enjoy and Share!

Sophie James – Easy Dog Training @ ExpertSecrets4DogTraining.com

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