Three Principles on Dog Obedience Training

Dog obedience training requires the use of some principles which differentiate effective training from training without results. Most dog training and dog behavior schools use these rules. These are:

Principle One:Consistency. This covers the use of words, tone, and the actions that accompany the word or command. At the beginning of training you as the dog owner or trainer must make the decision as to what guidelines you will use to teach the dog. A word or a phrase, let's say 'come', does not make sense to a dog. He does not understand things the way we understand, and he does not understand the language we use.

For the training to be understandable, the command must be used in a consistent manner so he can recognize the meaning to the word and tone. If you are using the word 'come' make sure everyone is. The command 'Come' specifically means that the dog should approach the giver of the command and use it in that sense. If he does not come to you, do not force the dog to come to you and punish him for doing so. Your dog would attribute the command with the punishment.

What could you expect next?-If the command leads to punishment he will not follow it next time. The same command used, by all people, must be consistent. For example, if you use the words 'come' make sure everyone in your family uses that word also, not 'come here'.

Principle Two:The hours devoted to training and the words used as command should be kept short. Keep in mind that the attention span of dogs is very short that making them engrossed with a specific activity would be very hard, if not impossible. Combining children with your puppy obedience training is an example of keeping your training sessions short as they would lose interest very quickly, so it is best to move on to the next thing.

Your dog becomes easily bored and their interest at the beginning soon fades. Training should be kept to ten to fifteen minutes and set at regular times.

Principle Three: Do not use force and punishment to hurt your dog when training. Also, never force the dog to follow the command if he is not prepared for it or punish a dog for something he did. Whilst training the animal don't push too hard.

Your dog has no understanding of your impatience for his lack of learning speed. All he knows is that you are mad. So do not use force as this does not communicate your meaning properly, instead use negative reinforcement. If he knows that he is praised when he does something right, then he should not feel praised when he does not follow a command.

You have to be understanding and patient, especially during your dog obedience training sessions. The outcome will be a very responsive and well trained dog.