You dreamed of bringing home Lassie, but you may have a dog that acts more like Cujo! There is hope! You can train aggressive or naughty behaviors out of your dog.
Always reward good, calm behavior. When the dog correctly follows your commands, you can certainly give a reward. If you get excited, the dog will become excited and everything will be out of control. Act calmly, expect calmness, and then appropriately reward the dog.
Dogs have the uncanny ability to have single-minded focus when something catches their attention. Repetition and practice will result in your dog waiting to take cues from you rather than being distracted by other things.
It may take several times for your dog to learn new commands. It is said that a human only masters something when they do it 10,000 times, and dogs are no different, although it should take much less repetitions than that! Use the command over and over again until the dog gets the hint.
Always treat a dog after completing tasks. You want to be able to reward your dog when he does what you want him to do. This will teach your dog what behavior is correct and expected.
Make a point to enjoy your time with your dog while you are training. It builds a strong bond between the two of you and encourages them to want to please you. Although dog training can be fun, you don't really want to spend all your time in training mode.
To make sure your dog's behavior stays good, you should continue training him throughout its life. Puppy's aren't the only dogs that can learn. By reinforcing their behavior, you can ensure you dog will continue to obey. Also, by disciplining negative behaviors you can ensure your dog will be well behaved.
One way to help discipline your dog's bad behavior is to use a water bottle. This lets your dog know that specific actions are not acceptable. Your dog will learn to associate these behaviors with the water and will stop doing them.
One bit of advice to remember when you are training your pet is to make an effort to socialize it early on and often. Your dog needs to know how to act around other dogs and humans, and frequent socialization is the only way to teach these skills. Doing this will also decrease the likelihood that the dog will respond poorly when introduced to new environments.
Many dog owners are surprised by the ease with which puppy training can be integrated into their schedules. They are further amazed when they begin
to see great results in no time at all. So if the relationship with your dog is not as good as it should be, try a few of these suggestions.