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Basics Of
Dog Training
By: Dmitry Belov
The most important things in dog training are consistency, keeping
dog’s attention and understanding your dog.
To get the respect of your dog you must be consistent. You should make
a set of do’s and don’ts for your dog. Follow these
guidelines to the letter, if a dog does something desirable always
reward it, if a dog does something bad punish him or her appropriately.
In dogs world consistency is a sign of a leader. You will make your
training my easier and effective by being a leader who the dog respects
and follows.
Ninety percent of your dogs training will be getting his or hers
attention and keeping him focused on yourself. If your dog cannot focus
on you, it will not listen to you, and thus making the commands you
give fall on empty ears. I will describe a technique on how to get and
keep your dog’s attention with few very simple exercises.
First, most dogs will respond to their name, so call them and when they
look at you tell them “watch”. After doing it few
times the dog will associate the command with looking at you. After you
have perfected the “watch” command, start doing
exercises aimed at expanding your dog’s attention span. A
good technique is to hold a treat with your teeth and while standing in
front of your dog give it a watch command. Stand in position for a few
seconds keeping dogs attention, then praise. Repeat the exercise until
your dog focus on you for about a minute. The more attention your dog
can give you the better student it will be.
A vital part of dog training is the understanding of how a dog thinks.
Dogs, like small children, have a very short attention span. Most dogs
can be focused on training for about ten to twenty minutes, after that
time they will start loosing focus and will require a small break. A
good idea is to make regular training sessions of 20-30 minutes per
day. Another important thing is to make the training fun for the dog.
Make the dog look forward to the training time instead of dreading it.
To achieve this you should always make their effort worthwhile. After
every successful command make sure to give them a treat or praise them
with very excited voice. The more willing the dog is to train the more
effective the training will be!
Incorporate these techniques into your training sessions and in no-time
you will be ready to proceed to much more complex obedience training
exercises. You and your dog will both enjoy the time spent together,
your dog will respect you for being a responsible owner and other
people will appreciate your dog’s great behavior after you
are done!
About the author: Dmitry Belov is founder of Dnepr Import. Visit their
site at: http://www.dneprimport.com
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