Teach Your Dog To Behave!

Dogs are naturally curious, which at times can lead to big time disasters! Luckily, it just takes some elementary dog training to help your dog understand what sort of behavior is expected.

Keep count of the number of treats you feed your dog because you do not want him or her to get fat. It's easy to overlook the treats, but the do add up, especially when you're doing a lot of training.

Training your dog takes time and patience: if you cannot commit, do not start a training session. If you are impatient, your dog will become anxious and be unable to focus on learning.

If you have a puppy that likes to chew on everything when you are away from home, the easiest solution is to consider an indoor or outdoor kennel to use in your absence. If this does not work for you, then close interior doors to rooms with tempting items, and provide plenty of chew toys for your dog.

For success in training your dog, it is critical that your dog remain active for his entire life. Dogs were not meant to lay around all day. To have an enjoyable life, they need to be able to get out and run and work. Activity is important, whether it is a run through the park, running freely around a dog park or the exercises for your dog in an agility class. While you are training your dog, make sure to always keep him active.

Dogs learn by repetitive technique and reward. You need to first show your dog what he is expected to do, then establish a familiar routine with rewards you can practice with the dog each day. There is not another way to teach something to a dog. Teach your dog what to do using rewards and repetition.

House training a puppy can be frustrating, as accidents are going to occur on occasion. Immediately clean up every accident for training purposes. Urine and feces smells will stay in the carpet if you don't clean them up straight away, causing your dog to go back to the same place to do his business. Look into different cleaners, especially enzyme cleaners, available at any pet store.

Make sure your dog associates one word with one discrete behavior. This makes dogs easier to train because there is no ambiguity in which command goes with which behavior. It is essential not to confuse your dog with commands that are not the same every single time. If you can do this, you will find much more success when training your pet.

Try to challenge your pet on a regular basis. Test the dog occasionally to check his memory, even though both of you know that he remembers his commands.

Dogs have natural destructive behavior, so provide outlets for them to exercise their natural behaviors. Dogs also need to be fed a healthy diet, get exercise, and be kept busy, just as you do.

If you are training your dog to do a complex behavior, break it down for him. This includes tricks like training your dog to retrieve your newspaper. He will first need to learn how to hold onto something. Then he should be taught to recognize that item by name. After mastering this, he should be taught how to pick something up. Finally, he should learn how to bring it over to you. When you train your dog by breaking down a behavior into stages, he will understand that each step relates to the other.

While some dogs train well together, it depends entirely on each pup's personality; training two dogs simultaneously may prove impossible. If your dogs do not focus on you properly when you train them together, you may want to separate them and give them some individual attention before trying to work with them jointly.

Try training a dog to clench a plush toy in his mouth. Every time he successfully holds onto the toy with his mouth, hit the clicker and proceed by giving him a treat. After this is done a few times, watch and wait for your dog to put the toy inside his mouth. After has has done this, you should click and promptly give a reward. After this, you should only reward your dog after he holds the toy in his mouth.

Dog training does not have to be a battle between you and your pet. Proper knowledge and consistent follow through is the key to successful training. Dogs wish to please their owners; therefore, most will excel in a training program.