Because of busy schedules, dog owners can’t always be with their dogs. Now that the current events are causing widespread lockdown, this is the perfect time to bond with your family and pets. You now have more free time to stay at home, skip those plans to explore outside and fulfill all your missed moments with your dog.
A great way to spend time with your canine is to train them. Training your dog in different ways can sharpen their minds and improve their social skills with humans and other animals. Through pet training, you can instill in your dog obedience and ensure that they will stay as loyal as they are now.
If you’re only starting in dog training, here are simple ways and tips for teaching your furry friend some simple tricks at home:
Establish Connection Through Physical Contact
Pet ownership isn’t as easy as you would imagine. You don’t expect a deep connection with a canine through only feeding, sheltering, and bringing them to the vet. To establish a more meaningful relationship with your dog, expressing your love through physical contact is irreplaceable.
Healthy and consistent physical contact with your dog positively impacts their emotional well-being. A series of delicate touches can make a big difference in canines. You can express physical connection through a plethora of ways, and one good example is through grooming and brushing them.
Before training them, use soft pet brushes, like these 9 Best Cat Brushes that you can also use for dogs, to let them stay still and connect with them. As your dog responds positively to your touches and pats, you’re up to a great start.
Reward Them With Treats
To get your connection to a greater extent, giving out treats as a reward for your dog strongly influences their outlook towards the activity that you’re currently doing with them. Therefore, if you give them treats because you liked what they did during training, it makes them think that continuously obeying their owner will let them have more treats. Easy, right?
This reward training method is the most efficient and fun way for you and your dog because it allows you to teach your dog some instructions and let them understand, in some way, how relevant these instructions are.
However, as a canine owner, you should also understand that this lure technique will become unhealthy if you don’t do it properly during your next training. Combine some hand signals and verbal utterances when giving out instructions to your dog, aside from only offering treats.
Understand Their Behavior
It would be best if you acknowledged that not all dog breeds are the same, particularly their qualities and behavior. When you finally start training them, see how their learning behavior correlates to your training, and adjust accordingly. Most pet owners commit this first mistake when adopting a dog: not being equipped with knowledge about dogs in overall and their chosen breed.
The easiest canine breeds to train are the Golden Retriever, Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, German Shepherd, and Poodle, mainly because of their intelligence, motivation, and eagerness to please. On the other end, there are ‘lazy breeds’ that can stay curled up on your couch all day long, usually because they have low energies and love to sleep. Some examples are the Bulldog, Basset Hound, Pug, Chow Chow, Havanese, and Shih Tzu.
Never Harm And Abuse Them When They Disobey
A big no-no when training your canine is to hurt them whenever they disobey your instructions, and it doesn’t take an ignorant pet owner to understand that dogs have feelings as well. Never lay a hand on your pet because of disobedience, as this will only give far worse results.
Moreover, it is wrong to expect your dog to make changes and resolve their issues on their own. You can’t just say they will eventually calm down once they feel comfortable or when they grow out of it. Usually, pets treated like this by their owners only feel frustration and neglect.
Instead of harming them, listed below are a few ways to get your furry friend to listen:
- Use body language instead of verbal commands
- Calm down your dog to lessen pent-up energy
- Be consistent with your instructions
If these methods still don’t work, maybe it is time to call it a day and resume training next time.
Enjoy Your Training Time Together
Now that you have learned the basics and essential considerations in training your dog, don’t get too technical and cherish your training moments with your furry canine. When starting with training, choose those simple tricks that you usually see dog trainers do as their “warm-up.” Some of the simplest but most impressive dog tricks include fetch, shake hands, kiss, roll over, play dead, and sit pretty. Training your dogs can be a very fruitful adventure. If you enjoyed training your pup and have found that is something that you are skilled at, you may want to consider starting a dog training business. This is a career path that not only lets you work with dogs but allows you to help dog lovers understand their pets.
Final Word
Training your dog and helping them learn a few tricks are among the most memorable experiences that dog owners can share with their best companions. When training your dog, straightforwardly introducing them to simple tricks won’t allow them to learn comprehensively. Instead, take note of these tips discussed in the article to make your next training sessions better.
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