Is your dog driving you crazy with his bad behavior? Don't put it off any longer. It’s time to get down to some consistent dog training. This means you should be persistent and consistent with your training. However, training should always be fun for your dog or it will quickly get bored!

The Basic Needs of A Dog

Your dog has to rely on you to provide for him. If you don’t satisfy your dog's basic needs, you shouldn't be surprised if your dog behaves badly. What are the basic needs? Here are the main ones:

• water and food
• regular exercise
• company and social interaction
• an environment which stimulates him.

The main principle in dog training is to utilise positive and negative reinforcement. When your dog engages in a behavior that you want to encourage, you should reward him with a treat or affection. It's very important that the reward comes immediately after the desired action or the two things will not be connected by the dog.

It’s best to concentrate on positive reinforcement for wanted behaviors rather than negative reinforcement for bad behaviors. This has been found to be a more efficient way of training.

Physical punishment is not productive or compassionate way to train dogs and will only lead to your dog being neurotic and fearful. That's not going to be a good relationship between man and dog. You can say a firm “No” in a growling tone of voice to stop him engaging in an unwanted behavior. Ignoring your dog and turning away from him is the most productive thing for you to do when he does something you don’t like. Dogs love attention and if you ignore him - that will be negative reinforcement in itself.

You should learn to see your dog as a dog, not a human being. Dogs have their own way of communicating which you will not understand unless you study it. You need to learn what their body language means: the position of the tail, the mouth positions, the ear position and the sounds they make.

For effective training, you must position yourself as the alpha dog or pack leader. If your dog is pack leader, you will be fighting a losing battle to get him to behave as you want. Why would he take notice of one of his pack member? Some pointers to set yourself up as pack leader:
-eat a biscuit or two in front of your dog just before you feed him. The alpha dog always eats first.
-don’t allow him to onto the bed or sofa. The alpha dog sleeps on higher ground.
-don’t allow him to go through the door before you.

This is an introduction to some important points in obedience training for dogs. I recommend you look into the most systematic of training methods: clicker training for dogs.

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