[T1229]Train Your Own Dog

Reward training is often seen as the most modern method of training a dog, but it is probably much older than other methods of dog training. It is possible that reward training for dogs has been around as long as there have been dogs to train.Reward training should start right from the beginning. It also helps if your dog is social. The more people they meet in their first four months of life in the most situations the better they will be when they grow up. Puppies do not make blunders that may upset the handler. A young puppy might not learn swiftly and may misbehave at certain point of time but is also eager to improve. Puppies want to please, so training can be easier than it at first sounds. All dogs train at their own pace, just as all kids learn at their own speeds.

Reward him or her with a soft voice, and a gentle petting over their back. You could even take a few dog training treats with you and reward with a favorite treat, as well as the soft voice and gentle petting over the back of your puppy. Later you can withhold the treats and instead offer a 'good dog' as a reward. Reward your dog for small improvements in skills or behavior. For example you want your dog to have good table manners and lay on the rug by the door during mealtime you can begin by rewarding him when he doesn't beg.

Here are 3 very important rules that will ensure your pooch is a well behaved one. Behaviors such as barking for an example can be very self-reinforcing. The dog positively reinforces himself with barking. So, getting the dog to stop barking without negative reinforcement is very unlikely. Using both positive and negative reinforcements are necessary tools for training your dog. Here are 3 Easy Tips:

1. Do not use the word no for everything the dog does wrong. If you really think about it, you will understand. If the dog pees under the kitchen table and you say "NO." and then the dog jumps up on a stranger when the enter the house and you say, "NO." Or if you have a barking dog that just won't stop and you say, "NO". The dog does not understand. He or she thinks, wow...what does NO mean? Does it mean, don't jump? Does it mean Don't bark? An example might be, use the word "OFF" when your dogs jumps on people, the word "QUIET" when he or she is barking. 2. Do not use the dogs name against him, or in a negative manner. Later on down the line you may call your dog, and he or she may decide they don't want to come because they can't tell if you are using there name in a positive or negative manner. I can take the above statement and bring it into my own life. As a child my "real" name is Annette. But, if I did something wrong, with a wrong behavior, my mother called me "Mary Jane." When I heard the words "Mary Jane" I knew instantly it was negative and I wanted to run the other way, just like your dog will. 3. If you have been training your dog with hand signals you will want to use your hand signals or finger signals for ONLY one command. If you use one signal for a multitude of commands you will end up with one confused pooch.

Use different words for different behaviors.

Here are a few examples.

* Ready - Means look at me
* Sit - Means to sit
* Stay - Means do not move
* Down -Means lay down
* Come - Means to come to me
* Drop - Means take out of mouth
* Ouch - Means Let go of my hand
* Kennel Up - Means go to crate

Make sure you have a plan or an idea of what you want out of your dog. As a master you need to become goal orientated and focus on helping your pooch be the best he or she can be.