Whether you already have dog ownership experience, are a new dog owner, or are about to become a dog owner, then training your dog is one of the most important things to consider. Similarly, if you currently have a dog with behavior problems, then training the dog is essential.
However, knowing that you need to train your dog and actually training your dog are two completely different things. Where do you start?
To successfully train your dog, you must consider and understand a few key facets of dog behavior. Knowing and understanding these 5 facets will greatly improve your dog’s training.
1. The origins of dogs. In essence, dogs are descended from modern wolves. While domestication has toned down or eliminated many traits, some key natural instincts remain. Like wolves, dogs are pack animals. What does this mean?
Well, there are several traits that come from being a pack animal. The most important when it comes to training are dogs, who are naturally sociable, used to routine and used to a social structure (i.e. the famous alpha male).
As social animals, dogs thrive on interaction with other dogs. A dog does not consider you as a human being, but rather as a funny looking dog. Therefore, dogs thrive on interaction with you. Like a wild wolf, rejected by the pack, if you starve a dog from this interaction, it will become unhappy and very agitated.
When it comes to training, you can use it to reward or punish your dog. Interacting with your dog (eg, patting, encouraging / talking excitedly, etc.) can be as great a reward as food treats. Similarly, ignoring your dog (e.g. turning your back, speaking harshly, putting him in another room, etc.) can be harsh punishment for a dog. It’s definitely better than hitting them.
As with all animals (including humans), dogs thrive on routine. If they know what and when they are likely to be doing certain things, then they are relaxed and comfortable. They know what to expect and are not confused by changing circumstances.
Training should also stick to a routine. Decide when is the best time of day to train your dog and stick to that time as rigidly as possible. Your dog will soon get into the routine of waiting to be trained at, say, 3pm every day and will be ready for when it’s time to train. If your dog is ready and waiting to be trained, then it goes without saying that he will actually train better.
Within a pack there is always the alpha male. The dog that leads the pack, protects the pack, and ultimately makes sure the pack feeds and survives. As mentioned above, a dog sees you as a funny looking dog and not as a human. To be a good dog owner, you absolutely must be the alpha male. How many nature shows have you seen where the alpha male is being challenged by one of the others would be alpha males? Similarly, your dog will challenge you to be the alpha male; This is a natural instinct for him.
You must establish yourself as the alpha male from the beginning. Providing food, interaction, punishing bad behavior, body and vocal language all contribute to affirming yourself as the alpha male. If your dog does not view you as the alpha male, then he will not listen or act on your training instructions.
2. The memory of a dog. We all know that goldfish have a short memory. However, you might be surprised to learn that dogs also have a short retention memory. If you could say something to your dog, it is likely that the next day or a few hours later he would have forgotten. On the other hand, dogs with legs have an incredibly good associated memory. This basically means that if your dog can associate something with what you say to him, he will probably remember what you said to him for years to come.
For example, if you told your dog (assuming you could speak the language of dogs) that the chocolate chip cookies were in the closet, your dog would probably forget it in a few hours. However, if you were to show your dog where the chocolate chip cookies were, by repeating the words ‘chocolate chip cookies’, every time you said ‘chocolate chip cookies’ he would probably go straight to the closet. You can also search the closet every few hours for the rest of your life looking for the chocolate chip cookies, but that’s not the point.
Therefore, when training your dog, you must associate the training topic with something. For example: if you are teaching your dog to sit. If you associate the word ‘sit’ by making your dog sit up physically and then giving him a reward. Repeat this several times and soon your dog will associate your ‘sit’ command with him sitting physically and then you will get a reward. The tricky part is dissociating the reward – ask yourself why almost all dogs naturally sit when they have food in hand.
3. Doggy language. Despite the previous comments, we cannot speak the language of dogs and dogs cannot speak our language. This is important when it comes to training. You have to choose words for the commands that both you and your dog will remember. Be careful not to choose very common words or your dog will easily get confused when this word keeps appearing in the middle of a sentence. A common word often used in dog training is “come.” For this example, it may be better to use a version of slang or to combine “come here” into a single short word.
The important thing is that when you decide on a word for a command, you keep it firm and be consistent, otherwise your dog will get confused.
I know it can be difficult, especially if you come home and see your new TV pulled out of the cabinet, to always use preselected words when talking to your dog. Your dog does not speak human language and will only know what are those few words that you have trained him with (and the tone that you have used). So if you start using other words or different tones, your dog won’t understand.
For example: imagine that someone speaks to you in a foreign language and asks you for directions to the town hall. You can’t understand a word of what they are saying, but they get more and more frustrated and speak louder and faster language. Is it your fault that you can’t understand them? Why do they get angrier when you have no idea what they are saying? What’s your problem? What will I do? Similarly, if you haven’t trained your dog to understand what ‘sit’ is and you start yelling ‘sit’, ‘on hind legs’, ‘down’, etc., is it your dog’s fault that you are looking confused and growing? afraid.
4. Puppy behavior. Like babies, puppies do not know how the world works or how they are supposed to behave within that world. They need to be taught and learn what is good, bad, right or wrong.
A healthy, happy puppy will be a pack of energy, desperate to explore as much as he can as fast as he can. Dogs do not have good eyes that can see things or hands that can sense the complexities of objects. Instead, they have noses that can smell things and mouths that can chew on objects.
While this can come about through training and general maturation, the importance of this is that you need to be patient and understand where your dog is coming from and why he does what he does.
5. Structure and enjoy. While I have addressed these two aspects above, no information on dog training would be complete without mentioning these two aspects by themselves.
Regardless of how you decide to train your dog, as in the routine, you must have a structure for your training. If you’ve never trained a dog before, how do you know when your dog may start to learn to sit, stay, etc. And when can you run to the local grocery store and pick up the newspaper for you?
You need to know what it is that you really want to train your dog to finally be able to do and what steps you need to take to get there. Staff dog trainers, dog training classes, and dog training guides can do this. Personally, I prefer to train my own dogs and I believe that in the end you develop a much stronger bond with your dog. Also, your dog is more obedient to you than to the handler. However, at the very least, and especially if you’ve never trained a dog before, I would recommend purchasing a dog training guide.
The small amount of money for a dog training guide, compared to the time you would waste looking for free advice online that will be a combination of training and not provide the structure, is simply not worth it. More than that, the time saved in training and the bottom line of a properly trained dog for the rest of his life (around 15 years) is worth many times the cost of even the most basic training guide.
If you, and more importantly, your dog, do not enjoy training, you will never properly train your dog. The training will take longer and will be much more difficult. When you start training your dog, remember that he is more likely to be a puppy and at that age all he wants to do is run around and explore his new world. Be flexible with the time you plan to spend on training. Try to keep the training short, but if your dog seems to enjoy it, prepare to train longer. Likewise, if your dog is just not concentrating, then put it off for a bit before doing it again. With a routine and structure for his training, your dog will soon learn that when it comes to training he needs to focus for a short period of time and will be better able to do so.
I hope the above has been helpful in your desire to train your dog. By knowing why and how your dog does what he does, you should be able to understand his behavior much better. By using this knowledge, you can better bond with your dog and train your dog. A good training routine and structure as well as a lot of patience and eventually you will have a well-trained dog. Always always make sure that the training is enjoyable for both you and your dog.