Why and how we should train our dog

The arrival of a puppy (or adult dog) in our lives is naturally a beautiful event and can bring us lots of excitement. On this other hand this arrival also brings a great responsibility as the puppies life is literally in our hands. We play a very important role on their welfare and longevity. With the arrival of every dog, very soon a simple question arises: “Can I train my puppy (or dog) by myself in order to have good communication and be able to live together in harmony?”. Please trust me when I tell you that you can and it is much easier than you might think. So please don’t stress about it . The dog will surely be able to learn at least the basic commands with your help, and this will help the puppy to grow into a socialized and obedient dog without any problems in the behavior. Everything will be easier if you start from the first day. That being said, an adult dog is also a
pleasure to train and can learn just as well but it might take more time. This is especially true for dogs that did not have any training at all and they have already developed some bad habits. However it is never too late to train a dog, you can see great results with all dogs if you at least spend ten minutes every day to teach them, I promise you that the results will be overwhelming!

Dog training requirements:

    1. Respect: 

The first thing to know is that the most valuable tools - if we can call it that - of our relationship with the dog's respect and trust. Mutual respect is the key ingredient to any successful relationship and it is also true for our relationship with dogs. Always try to be fair and think twice before taking any action that could ruin the trust that your dog has for you. You can easily loose trust but it is very hard to gain it so you must treasure it because it is the base of your relationship with your dog and any successful training. Please remember that any form of violence towards the dog is unfair and undermines the fragile and valuable trust that the dog has invested on us. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes so it is perfectly normal for a dog to make mistakes too, i don't say that we should encourage them but we should keep calm and be understanding. You can have a look at the 9 most common dog training mistakes and how we can avoid them easily. I wonder how we would feel if our dog bite us every time we did something wrong. Would we still trust our dog as our companion?

 Patience 

Every time we try to teach our dog something new, we need to give her enough time to digest the new info. Some times our dog will understand our instructions in a fraction of a second, while in some other cases it may even take days for a dog to understand what we are asking and how to perform a new command. You have many good chances to become on of the best and most effective dog trainers in the world if you can always make the dog training sessions appear like a game to your dog. A successful dog training session should be something that your dog really enjoys and makes the dog to look forward for the next time. 

Never underestimate your dog

Dogs have some of their senses reinforced, they can read us like no other animal can. Dog species have spend thousands of years living with humans and they have developed a very good understanding about our psychology. They can sense our feeling by observing our motion and by using their enhanced senses, they can sense all kind of emotions simply by the tone of our voice or our smell.  That means that during a dog training session if for whatever reason we start feeling nervous, it would be a very good idea to interrupt the session and take a break. Maybe even consider to carry on another day. We could pretend that you are calm just to carry on the training season, but even if we are able to fool another human about are true emotions, that does not mean that we can do the same thing with dogs. The dog will sense our negative feelings and will start to connect our negative feelings with dog training. It is very important to avoid that, the learning processes should always be a very happy moment for our dog and for use. This is the only way for really successful dog training and the only way to build a successful relationship with our dog. So if your dog is having a hard time to understand a new command, it is always a good idea to take a break and continue another day, or just carry on with another command that your dog already knows. Even if you dont loose your emotional control and you are extremely patient, if your are teaching your dog a new command and the dog is having a real hard time to understand your instructions, don's spend more than 10 - 15 minutes teaching this command. Carry on with something else. One of the reasons that dogs are eager to follow our instructions is to please us, if we give the dog instructions that he cant keep up with for a long period of time, the dog will start to feel frustrated and might loose interest for the dog training session once and for all. As we already mentioned the learning prosess should be fun and for dogs the fun part is when you praise them and when you reword them. So when you are trying to teach something new to your dog, and the dog seems to do everything wrong , it might be a good idea to carry on with another command that the dog already knows, so that you have the chance to praise and reword.  

don't go on with thesince it will feel that these,  know that your dog already the learning of an order feel irritable, will have much more good results if you take a break or continue another day. The frustration of our confusing might be confusing since you do not understand what is wrong and generally can cause him to have a negative attitude and insecurity in the education process in general if we combine with our frustration. Repetition is the mother of learning not only for humans but also for the dog. You need to do the same exercise again and again and again until you learn. Some orders may understand them from the first day while others may take several days to understand what we are asking to learn to execute them. Even though he has learned a command perfectly, you will need to repeat the exercise at regular intervals to preserve that learning. Because patience has limits, stop everything when you feel frustration because the dogs feel it, and make sure to share time at close quarters during the day so as not to get bored the process and to have time to digest the new stimuli.

Positive dog training with praise and rewords

For a well adjusted dog it is very useful to know which behaviors are right and which are considered wrong in the human society and it is up to us to teach them the right behaviors. To achieve that all we have to do is to reward the desired behavior. By doing that, chances are that the dog will repeat that behavior again.  and to achieve that we and how they learn is the correlation energy to do with just how much this action. This method alone if used properly is enough not only to encourage desired behaviours but also to discourage unwanted behaviours. However you can also use the NO commant to provide some negative feedback to make it even more clear to your dog that this is a bad behaviour that should be aboided.

For example if the puppy bites us while we play together, we could stop playing and say NO with a strict negative tone on our voice. Soon the puppy will be able to associate the word no with unwanted behaviors and we can use this command in many instances to teach our dog which behaviors to avoid. 

The power of positive reinforsment

It is very important to understand that positive reinforcement with praise and reward is at least 10 times more effective than negative reinforcement (using the no command).  Sometimes it might seem impossible to use possitive reinforsment to avoid an unwanted behaviour but this is where dog training experience plays an important role. For example lets say that we dont want our puppy to jumb on the couch. An obvious way to teach a puppy not to do that, would be to use the NO command each time the puppy tries to climb on the couch. However we could have better results if we choose to reinforce the desired behaviour. We could lure the puppy to stay off the couch with a nice small piece of back (just an example) and at the same time say DOWN. If the puppy is already on the couch we could do the same. In other words we are trying to teach our puppy that good things happen not on the couch but off the couch! 

Also it is important to use praise together with the reword. We can use any word we want as long as we stick with this word and always use it with the same meaning. We could say "Well done" to praise and "No" when we want to interrupt an unwanted behavior. 

Dogs learn by associating their action with the result that this action had. If we want effectively reward a desired action performed by our dog, we must be prepared to praise and reword almost simultaneously with the performed action. Other wise dogs can not associate the reword and the praise with their action. If we reword more than two seconds later we could actually confuse our dog. The same applies for negative reinforcement (the command no). 

   

The reword could be very small slices of hum or something that our dog really loves. Little small slices are more than enough, we are not trying to feed the dog , only reward it. When using a reward we must use something that we are sure that our dog really loves and will do anything to have it otherwise we could be wasting our time. Over time we can replace one reward with another. 

Replacing rewords - its not about food 

When i first threw a ball to my puppy, it did absolutely nothing. Just gave a weird look at me and completly ignored the ball. By using tasty rewords soon i was able to lure my puppy into playing with the ball with me and pretty soon the puppy realized what a fine game a ball can be. Now my dog can not live without a ball, for my dog this is the best game ever. And it will do anything to get the ball. So pretty soon i was able to replace the reword with little bites of  food, with my dogs ball. Daisy will now eagerly try to learn new tricks just to win her ball and some minutes of ball game with me. 

Willing obedience always beats forced obedience (Thoukidides 400 b.c.)

No matter what breed we are trying to train, all we have to do is follow one simple method. Sometimes there is more than way to teach a new command or a new trick but the basic principle of dog training remains the same. We must always praise and reward the desired behaviors and ignore the unwanted behaviors (or say a simple NO). Any kind of violence against the dog not only is immoral but will also bring terrible results regarding to the dogs performance. 

Both physical and psychological violence will only harm our dogs personality, and will result either in a coward dog who will never again trust us, or even worse to a coward dog with aggressive behavior. In any case the dog will never have a balanced personality and the relationship between us will be forever damaged.

In case you think this is just theory, please think twice and try to educate yourself about this matter. We all make mistakes and the important thing is to learn from our mistakes. I strongly advice you never ever to use any violence from personal experience. The best part of having a dog is the relationship that develops between you and the dog. Any kind of violence will forever leave its marks on your relationship with your dog. Never betray the trust of your dog, never loose your temper and sell your relationship with your dog so cheap. 

A dog that loves you and trusts you 100% will want to follow your instructions more than anything in the world. As Thoukidides said 2400 years ago, willing obedience ALWAYS beats force obedience and that's how a Greek army of only 300 Spartans was able to withstand an attack of the Persian army of more than 500.000 men. The Spartans were not only trained but they were following their leader with all their heart. They choice was to stay and fight next to their leader until the end, and they did that with all their heart. 

That's why a trained dog that also has a perfect relationship with his human is more effective than 100 trained but insecure dogs. If you think this is an exaggeration please google the effect that violence has on dogs who are trained on hunting or police works or any other type of work dog. It just messes up their personality and makes them useless. 

I will say it one more time and from the bottom of my heard i wish that you trust me on this one as it is the only way to effectively train ANY dog: "willing obedience always beats forced obedience".

Violence comes from stupidity and will only result in stupidly and violence. 

In this blog you will find very analytic descriptions with photos about how to train your dog in all the basic commands and even more. If only you invest a few minutes of your time daily, you can teach your dog how to come when called, how to sit down on command, how to lay down, how to talk, how to stop barking on command, how to stay, how to walk next to you without pulling the lease and many more! That is a promise! It all depends from you, and trust me when i tell you it is very easy and well worth your time! 

So why would we want to train our dog? Beside the obvious reasons, dog training is one of the most fun and stress - free moments that we can spend together with our dog. Yes, dog training can be and should be fun! Your dog will love the attention that is getting from you and this will be one of the best rewards for you, to see how happy the dog is because of your attention. The great results on your dog's obedience will be a rewards for both of you!  Also during the training session  we improve our communication and we are building an extremely powerful bond that will last forever... 

Why should i train my dog?

   1.  Because i love my dog

 Dogs are social beings just like we are. By training our dogs we actually provide them with the means to become a succesfull and well adjusted member of our families. At the same time , while we train our dogs, we get the chance to spend some quality and fan time together, to further improve our relationship and our communication. We both learn even better our roles, we learn to understand each other, and we get the chance to live with our dog without any problems.  A well trained dog will be able to follows us everywhere without any problem. Training helps the dog to be more free and social. A well behaved trained dog not only it won't cause us any problems, but will actually make us proud wherever we are.

A trained dog will have much better chances to adjust well in the modern very demanding human society and will have great confidence. A trained dog means better quality of life both for the dog and the humans, probably more walks and more freedom. We will think twice before taking with us an untrained dog who created troubles but with a well behaved trained dog it will always be a pleasure to follow us in almost all our activities. An untrained dog will soon become an isolated member of our family, unable to actually live with us. Dog training is the passport for a happy life for us and our dog the only way we can live together in harmony.  

   

2.  To avoid behavior problems

Once you have a dog, you automatically become your dogs trainer whether you like it or not... In fact if you spend just a few hours of your time to properly educate your shelf, you will be the best trainer in the world for your dog! No-one loves your dog more than you do. 

By training your dog on your own,  you have the chance to begin the training from the very first day. This is a great advantage because the dog will learn much faster and in a natural pleasant way. Waiting until our dog is 5 or 6 months old to take him to a dog trainer is a waste of time and money especially if the dog has already developed some bad habits which will take time to break. 

The sooner you start to train your dog the easier it will be for both of you. Basic dog training is the most valuable ingredient for a well behaved dog. We should always keep in mind that it is very easy to teach our dog desired behaviors but it is also very easy to teach our dog unwanted behavior without actually realizing it. It only takes a few hours of our time to educate our shelf's how to avoid such problems. Really, it is that simple. 

With positive dog training we earn our dogs respect and trust and the dog will have the chance to recognize us as natural leaders. A dog that is not given the opportunity of training, might even try to take the role of the leader and this will lead in many unwanted behaviors which will be difficult to correct. 

By training our dogs we actually give them the opportunity to have a better understanding of the world and of the roles and rules that have to be followed. A trained dog is almost always a happy, social, confident and healthy dog.

  

  3. Dog training means security for everyone!

Obedience can actually save our dogs life. For example we might be able to avoid some danger by asking our dog to come to us quickly, or to stay and wait for us. 

Most of the deserted dogs are dogs that did not have the opportunity of dog training. Sometimes it is cute to have a disobedient happy puppy but when the puppy turns into a huge dog it is not fun any more. People who have dogs must provide them with proper training one way or another otherwise they should consider some other pet (a goldfish for example). 

You will barely ever find a deserted dog that is properly trained and obedient. Also for the few trained dogs that are deserted it is much easier to find a new home. Trained dog our safer for themselves and their families.     

A trained dog is a social dog which means that it is a safe dog for everyone. It is very easy to teach a trained dog to bark and to stop barking on command which means that it is also very easy to teach the dog to warn you about potential intruders and dangers. According to studies , a house with a dog (any kind of dog) is two times safer than a house without a dog. 

  4. Exercise 

    

    Training also means exercise, both mental and biological. This is true both for our dog and for us. It comes at no surprise that many doctors recommend to people with heart problems to get a dog. Walking the dog can be the best and most stress relieving exercise ever. Many studies have shown that people who have a dog have less tress and almost never suffer from anxiety. 

* Our precious dog will only live between 8 - 17 years. Training our dog will only take a fraction of our time especially if we consider that we live six times more than our dog. By training our dog we actually give our dog the ability to be a part of our family. Our dog will have the chance to participate in most of our activities and this means a dog that is happy and social and a pleasure to be with. One of these activities is dog training itself  Dog training is one of the best ways to have fun with your dog while at the same time you teach your dog how to successfully adapt in your world..