Having man's best friend to share your life with can be a wonderful experience, but it usually means having a well trained dog. A dog that is not trained properly can lead to a very stressful home life. If you want to know what you must do to train your dog well, keep reading.
You have to be consistent if you want to have a properly trained dog. Your dog will learn best if you ensure that you follow up negative behaviors with a consequence and positive behaviors with a reward. Your dog will learn what behaviors are or are not acceptable and adjust his behavior accordingly. He will also learn that being good means that he will get a reward of some sort, so in order for it to continue you must continue to offer a reward from time to time.
Be firm yet always calm and kind. You want your dog to know that you mean business, but even though you are not happy with their behavior, you still love and respect them. Trying to intimidate your dog into behaving well is only going to backfire on you and ruin the relationship you have with your animal. Just use a serious tone with them and remove them from the negative situation. Then, place them in their cart and tell them with one or two words that they are in trouble. Your dog will understand that your tone is not pleased and as long as the punishment comes soon after the act, they will connect the two on their own.
Train your dog as often as you can. While your dog does not have a long attention span, it can be taught in small intervals throughout the day. The more that the training is addressed the easier it will be for them to remember the things that they have learned. At a minimum, you should work with your dog twice a day for twenty minutes each time. Remember that having a trained dog is your responsibility, and the more that you do, the better behaved your pooch will be.
Nurture your dog as you would a child. Your dog needs food, water, shelter, exercise, love and respect, just like any person does. If you give your dog these things at all times, it will be content and naturally better behaved. If something is bothering a dog, again, like a child, it will act out, as it has no other way to express its feelings. Prevent this by giving your pet what it needs everyday.
Having a pet like a dog can be a very rewarding experience for both of you, but as you read above, if your pet is not trained, it can be an awful experience. To ensure that you have the best possible relationship with your dog, you should take the time to train it well. Put the above tips to work for you so that you can have a great relationship with your dog.