Dog Training takes patience, consistency, effort,
and a little time. But it all pays off in the end.
Dogs, similar to wolves, are pack animals. They have a leader of the pack that
everyone else must follow and obey. The pack leader is known as the Alpha, and
like a mother must teach her children the proper way to behave, the alpha must
make sure that the pack behaves in a proper manner for society. If anyone from
the pack gets out of line or begins to behave unacceptably, they will be
punished or corrected for the behavior they are presenting.
When we adopt a new dog or puppy, we need to teach them how to behave. When
teaching your dog obedience, you need to make sure that you are always
consistent. If it isn’t ok for your dog to behave a certain way today, then it
can never be acceptable to behave that way, otherwise you are going to confuse
your dog and sabotage your training.
When training, you are going to need to make sure that you always correct
unwanted behavior, and reward wanted behavior. A lot of this has to do with your
tone of voice as well as your body language. When you are rewarding behavior,
make a big deal about the good thing they have done and make sure that you do
this every time they behave that way. Get excited about it, because that way
they know that they have pleased you. And when your dog pleases, you, it makes
them happy as well and they will want to continue to do that. When you are
correcting unwanted behavior, make sure that you tone of voice is stern. DO NOT
YELL! You do not want to scare your dog and make him/her afraid of you. If they
are afraid of you, they will be more apt to feel like they need to defend
themselves. Simply tell them “No, no, no” in a stern voice. Dogs can read body
language and tone of voice much better than the actually words.
