Praise and positive reinforcement is the best method to use when training your dog. Reward for what you want and simply ignore for behaviour which is not acceptable. Your dog will be quick to learn in order to get those treats. A great tool for training is the clicker. This works by using the click rather than your voice – the click being a constant sound as opposed to your voice which can fluctuate. You need to decide what tool for training your dog is best for you. Some excellent instructions on using the clicker can be found at Karen Pryor Clickertraining.
Make one of the first training exercises for your new puppy to be wearing a collar and walking on a lead. This will be imperative for the rest of his/her life. If you have trouble getting the collar onto your puppy put your hand through the collar and hold a treat in your fingers. As the puppy eats the treat gently place the collar over his neck. Otherwise have someone else treat the puppy while you snap the lock on the collar.
If you are not in the best of moods and don’t feel like doing your training time – best NOT to do it! The reason? Your dog will pick up on your vibes and will not work as well for you. BEWARE – don’t make this a regular excuse for not doing any dog training! He/she is going to require a lot of time and effort on your part if you want him to grow into a well socialised and well balanced dog and training is the only way to get him to that point.
Your dog training is best started from the day you bring him home. You want to begin to establish the rules from the start and then your puppy will start to get his position in the pack. Dogs are a pack animal and your family is their pack. Establish their rank through dog training quickly by teaching them very simple commands and rewarding for correct behaviour. Also show the children how to request simple commands from the dog – sit, for example. But don’t tell your puppy sit, sit, sit and keep repeating the voice command with no action. Best to wait for the puppy to offer the behaviour into the sit position and then giving the voice command ‘sit’ while the action is taking place and then immediately afterwards he gets a treat as a reward for good behaviour. You have just set your puppy up for rewarding and winning behaviour. If you keep repeating a command a few times over and the dog doesn’t respond to this command (because he doesn’t speak English) your dog training is teaching him to ignore you as you are speaking and no action is happening on his/her part. This goes for any type of behaviour you are bringing into your dog training schedule.
Another thing to remember that your young puppies have the attention span of a flea! So make your dog training session brief and no more than five minutes at a time. But if you have the chance to do a few minutes at a time throughout the day this will reinforce the behaviour you want from the dog. Constant repetition is the key! Your puppy or dog training should be bright and happy. Always finish on a positive note, and preferably do a puppy training session just before it is his meal time and use the meal for a reward.
PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE for correct behaviour – using voice pats and treats. Remember, though, when you are training and treating your dog for correct behaviour to account for this when it comes to meal time – see dog feeding.
You still need to be wary about overfeeding.
These dogs have just had a great training session in the field