5 Tips To Help You Build The Best Relationship Possible With Your Dog
Dog Training Tip #1 – Time
If you asked all of the Dog Trainers of the World – Give me your #1 Dog Training Tips for New Dog Owners, we would probably receive many answers. “Only positive training, learn the 4 quadrants, use treats, don’t use treats”. But for me I think the most important time for new dog owners to consider is time.
Perhaps it is something you need to consider BEFORE you become a new dog owner, but if you are reading this article too late for that, it’s not too late to still be a good dog parent. Training a dog takes time – a lot of time. In the first year to two years of the dog’s life, depending on temperament and breed, you should expect to be training the dog ALL THE TIME. You should also be expecting to SPEND a lot of time with the dog every day in order to be able to train them. Coming home from work, kicking up your feet after a 20 minute walk and throwing the walk for 5 minutes is not good enough, either in the puppy stage nor in the adolescent phase. And if you have a working dog breed, it may never be good enough.
Training is also not something that is done in 15 minute time blocks, 3x a week with a specific start and end time. It is that too, but it’s not only that. Training happens in all of your interactions with your dog – when you feed them, and ask them to sit and wait for a release cue before they begin to eat. The more time you spend with them the more opportunities to have to set and practice clear rules and boundaries and to get to know your dogs personality quirks. If you find that things just aren’t getting better with your dog start here – spend more time with them and on them (reading this blog is a good start) and I am absolutely positive that things will improve.
Dog Training Tip #2 – Know What Your Rules Are
This one may sound a bit funny – I mean it’s the dog that should know the rules right?
Actually no, they shouldn’t – they aren’t the ones making the rules, and their rules would most definitely be very different than the ones we enforce. A lot of dog owners have a mistaken belief that their dogs “should just know”. I have personally watched people have whole conversations with their dogs about a misdeed, with their dog staring at them with a confused but loving look. It’s very important to remember – dogs don’t speak English. They will remember words that you have taught them meaning to, but unless you repeatedly remind and reinforce the expectations you have of their behaviour – a dog will not just know it. If you live in a home with multiple people, especially children, this becomes even more crucial. Rules and expectations need to be established at the very beginning and enforced by EVERYONE in the house, or things become very confusing and very frustrating, very quickly for the dog – and that does not make for a good Dog Owner. Which leads me to my next point…
Dog Training Tip #3 – Be Consistent
This one is a bit of an extension of the previous tip. It is incredibly important to establish the rules and then enforce them every single time. Sit means sit, no means no, and come means come – the first time you don’t follow through on a command or become wishy washy on a previous rule (like no dogs on the couch), two things happen – the dog learns that your demands are negotiable. The dog will learn that they’ll do it when they feel like it because most likely you won’t make them do it anyway, or there are no consequences for non-compliance. The other is that they lose faith you in you as a leader. Your dog watches your every move – and your dog needs you to make decision for them. If you don’t stick to those decisions they will begin to think that you don’t know what you are doing which can start to create all manner of other issues such as leash aggression amongst a host of other things, but that’s a topic for another article. Suffice it to say for now – if you said it, you better mean it and they better do it.
Dog Training Tip #4 – Be Patient
This is an important one, especially for first time dog owners. No matter HOW cute your puppy or dog may be, trying to communicate with another species is frustrating – especially when they just chewed up your new shoes AGAIN. While being firm and consistent is absolutely key to successful dog training, those are not the same things as letting your temper explode. You will need to learn how to disengage from your emotional triggers and focus on better delivering what you want from the dog. Dogs learn through repetition – so be patient, and take the time it needs 🙂
Dog Training Tip #5 – Learn The Right Tools For The Job
Is your puppy a chewer – learn how to use a crate effectively. Is your dog an angel in the house, but is completely unmanageable off leash? Learn how to use an e-collar effectively. Is your dog strong and pulls on the leash or shows leash aggression? Learn how to use a slip lead properly. Not every tool is right for every situation and every dog, so it is important to take the time and learn the available tools and their appropriate usage to help you get the message across to your dog as effortlessly as possible.
At the end of the day we all want to have a great relationship with our dogs where they can accompany us to different places, enjoy time outside being free as well as at home. Hopefully these 5 Dog Training Tips for New Dog Owners will be helpful for some of you!