Before beginning any training session with your puppy/dog, there are several things to consider:
Your mood: Only start a training session when you are in a GOOD mood. Never try to train when you feel tired, sick or just irritated! Even if it’s on a time scale, training when you’re not fully focused will only have a negative effect on your dog. Only start training when you are happy and 100% focused.
Clear your schedule: Don’t try to have a training session when you know who has to be somewhere in 30 minutes. This will only make you (and your dog) frustrated when things don’t move as quickly as you would have liked. Give yourself plenty of time to ‘go with the flow’.
5 minutes is better than 1 hour – you will find much more success in your training session if you keep it short. 2-5 minutes should be effective enough for your dog to learn, but will also keep him from getting bored and losing interest. Try multiple 2-5 minute training sessions in a week.
Exercise: While you obviously don’t want a tired dog, it’s best to train your dog after your dog has done some form of exercise. If he tries to train his pet before he has gone for a walk, his energy levels will be much higher, which means he can become very excitable and much less focused.
Learn what your dog finds rewarding: Your dog must take a keen interest in his reward. There is no use training with a treat that you can normally take or leave. Find something you REALLY LOVE!
Learning how to praise your dog correctly will only help you succeed.
praise your dog
Praising your dog is something we do when your dog performs the behavior you want or require. Getting the praise technique right plays a vital role in the correct and successful training of your dog.
As a trainer, you must use your voice to reward your dog. As soon as your dog completes the task required of him, congratulate him! There are different types of prayer that you can easily learn. Let’s say you want your dog to bring you a toy. When your dog has bought you such a toy, he should raise his voice when he is praising as if he is excited about something! However, if he has a “seek and find” training session, he should use a lower, more inquisitive tone of praise.
Another type of praise is using your touch when you train your dog. However, always try to remember that a big hand coming down on your dog’s head will be seen as dominance, not praise. Try to avoid things that we as humans might find rewarding! Touching praise is probably best approached by mimicking what a mother would naturally do in the wild. She licked the cubs from her. Obviously, we can’t go that far, but a dog will find gentle stroking motions to the sides or back to be rewarding.
