You might be wondering of dog training is for you. Well, here’s a quick quiz: Do you love your dog? Are you in satisfactory physical condition? If you’ve answered, “Yes,” to both questions, you show promise for dog obedience training.
Though love and the ability to keep up with your dog are the basic requirements for training a dog, there are some other practices and mindsets that you will need to adopt:
Be consistent: Dogs only learn when commands and consequences are as reliable as the sun’s rising. When your dog knows what to expect, you can expect exceptional dog behavior.
Learn to ignore: Dogs love attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. If you can practice, with consistency, ignoring your dog’s bad behavior, it will vanish.
Be playful: Dogs don’t understand the importance of having good manners or of staying safe. Instead, like children, they understand play. Adopt a playful attitude, and you will have your dog’s undivided attention.
Learn good timing: Timing is a crucial component of dog training, and differs as the dog progresses in his or her learning. For instance, in the beginning, clicks and rewards are to be offered simultaneously with the performance of the task; but later, clicks come first, and rewards follow after the task has been completed to satisfaction. A dog owner’s ability to grasp and execute good timing is essential to successful dog obedience training.
Give your best: Your dog doesn’t know if you’ve had a bad day at the office, or if you’ve got a headache. If you’re not feeling chipper, don’t train your dog that day. You could sabotage all of your dog training accomplishments.
Whether these traits are inherent to your personality, or you’re confident that you can embrace these mindsets, you’re on your way to successful dog obedience training. First, adopt these attitudes, then adopt my dog training program, then adopt a dog. It won’t be long until you adopt dog training success!
