Despite their rambunctious behavior at times, puppies are eager to please and they desperately want your love and approval. Much like a newborn baby, puppies need to be taught right from wrong and they need to learn in a way that involves both patience and understanding. Not only can effective puppy training lead to a better relationship between you and your four-legged friend, but it may also save your pet’s life one day.
One of the most popular types of puppy training techniques involves housebreaking, which will teach your pet the difference between his/her home and bathroom and why the distinction is so important. By nature, your puppy will not want to relieve itself in his/her home and will appreciate having a separate area for that sole purpose. When your puppy has structure, he/she will be much happier and healthier.
Obedience training is another important goal of many pet owners. Puppies are especially energetic and, if not trained properly at a young age, can grow into an unruly dog. In order to prevent this from happening, obedience training should begin as early as possible and may either be done by you at your home, or by an instructor. In many cases, your puppy will respond better to you and your commands because he/she is already familiar with you. If you enroll your pet in an obedience training class where other animals are present, your puppy may become anxious or disruptive. If possible, it’s a good idea to train your pet at home by using your own puppy training techniques that will give you full control over methods, treatment and effectiveness.
When it comes to any type of training, your puppy will appreciate the ability to understand your commands. Dogs who never seem to obey their owners lack both discipline and structure. They may never understand the importance of “stay” in the face of oncoming traffic or the “off” command to be used to prevent your pet from jumping up on guests in your home. An unruly pet cannot be taken out in public, may never enjoy a stroll through the park and may have a very difficult time at the veterinarian’s office. While your pup is young, he/she is small and will be controllable. The real problems start when a puppy grows up without being taught how to act in public, how to react to other animals and how to respond to your commands.
Puppy training is most effective when used in conjunction with the reward method. This involves giving your puppy a treat when he/she does something on command and should be followed by loving strokes and praise. Your puppy will learn to respond to the tone of your voice and he/she will love hearing positive tones because this means that you are pleased. Although they seem to be nothing more than a ball of energy at times, your puppy is really hoping for your approval. This desire will especially show through as he/she begins to mature and, with the proper training, your puppy will become very familiar with what “good dog” means. Not only that, but he/she will also know how to earn the title.
There are many great resources for dog training available on the internet. One of the best ways to find these resources is by reading independent reviews and comparison rankings. In this way you can be confident your pet is getting best training possible.
Brian Dolezal
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/obedience-training-why-your-puppy-will-love-you-for-it-98938.html
12 Responses
2009 Jun 10
puppy training/obedience?
I have a 9-week old Shiba Inu, and as adorable as he is, I want him to be a disciplined, social, and loyal companion. However, this is my first puppy, and I don't know WHAT or HOW to teach him.. I don't know what to do.. i have the potty training down, but.. wut else do i teach him? Yes,, he has a crate.
Does sit, stay, lie down.. those kinda things teach him obedience? PLEASE HELP!! I love my baby, but don't entirely know the best way to raise him to be the way i want (social, loyal, and obedient)..
2009 Jun 10
OMG I have a 10 week old shiba!! They are soo hard to train, at least I know mine is. Very stubborn, just evil sometimes! Potty training is great. If you've already taught him all those tricks, you're way ahead of the game.
Go to your local petstore and get him into group training in a few weeks. Shibas are aggressive so it's key to socialize them at an early age. Good luck!
References :
Shiba inu owner
2009 Jun 10
Find a local puppy socialisation classes, that use reward based training. I would suggest visiting the club to see how a class is run before you take your puppy. My young Dobe really loved his puppy classes (they had free play, basic recall to the owner, recall from play, sit ect and moved on to obedience when he was about five months old. Great for socialistation with adults, puppies and children.
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2009 Jun 10
Shiba's should be socialized as much as possible as soon as possible, so yes, take your puppy to training class as soon as he is 10 weeks old and has had two sets of vaccinations.
Your puppy will learn how to sit, come, stay, walk on a leash, learn a trick, and more, and learn manners as well as socialize with other puppies!
And yes, your puppy will learn to be obedient with these commands! Kudos for wanting the best for your dog.
References :
2009 Jun 10
Run, don't walk to your closest source of these:
ANYTHING by Dr. Ian Dunbar. He has books and videos and is a great trainer.
The Ultimate Puppy Kit … it's made in Canada but google to find a local distributor.
References :
http://servicedog914.blogspot.com/
http://www.ultimatepuppy.com/
2009 Jun 10
I would recommend puppy classes. It's not only good for the puppy but you as well. I have a 10 week old beagle and we started them last weekend. It's also nice to meet other dogs and get them to socialized. She is my first dog too and I want to do everything right! Good luck!
References :
2009 Jun 10
The most critical thing at his age is socialization (the window starts to close at 5 months and socialization after that is very difficult). This means exposure to a wide variety of people, places, and things (including other dogs). If you find a good puppy pre-school class (which is mostly play and novel experiences), you will also be exposed to basic puppy obedience, but this shouldn't be nearly as structured as an adult obedience class is.
References :
http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/earlysocialization.html
http://clickersolutions.com/blog/index.htm
2009 Jun 10
Here is a site that offers a suggestion for potty training and it gives you a free dog digest. Maybe this might work for you .
http://www.bestdoggypotty.com
Also, investigate some blogs and stuff on line with ideas and suggestions on what may be happening with your dog so you can be well informed. And try to catch the"Dog Whisperer" on TV with Cesar Millan. He's great!
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2009 Jun 10
Hello,
Yes, training a dog to sit, stay, lay teaches him obedience because he learns that he must listen to you in order to receive the rewards he is looking for. The best way too keep dogs in obedience practice is to use these commands as a part of everyday life once the commands are learned.
I am a dog trainer so this is long but you will be very happy with it's contents, I promise. I also guarantee it's results.
Just so you know, it will take a lot of time to work on the progression of these exercises. It is VERY IMPORTANT you be patient and consistant. It can take up to two weeks to work on the first cue and have it learned. However, the more you progress and then move onto the next exercise, the less time it will take to progress once the command is learned because he will know what you are looking for and he will be very aware of what he will get when he offers what you ask for.
Use small moist and very fragrant treats, you can buy some at the store, or you can use pea sized broken pieces of hot dog (don't cook the hot dog in mocrowave or anything, hot dog is already cooked, and "uncooked" or "heated" will be easier to break into pieces.
*NOTE: Before you can ever progress to the next level of a command, the dog must be able to offer a behavior 9 out of 10 times perfectly.
Dogs who are trained with positive reinforcement training are a happy dog because they accomplish things and get rewarded which builds their confidance, and they build a great relationship with you because they have become confidant BECAUSE of you and they will be very very happy to perform these cues for you.
sit exercise:
With some treats on your non dominant hand and one treat in your dominant hand, gently rest your palm under the tip of your dogs chin so the treat is at their nose and they can smell it and know it's there, then patiently and carefully, gently push on the dogs chim pushing his head up and straightening his neck so to speak. At first he'll back up a little. But the more you do this (stopping and starting from beggining if he's not sitting after a couple of seconds, you don't want to stress him out) he won't want to be backing up anymore, and he'll choose to sit instead. The VERY INSTAND his toosh touches the ground say "GOOD" first, wait a second, and then give him the treat. You want GOOD and treat to be sepparate because GOOD is a reward marker. He learns that every time he hears GOOD, whatever it is he is doing at that very moment will soon be rewarded with a treat (later on once he is basically perfect and offering the command instantly withouth the lureing, ween him off of treat and start giving him lots of praise and really great petting because no matter what you will always be able to offer praise and attention at a moments notice, plus you want your dog to learn which behaviors will receive this attention which is the reward he is most seeking.)
Stay is an automatic command along with sit. You must work on sit first, once he has that down pat and offers it 9 out of 10 times without lure, put 3 seconds in between the SIT command and the GOOD reward marker, (the GOOD for this exercise no longer marks the sitting cause he knows that now, it now marks the waiting patiently while in the sit) then give him the treat and say RELEASE at the same time you give him the treat. (I prefer release because it is not a commonly used term like okay, and if you don't want to release your dogs just yet, see someone, say okay in agreement with someome, you've accidentally released your dogs from the command.)after you have worked on this and he is staying in the sit without moving until you give the release 9 out of 10 times, add 3more seconds on. Continue doing this until you are at 24 seconds of perfect staying until released. At this point he will realize that he is not to move, no matter how long, until you say so. At any time, he gets out of position before you release him, stop the command, turm your attention away from him (this is negative punishment - the removal of attention since attention is what he is seeking) give him a moment to come around to you, sit down and give you eye contact. When he does this, wait whatever seconds you are on, then say good, but DO NOT give him a treat or any petting, he has to learn that disobeying does not get rewarded. Then the next attempt at the exercise will most likely go very well, and you can mark the behavior and reward.
Once you have this down, DOWN is the next to work on. When he is in SIT he will obviously stay since you have worked on that with him and he is good at it now, have the treat in front of his nose, DO NOT let him have the treats, but lure his nose slowly down toward the groud directly in front of his paws, once he is there, slowly move the treat along the ground away from his paws forward, he will most likely stay where his butt is and lower his body to continue reaching toward the treat, THE VERY INSTANT his body is fully on the ground, say GOOD and the reward. Just like stay work on this until he gets it 9 times out of 10 without the lure. When he stays for however long you want him give him a small pile of 8 treats, and put them between his paws and say good while he eats them this way staying down keeps him down longer and is very rewarding for being down.
Once you have these commands taught, you can deffinately use the sit/stay for letting the dog out doors. You must practice it first, a dog does not know what to offer unless you teach him. Practice sit/stay at a door, slowly open the door, if his rear end comes up, close the door and start over, after a couple of times he'll realize that staying seated keeps the door open, once the door is open, you can say RELEASE and let him outside, same thing with coming in, and with eating. Have him sit while the food bowl is in yor hand, set it down, the instant his rear end comes up (no matter what point you are at with putting the bowl down, if you are mid way:) pick the bowl back up and start over, a couple of times and he'll realize that staying seated will let the food come down. The give him the release. Work on staying at the door before you work on staying for food. This helps him learn that staying for something in particular will get him what he wants and it will be easier since food is harder to keep dogs away from.
GOOD LUCK, I hope I helped. If you have any questions feel free to ask for it, I will be more than happy to give you assistance.
~C~
ADD: Puppies will play bite and don't know not to with people so you have to teach them that biting is unacceptable. The best way to get your dogs to stop doing something is to ignore it, because any kind of attention is attention and attention is what they are looking for. Don't jerk your hand away but sort of slowly pull it away and remove your attention. Throughout the day every day, when he is laying down and being calm, or when he is not biting, pet him. Show him that he is gonna get rewarded for good behavior no matter the situation. For every negative attention there needs to be five positive attentions. So the more and more you reward him for being calm, they will outweigh the bad and he'll easily see the pattern that good gets rewarded and bad gets ignored. NEVER USE CRATE FOR PUNISHMENT. If he does something bad, then it is something that happened and there's nothing that can be done about it now. The only form of punishment should be the removal of attention wich is called negative punishment. Negative in the form of a minus sign, ie: subtracting something, what are you subtracting? Attention. Positive reinforcement is the training technique, positive as in addition sign, what are we adding? attention. If every time he does something wrong and you put him in the crate for it, then what is he going to think when you put him in the crate cause you need to leave the house? He's gonna think he did something wrong when he did nothing wrong. For example: if he poops in the house. He doesn't know he's doing something wrong, he simply had to go, it's just too bad you didn't get to him in time to take him out. Now you know what to look for and to add an extra bathroom break in the day. Bathrooms for dogs are not as readily available like bathrooms for people, should you be spanked or sent to your room because you couldn't hold it in and had an accident? No, same thing goes for the dog, let him out, and while he's out clean up the mess, spray petzyme down on the spopt to get rid of the stain and odor, and better luck next time. However, when he IS in the crate it is important that you ignore the whining. When it stops, you can take him out, this way he doesn't learn that whining will get him what he wants. If you respond to whining, he'll whine more often and for a lot longer when you DO want to ignore him. Nip it in the bud as soon as possible to keep correction training to a minimum. Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll send you an emial to let you know I'm adding something here, since I am not limited on the amount of characters I can use and I can thus explain things more thoroughly.
~C~
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Certified Dog Trainer and Behavioralist
Proud Doggy Parent of 3!
2009 Jun 10
WOW, InLove has a great answer. I couldn't compete with that if I wanted too.
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2009 Jun 10
just get a training book at your local petsore or bookstore.
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2009 Jun 10
follow everything InLove has to say and the rest of what you are looking for will fall into place.
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dog owner