The Key To Successful Dog Obedience Training

On the opposite side, if a dog does not obey your command, you should not use punishment as a form of counter-reinforcement. This does not help in training your dog and will only make it worse. It will only confuse your dog and it will begin to doubt its feelings. Thus, only "positive reinforcement" should be employed.

Another important aspect of dog training is to avoid training your dog to take up bad habits. Most people are unaware that they are doing this and instances may occur that the trainer may think he is training the dog to achieve a certain behavior but actually giving the dog a bad habit along the way as well. They may not realize it until the dog displays the bad habit when it thinks the owner is asking for it.

As an example, it is very common for dogs to bark when they see something strange or unfamiliar and this is a good thing. But when they continue to bark when seeing a familiar person then it becomes a problem and dogs should not be rewarded with treats when they are doing that.

Some owners at this point may yell and shout at their dogs to shut up. This kind of reaction from the owners will confuse them and make them think that the reason why their owners are yelling is because they are also enjoying the barking scene and that they are actually "barking" together with their dogs.

The right thing to do is to actually avoid paying any attention to them at all. After a while, they will stop and this is when they should be rewarded.

To sum it all up, effective use of positive reinforcement is the key to successful dog obedience training. Armed with this knowledge, any owner can have the most obedient dog as his best friend.

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