Dog Training 101

If you haven't had much experience with dogs and now you are facing training one, you need to get a few facts and fast. I hope that this article is able to provide a few tips that will help you to train your new dog.

Be the "Lead Dog"—

Dogs are pack animals, and they naturally look to the leader of the pack for instruction about behavior. You have to establish your dominance over your dog if you expect to be respected. If you don't establish dominance, all is pretty much lost. Even though the dog may love you, it will not revere you as a leader and when it comes to behavior, the dog will do what it wants. There are several places where you need to establish dominance; the most important is at the food bowl. Your dog or puppy needs to know that you give food and that you can take it away. You should be able to put your hands right into the food bowl of your dog. Of course, this isn't something that you should try with a new dog because it is a great way to get bitten, but if you have a puppy, get it used to the fact that you are the master of the food. You can dominate your dog in other ways as well. Hold the dog down if you don't like what it is doing, especially if your dog growls at you; this is exactly what the alpha dog would do. Also, make sure that the dog always walks behind you and enters and exits the house after you.

Use Reinforcement—

By definition, reinforcement is something that increases behavior. The whole trick with dogs is to give them a reward when they do something that you want them to do again. If you want the dog to sit at your command, you should force the dog into a sitting position while you say, "sit" and then give the dog a treat as soon as it sits. Almost all dog training is a function of this technique. You either catch the dog doing something right (like going potty outside) and reinforce the behavior or you force the behavior (like pushing your dog into a sitting position) and reinforce the behavior. Either way, the principle of reinforcement says that the dog will repeat the behavior that got it the treat. The backside of reinforcement is punishment, which, by definition reduces behavior. Most experts do not recommend the use of punishment with dogs, beyond holding them down to combat aggression. Your greatest ally when training your dog is the doggie treat. Begin to teach your dog as soon as you bring it home that it can earn treats through behavior. Soon the dog will be jumping through hoops (literally) to try to earn a treat.

Use Replacement—

Yelling at a dog and telling it "no" does not teach the dog much of anything. They may figure out that you are mad but they probably won't be able to figure out what you are mad at. Instead, replace the problem behavior with an acceptable behavior. The classic example of this is chewing. It is natural for your dog to chew, however it is expensive for your dog to chew on your belongings. If you see your dog start to chew on something inappropriate, stop the behavior immediately and give the dog something that it can chew on. By doing this, the dog will soon learn that there are things to chew on and things not to chew on and that most of the things to chew on already smell like dog.

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