Dogs make a house a home, but if your dog isn’t taught how to behave appropriately, it can turn your house into chaos. This article will provide some essential, proven tips to teach your dog impeccable manners.
There are some basic behaviours to teach your dog first so that you can build on them to enhance your dog’s manners further. Such as your dog’s name, Sit, Down, On The Mat, and Come.
Start slowly, train at your dog’s pace, and consistently reinforce the behaviours you want to achieve success. These are the basic principles of any and all training success.
Set Your Dog Up For Success
Always set your dog up for success. Control the environment to help your dog focus on what you are trying to teach them. Stop and rethink your approach if your dog struggles to understand what you ask them to do.
It may be necessary to break the training down into smaller, easier-to-understand steps for your dog. Clear instructions are essential to teach your dog. Remember, they don’t instinctively know what you expect from them, and they don’t speak our language.
Always end the training with a positive success for your dog. Even if this means asking them to do something they have previously learned so that you can praise and reward them. Success breeds confidence, and a happy, confident dog is easier and more eager to train than an anxious, unsure dog.
Low Distraction Environment
It should always begin in a low-distraction environment to ensure success in any training situation. A quiet room inside the home is usually best to ensure the dog can easily focus on you and what you want to teach them.
Distractions are added gradually as your dog becomes more confident in the behaviour you’re training. Moving outside in training comes after your dog has mastered the behaviour with distractions inside different rooms. The outside training will begin in a low-distraction area and gradually increase distractions when your dog masters each step.
Always Praise And Reward
The quickest and easiest method to teach your dog anything is to heap on lots of praise and reward every behaviour you like and want to reinforce. If a dog finds a behaviour rewarding and pleasurable, it will repeat it. When a behaviour is repeated enough and has a positive feeling connected to it in the brain, the behaviour becomes a habit.
You want your dog to want to behave in a certain way. A cooperative dog is much easier to work with than a dog who is being forced to do something it finds unpleasant. This is why positive reinforcement has a more effective, long-lasting impact than aversive training methods.
Food is a common motivator for most dogs. Some dogs are happy with lots of praise and affection, while others prefer a favourite toy. The secret to training is to find what consistently motivates your dog and use that to enhance the training experience. You can always mix up the motivators for your dog to stop them from becoming bored and keep their interest piqued.
Short Fun Sessions
Keep your training sessions to 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Puppies will need shorter sessions as they tire and get bored quicker. The training sessions should be done after some exercise, as it’s easier for your dog to focus if it’s burnt off any excess energy. 5 to 10 minutes a few times daily will reduce frustration for your dog and you.
It’s easier for you and your dog to engage fully with each other for short periods of time.
Ending the training with a fun game of tug or fetch will not only make it fun for you, but your dog will associate the interaction as rewarding, making it want to participate again. Even if your dog struggled with the training, it’s essential to reinforce the interaction positively so that your dog knows you are happy with it and will be willing to try again.
Have Realistic Expectations
Unrealistic expectations of what your dog can learn and how quickly it will learn are real barriers in training. Training takes time; you don’t expect a baby to learn to talk and walk in months, and it is unrealistic to expect a dog to learn a new behaviour in weeks. To teach your dog impeccable manners takes time.
A lot of time is needed to reinforce and embed the behaviours you want your dog to display. Mistakes and setbacks will happen caused by you and your dog. We are not robots, and life unexpectedly happens. It’s essential to remain calm and avoid getting frustrated by setbacks. The more relaxed and confident you are, the more calm and confident your dog will become.
Be Proactive With Training
I found that being proactive with cues helped massively redirect my husky from behaviours I didn’t want her to display. For example, huskies tend to run and body-slam into people to show they are happy to see them. It’s much like jumping up for other dogs.
When she ran towards us, we would prompt her to sit in front of us to get her out of this habit. Only when sitting would she get attention – a lot of attention and praise. The end product is that when Luna wants attention, she will come and sit in front of us. She doesn’t jump up on anyone.
Redirecting an undesirable behaviour to an acceptable behaviour that results in the same outcome for your dog is the best way to extinguish the unwanted behaviour. In my case, Luna was happy to see us and wanted attention; instead of body-slamming us to get attention, she learned that she got attention by sitting in front of us.
Take your time and get to know your dog; you will soon pick up what motivates them and how you can make the training fun and rewarding for you and your dog. Consistency and patience will go a long way toward teaching your dog the impeccable manners you expect from them.
Take time and enjoy training your dog. You may find these articles helpful:
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