Dog Training - How NOT To Train Your Dog!

Dog Breeds Explained - How NOT To Train Your Dog.

Most dog owners sincerely want to train their dog well.

However, an almost equal number will underestimate the time and effort it takes to do so.

The result is frequently a common set of mistakes that can be avoided.

•   Dogs are not Furry Children.

Though the average mature dog has a mental development somewhere around the level of a human two year old, there are more differences than there are similarities.

Dogs can be amazing at processing language.

But they don't reason the way humans do. They do not connect cause and effect in the same way.

As a result, it can be frustrating to repeat the same command repeatedly, only to have the dog apparently ignore you.

Most times, they are not ignoring the command as much as failing to understand it.

It seems it should be obvious - they have done the behavior successfully many times before - but today they are just 'being stubborn'.

•   Some dogs probably are what would, in humans, be called stubborn.

Nevertheless, they can be easily distracted, or fail to connect today's instance of 'come' with yesterday's behavior and subsequent reward.

There are alternative explanations for their behavior.

Patience is the number one skill needed for dog training.

You have to be prepared to repeat the same command, day in and day out, and sometimes not get the same result.

Many dogs take two years to learn anything beyond the simplest basics to the point that it consistently sticks.

Part of that patience means keeping your temper when you want to lash out physically.

It is easy to take physical punishment as the first route of correcting a dog's behavior.

However, that is reserved in the wild for only the most severe circumstances. So, the dog hasn't evolved to understand why you're hitting them.

It instills fear, not trust.

Dogs, like humans, much more readily follow those they trust than those they fear. The latter they do only when they have no choice.

Nevertheless, dogs make choices very differently from people. They will often just endure the punishment without learning anything.

Physical punishment simply is not an effective training method.

Therefore, here is how NOT to train your dog:

•   Forget that your dog has a nature different from yours. Talk to them as if they were human.

•   Believe that the dog can connect events across time and circumstances then draw the same conclusion you would.

•   Get impatient and frustrated when they do not behave, as you want them to. Punish them for not behaving the way you want.

Follow those useless methods of dog training and you will reap the reward of a maladjusted dog and an unhappy owner.

However, if those are not the results you seek, be prepared to change YOUR behavior, before you try to change the dog’s behavior.

Dog Breed Training Links

American Dog Trainers Network

Training Your Own Dog

Dog Breed Training Articles

1. Choosing the Right Collar for your Puppy
2. Clicker Training for Dogs
3. Guide to Dog Training
4. Types of Dog Training
5. Dog Training Methods
6. Housetraining Your Puppy
7. Dog Training Tips
8. Dog Obedience School
9. Housebreak Your Pomeranian
10. Dog Training Collars
11. Positive Methods of Training Your Dog
12. Positive Training for Your Barking Dog
13. Reward Training
14. Stopping the Barking Habit
15. Dogs Chewing Problem
16. House Training Techniques
17. Basics of Dog Training
18. Importance of Dog Training
19. Things You Should know about Dog Training
20. Tips on Dog Obedience Training
21. Tips on Training your Dalmatian
22. Training your Puppy to Sit
23. Moods of your Puppy
24. Techniques of Dog Training
25. Dog Training to Bond
26. Different Dog Breeds Require Different Training Methods
27. How Not to Train your Dog