Consistency and the Art of Basic Dog Training
Dogs are thought to be "A man's best friend", and so as a dog owner you need to properly train your dog for them to become what they are often associated to. Basic dog training, or like others call it, abc dog training, involves principles that a dog owner must apply.
The very first principle to consider is to be consistent. A dog behavior can both be acceptable or not. Like for example, you can allow your dog to jump all over you when you are in your casual and ordinary clothes during weekends but not on weekdays when you are dressed for your work. The dog does not understand why he can jump on you some times and not other times, and this is when confusion starts, you are sending your dog mix messages. You have to impose what is necessary so that your dog will adopt the things that you want them to do.
Consistency may sometimes be much easier for couple or singles and yet it is quite tough for the family as a whole. The more people who get close to the dog, the more inconsistency takes place. It is best that families conduct a meeting to agree and discuss the appropriate behavior that they want for their dog. Everyone should understand and agree to one set of rules for the basic dog training. However, in reality this is most likely to be a tough job. For instance, it is quite difficult for a six-year old who is so enthusiastic with the dog, to follow what has been agreed. What does she know? She's only a child. In this case, the advice for new pet owners is that they should be the ones who should spend more time in training the dog to avoid inconsistency.
Consistency is not limited to the behavior itself. Basic dog training requires consistency to obedience commands, and these include both the hand signals for dog obedience training and the verbal commands. If you want your dog to be very keen in learning the obedience commands, you have to be prepared the moment you start your basic dog training.
Obedience command is an art of dog training where attitudes have poorly gone down. Decades ago, people where very much willing to train their dog to obey commands even for the first time. But today, a lot of dog owners are not comfortable with the idea that dogs are to be trained to respond predictably to a certain command.
Dog training must be done with compassion but with a bit of manipulation. Do not punish your dog if they do not listen for the first you give the command, however, you should impose an objective that they must learn the command. Give rewards if necessary but do not do it in such a way that they will get used to it. They must also learn to be independent. Just like having a person as your best friend, true that you are passionate with them, but there are times that you have to repriment them for them to learn. Do everything in moderation. It is also important to recognize the behavior of your dog and deal with the cause of that certain behavior.
Basic dog training requires a good strategy. Dog owners must learn to understand the principles of maintenance, redirection, reward, prevention and correction. Everything should be consistent to make everything work. Make dog training fun in a way that your dog will enjoy.
Have a great "dog training" day,
Dr. Alfonso
