Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Positive Reinforcement Training for Your Dog in Easy Steps

By Danah Reed

A well trained dog can be a wonderful part of your family. A well trained dog fits well in your family if he understands the basic house rules regarding where he should go to the bathroom where he can and cannot lay, and what he can and cannot chew or eat. Establishing these rules can make owning a dog an easy thing. But its not only important what you train your dog to do; in order to have a healthy, long lasting relationship with your pet its also important how you train your dog.

Shouting and yelling at your dog might get the instant result of your dog obeying you, but seeing that dogs are very intelligent and sensitive, this way of "training" them will only make them afraid of you. As a caregiver you are the person they should be able to trust in, in order to have a loving relationship with your companion.

And the most incredible thing is, when it comes to training your dog, that your dog will be trained faster and easier if you use positive reinforcement as apposed to negative reinforcement. Your dog wants to please you and win your affection, and as soon as he figures out what pleases you then he will work very hard to do those tasks.

Positive reinforcement means that you will take extra care to praise your dog for actions you require of him and not focusing on those slip up and mistakes he makes.

If your dog has an accident on the carpet then you dont beat him or yell at him. Clean it up without any reaction at all (in fact its best to not even let him see you clean it up, because then he might start to think that that is your job.) Give the dog no attention if he has an accident. Giving your dog no attention is punishment enough because your pet lives for love and attention from you.

But when you see your dog go to the bathroom where hes supposed to, then shower him with love and affection. He will soon learn that doing his business outside pleases you and he will go out of his way to make it outside whenever possible.

When using the positive reinforcement technique it is important to set your dog up for success so there is going to be plenty of praise.

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