Basic starter Tips For Training Your Puppy
Once you have brought home your new puppy, and have made him comfortable to the new surroundings, you have to begin training your dog. In fact the sooner you start the training, the easier will it be for both you and your pet to lead a comfortable and happy life.
Training is very important for your dog. With training they will understand what is an acceptable action and what is an undesirable action. Dogs usually judge their actions on the response that they get for their actions. Good responses encourage them, and bad ones don’t, so you have to be forthright in expressing yourself to your dog.
Handy Tips On Training Your dog
- Different people would have different needs for a dog. If you are training your dog, decide on a desirable behavior code for your dog from the first day itself. Judge for yourself what you would prefer your dog to do and then zero in on training your dog accordingly.
- From the very first phase, praise your dog for desirable behavior, or discourage him for an undesirable one. For example, if your dog puppy is playing with your kid and fetches a ball, praise him. You may like him to perform such tasks and therefore he has to understand that. On the other hand, if he is littering around, discourage him and teach him the right way to release himself. In this way you can begin training your dog puppy.
- Many a times, you may need to be very stern with your dog puppy as well, especially if your puppy is being particularly naughty - But don’t confuse stern with anger or physical action. Shouting or smacking just confuse most dogs and can make them fearful, more stubborn and in some cases lead to aggression so don’t go down that path. Being stern can be raised “hard toned” voice like a teacher - accompanied by a hand gesture - so that the dog associates the 2.
- The only type of physical action I would advocate is the “mothers nip” which imitates what mother dogs do to discipline unruly pup - it’s like a clip behind the ear really. You cup your hand in a “V” and give them a short sharp “nip” in the back (scruff) of the neck - just where mother dogs pick them up to carry them when very small. Not too hard please this is a puppy after all. Puppies associate this with mothers discipline and being told not to do things. Bit please please, use only when absolutely neccessary as othewrwise it will lose effect.
