Feb 24 2009

Learn Positive Reinforcement and Train Your Dog More Effectively

by Danah Reed

Having a well trained dog is an excellent addition to your family and will give you much pleasure. The first thing is to establish rules and make sure they are always clear to your dog. But apart from teaching your dog what to do and what not, the way you go about it is important to ensure a long and healthy relationship with your pet.

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.

So negative attitudes will make your dog afraid and shy, but doing the complete opposite, training your dog with positive reinforcement will not only speed up the training process but it will also make it so much easier and pleasant. Once your dog is encouraged in a positive way, it will try and start pleasing you and work hard at doing anything you ask of him.

Training your dog with positive reinforcement means that instead of punishing your dog when he does something wrong, you shower your dog with love and affection when he does something right.

Dogs perceive the lack of attention as a punishment in itself so whenever something does go wrong, just dont react to it. During training there are a lot of things that could go wrong, so instead of yelling or punishing your dog, you just dont pay attention to that mistake.

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 training your dog using the positive reinforcement technique, make sure you set your dog up to succeed and not fail.

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