Surely you’ve heard the popular pet saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Granted, pet training is not easy, by any means. However, whether you are dealing with senior pet who has developed bad habits over the years, or you are training your new puppy or kitten to help avoid these bad habits all together, the best time to start training your pet is now – no matter what their age.
Proper obedience training is not only the best way to solve practically any behavioral problem in household pets, but training also aids in opening up a line of healthy communication between a pet parent and a pet. Clear instruction and communication can help ensure your cat does not jump on certain furniture, and can teach your dog to remain calm when visitors enter your home. But, there is more to training your pet than scolding him when he does something wrong, or rewarding him for positive behavior. Obedience training should be informative and fun, and, most importantly, should teach your pet to redirect his natural behavioral instincts to behaviors that are acceptable in your home.
If you are looking to start or continue a spring training regime with your pet, here are a few tips that should help make the process easier for you both. These are suggestions for successfully training your pet in obedience commands and behaviors:
Negative Reinforcement Does Not Stop Bad Behavior
Most times when pets display a behavior that their pet parent is trying to discourage – jumping on the furniture, scratching the carpet, having a potty accident inside the home – they do so when they are alone. So when the “crime” is discovered, many pet owners will show their pet the evidence of the incident (such as a wet spot on the floor) and discipline the pet then. Unfortunately, the “crime” is already long out of the pet’s mind by this time and the discipline only confuses him; it does anything but create a clear message, which is necessary when training a pet. Rather than negative reinforcement, reward your pet’s positive behavior to encourage him to repeat the behavior again in the future.
Be Consistent In Your Training and Rewards
If you have a large family that will all participate in the training of your pet, make sure everybody is on board with your rules and your rewards. For instance, if you are teaching your dog the “down” command to be used when he jumps up on the couch, but your significant other is using the command “off,” your pet is never going to learn the proper command. Consistency will be the key to success when it comes to obedience training. As well, if you reward your cat with a treat each time she scratches her nails on her scratching post rather than your living room rug, ensure other family members do the same.
Training Takes Time and Diligence
No matter how many obedience classes or training books are involved, it simply is not possible for any pet to be fully trained overnight. No matter how much progress your pet may make in areas such as housetraining or obedience commands, there will always be some “mistakes” that are unavoidable. Don’t stress out about these instances or curse the training methods you’ve applied. Rather, stay focused on the positive progress that you and your pet have made so far and keep rewarding positive changes. As the saying goes, good change takes time!
If you have a dog training challenge, Happy Tails can help. Socialization and exercise are an integral part of any training program. We can help you and your dog reach your training goals with daily dog walks, socialization activities, and training reinforcement in coordination with your training program. As they say, a tired dog is a happy dog. And a more focused dog during training sessions!
Hey Melanie , these are some of the amazing tips which is required for each and every dog. It is very crucial that we should train our dog at relevant span of time because it will help the owner to keep his dog in its limit.
Thanks buddy for sharing this informative blog with everyone !!!!