You have a new fluffy addition to the household, so you can't wait to bring your dog into training to learn all sorts of tricks. You would get the block of the most well-behaved, healthy, polite puppy. Yet keep tuned until you plunge in.
There are loads of errors committed by dog lovers while teaching their pups. Make sure you learn what not to do when you continue your fitness regimen.
Here are typical mistakes that you can prevent when teaching new habits and tricks to your pup.
Inconsistency With Your New Puppy
Consistent answers are important at any stage of dog training. You annoy the dog while you're incoherent in class. You can even unintentionally catch yourself promoting unhealthy habits.
Let's presume you're creating a guideline where your dog isn't permitted on the sofa. Eventually, for one reason or another, you catch yourself making the odd exemption and getting him up there. When you turn around to get angry at him for sitting on the sofa, he's not going to understand that one moment is permitted and not the next.
Begging is just another illustration of the flaw. If your dog only receives food from people who feed, he's not going to grow begging patterns. At first, he could do it a few times but ignoring your dog repeatedly or saying "go to your spot" would deter begging. If someone offers him a bit of food, though, he will equate begging with a reward and will want to beg in the future.
Another indication of the incoherence is to praise the dog when he achieves something "kind of." If you teach your dog to lay down, you praise him until his whole body is on the carpet. If you offer him a prize for "lying down" in the future, until his whole body is on the table, you're incompatible with that.
Here are items to help keep consistency:
- Dog Door Bells
- Set up Dog Training Pad by the door and use the dogs paw to ring the bells prior to going outside.
Harsh Discipline With Your Puppy
Most professional dog trainers believe that it is not very successful to use discipline in dog training. In general, dogs are more likely to perform through successful dog training for rewards. For certain cases, the usage of gentle aversives (such as the spray bottle or a penny bowl) can be beneficial and may not appear to inflict damage. Some factors, though, may create a risky scenario. Harsh punishment requires acts like shouting, punching, alpha rolling, looking down, pulling the neck's scruff, and leash jerking. Such acts may have consequences.
- They might get the dog nervous.
- They may do serious damage to your puppy.
- They may trigger the dog to respond violently, endangering you or others.
Unless you believe it needs intense training to "show superiority" over your puppy then you're so wrong about this. The human idea of becoming a "gangmaster" is obsolete and stems from flawed studies on dogs and wolves. Take the time to do your homework, and know-how to gain the love of your family. The teaching phase will be a fun means of communicating with the puppy, not a teasing.
Getting the Timing Wrong with your Puppy
The dog won't realize he's doing anything well because you're not showing him, either way, he would learn. This is where good pacing and motivation come in. Many trainers recommend labeling appropriate habits through the use of a clicker or a short term (like "yes"). And follow up directly with an incentive and ensure sure it's connected to the clicker or phrase. Making sure all of this occurs soon (within a second or two). If the incentive arrives a couple of seconds too late, your dog can link the prize to another event. Positive reinforcement is especially relevant when you attempt to get your dog to link behaviors to trigger words during early training.
The same happens when it comes to addressing inappropriate habits in the child. If you want to use aversive (which can be gentle and held to a minimum, or stopped altogether), make sure that you incorporate the aversive when the activity takes place. If the dog is peeing in the room, so you're not finding him until he's done, so you can't do something. Every penalty after the event is correlated with something else (NOT the in-house peeing action). Your dog will know to be afraid when there's pee on the floor, but in practice, he won't learn to do the activity until you catch him in the act.
Impatience With Your Puppy
Dog teaching is time-intensive and every dog is learning at a rate. Seek not to get stressed out or upset for something the dog doesn't pick on too. This would probably make matters harder because the dog is apt to feel stressed out or upset.
When the dog is failing to understand something, decide whether it's a suitable idea to teach or not. Will the discussion run too long? Recall holding dog training sessions brief (around 10-15 minutes) and finishing on a good note. Alternatively, you could attempt to break down the action into smaller pieces and practice each individually. For this very reason, the "rollover" action/cue is always practiced in stages.
The next time you feel anxious, make sure you test the time. When it's been long enough (or whether your dog is annoyed or disinterested), just cover it up in a simple move that you believe your dog should do. Make sure to finish on a good note, even though it means switching to the sit prompt. You will then continue to split up the preparation into smaller pieces later.
Here is another sign of impatience: you are telling your dog to lie down and he is not. So, you keep repeating the term "down" and after 3 to 5 times he eventually sits down repeating wait. You then recompense him with a treat. You tell him the order was only a request so he should continue to sit before you repeat it five times. Instead, tell the order once regularly, and wait for the answer. If your dog refuses to comply with the first, you can wait a few seconds and continue from the beginning (the first moment you get his attention).
Reinforcing the Wrong Behavior WIth Your Puppy
One of the most frequent faults in dog training is the unintended reinforcement of undesired habits. You could not even find it to be satisfying or strengthening. Examples like soothing the dog when he is afraid, allowing him inside the house as soon as he barks, or just offering him a serious chat when he misbehaves.
Our dogs are such relational animals who are after our love. Giving your dog some sort of treatment will mean his present behavior is successful and will continue. Also, poor affection is better than virtually zero for certain breeds. When your dog tries something unexpected, like jumping up on you, the only thing you can do is withhold notice to the action.
Note: If the inappropriate activity, such as chewing furniture or jumping into the garbage, is self-rewarding, maybe punishing the dog is not the right option. Instead, turn the dog's focus to a positive task that rewards, like playing with a puzzle or going to exercises.
Conclusively, as you teach your dog there are two of the most important errors to prevent. Know your dog requires time to learn different commands and show the appropriate actions.
