Avoiding the Dog Training Mistakes

Posted by John Savage

February 13, 2009

by John Savage

Probably any dog owner can tell you that training your dog isn't always as easy as it seems it should be. Most owners assume that after a few days or sessions of rehearsing commands and actions then the dog should just pick up on basic skills and that should be it.

Many owners are surprised to find out that training your dog can take literally months depending on the dog, the owner, and what exactly is being taught. However sometimes there are common mistakes that dog owners make that are causing the process to take much longer and be much more difficult than it needs to be.

One mistake a lot of owners make is in making too much of a fuss when your dog does not get something right. What you need to be doing is accentuating the positive, and overlooking the negative.

And remember that dogs love to get the attention and approval of their owners, and will do almost anything to get it, so when they do something right them praise them, and praise them, and they will soon make getting that thing right the norm.

But please do remember that your dog does not understand a single word that you are saying. They do not speak your language, all that they can hope to do is connect some words, with certain actions.

If a dog has made a mess and you start yelling at her, she won't be able to connect your yelling with her mess. You need to actually catch a dog in the act of doing something wrong in order to properly correct her as she just cannot connect your words now with something she's done five hours ago or even five minutes ago.

Don't make the mistake when training your dog of getting upset if she doesn't understand you or continues to make the same mistake if you're not catching her right then and there. Punishing her after the fact is pointless and ineffective.

The last mistake that I want to talk about is the one of having too high an expectation for your training. If your dog does not progress as rapidly as you hoped, then its no good getting mad about it, just accept it, and perhaps consider the possibility of some professional training.

A professional trainer may be able to identify any problem straight away, and, more importantly, may know just how to fix it.

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