Dog Behavior Questions - How Your Attitude Affects Training

Contrary to popular belief there are not as many training styles as there are trainers and one of the most interesting dog behavior questions that arise is how the trainers attitude affects the training process. The despite an individual differences people handling dogs fall into clearly recognizable categories. And no matter your an individual style or that of your dog there remain certain truisms.

You must have patience when trying to develop good behavior in your dog just about as much as raising a child. For the most part we as humans don't have that much patients. So when trying to train your dog to behave you may need to train yourself.

When training your dog, keep in mind that daily sessions are needed to reinforce the desired behavior you want. Half an hour to an hour time slots will be most rewarding. Remember that no matter how much time has gone by, if you are starting to lose your control or your patience you must end your training session.

You'll need to find the right length of a training session for your pet and perhaps work on expanding it. You have to remember you are dealing with a dog which has the attention span of about a two year old. Different breeds and individual dogs differ in their attention span as well.

When it comes to dog behavior questions, you need to go back to nature. In the wild, dogs are pack animals. Their pack has a hierarchy. The alphas are the leaders of the pack. The omegas are passive and often behave fearfully. There are also individuals that fall in between those two extremes. If you intend to successfully train your dog, you must be the alpha in your pack. At all points, you must be training your dog. Don't let your dog train you. Even if it feels like that is happening, you must still actually be in charge.

When training your dog to obey, you should not be doing it for yourself, but for your dog and the safety of others. YOU will be rewarded with a constant companion. Once you begin training you must stick with it and continually praise your dog for its efforts. Remain diligent through failures and do not punish your dog for them.

Teaching your dog to listen may not be easy. Your dog may be a natural alpha and may not want to take orders. However, it is possible. In wild packs of dogs, the role of alpha will change among pack members when one becomes more assertive than the current alpha. Consistently act as a leader to your dog and repeat these training techniques, and your dog will learn to respect you as alpha and will follow your commands.

Even the best-trained dogs will not an always do what you want when you want. Expecting a dog to too-quickly an understand a new command or to unfailingly remember a previously learned one is a recipe for frustration. The dogs' memories work very differently from humans so you need to keep this in mind and not expect him to act like one. Take the time to learn your an individual dog's capacity and limitations.

Remember when training your dog to take his breed into consideration along with his age. All dogs are unique and have their own personality. You need to work with your dogs traits whether he is naturally lazy, inattentive, or a youthful pup.

Working against your dog's nature is never a good idea. Treat your dog kindly, but firmly and work at building his trust and training will be a good experience for both of you!

-->