Dog Training Dos and Don'ts

Dog obedience training is an area where emotions run hot, and everyone is ready to offer strong opinions or judgments about how to treat your dog. Be careful not to be overly influenced by any one source. It is best to do your own research, stay objective, and decide for yourself, which dog training methods best suit you and your dog.

Dogs learn through a process called conditioning. They repeat behaviors that get them good results, and stop behaviors that get them bad results. There are two classes of dog training methods: reward dog training (give/remove something good) and aversive dog training (give/remove something bad).

Start out with reward dog training. With reward dog training you achieve leadership by controlling your dog's resources. Unlike aversive dog training, there is no danger of losing your dog's trust and/or injuring your dog physically or mentally if you make dog training mistakes.

Also make sure that you are following the Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) program. This means that you do not give anything to your dog (including food, toys, freedom, and affection) until he does something for you first.

Dog Training Tip #1
Remember always that there is a danger of things going really wrong with aversive techniques. Your dog may misbehave more, get destructive or aggressive, lose respect and trust for you, get stressed and break down completely, run away, or get injured. Always get direction from a good trainer before trying out pain or dominance based aversive techniques.

Dog Training Tip #2
There is nothing wrong with using food to motivate your dog during training. In fact, it is good practice to make your dog work for all of his food rather than giving it all to him in a silver dog bowl.

It is important that you teach your dog what are appropriate behaviors and what are inappropriate behaviors. When your dog does something desirable, mark that behavior (Yes), treat and praise him. When your dog does something undesirable, non-mark that behavior (No), and stop him.

Always be calm, consistent, and fair. If you interact with a dog with nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise weak (non-firm) energy, the dog will sense that and start acting out even more. Anger, impatience, frustration, and all other non-calm energies will also amp up your dog and cause him to exhibit even more extreme behaviors.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Manage, train, and socialize your dog carefully, especially when he is young, to prevent bad dog behaviors. If dog behavior problems arise, address and fix it as soon as possible so that it doesn't become a learned behavior.

Dog Training Tip #3
Hire a professional trainer if you are unable to stop the problem on your own.

Dog Training Tip #4
Do not simply follow methods that you see on dog training television shows. In particular, the aversive methods used by Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer, can have adverse side effects when not properly executed.

Hitting, spanking, or slapping your dog is too personal. The punishment clearly originates from you, and there is no way to redirect it. As a consequence, your dog may end up learning the wrong lesson, including:

1. Rough-housing is a fun game that my owner plays with me. Let me try playing it with him and with others.
2. My owner or a person's hand/face coming towards my face or body is a bad thing. I should run away from people or bite the hand/face that is a threat to me.
3. My owner or a person coming towards me means pain. I should stay away from people and keep them away by growling and biting.

Dog Training Tip #5
If you do not deliver the hits consistently, and with good timing, your dog may get confused as to why he is getting hit. He may become fearful and stressed because he is unsure how he can stop the punishment. This may lead to fear aggression issues as well as submissive urination.

As desribed earlier, dogs learn through conditioning. They stop behaviors that get them bad results. However, if you punish them after the fact, they will not know which behavior to associate with the bad result. This only gets them confused, and stressed; and may cause them to lose trust in you.

Dog Training Tip #6
When you punish your dog after the fact (e.g. push his muzzle into his poop); he may try to appease you (e.g. lower his head, offer you his belly, lick you). Some people mistake this to mean that their dog understands he has made a mistake. However, the appeasement gestures are only in response to your anger and punishment. Your dog only understands that you are feeling angry; he does not understand why you are angry and he does not associate it with his earlier behavior.