How To Train A Dog

Is your dog pulling you around like a sack of potato? So you finally got fed up want to do something about this. But than after several weeks of hard researching all you managed to do is to got even more confused by so many training schools and opposite approaches while all to be the right or even the best program to train your dog.

Now, wait a minute! If they all teach different methods and claim that their method is the best than somebody must be wrong! Right? I totally understand that feeling since I spent several months researching and trying to figure out who is right and who is trying to be "politically correct" and make some quick cash.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this. It will depend on your needs, your dog breed, age, etc. There are several good dog training methods out there as long as you learn proper steps and make clear plan of what you want to achieve.

Without any intention to endorse one dog training method over the other we will cover most known dog training methods and explain how they approach dog training, what we believe is good and also we will highlight some concerns with each method.

You can find much more details about these training methods in "Dog Obedience Training".

• How To Train A Dog: Collar & Leash


• How To Train A Dog: Positive Reinforcement Training


• How To Train A Dog: Dog Clicker Training


• How To Train A Dog: Dog Whisperer Method

Collar & Leash Method has been around for very long time and yest still seems to be one of the best training methods. Of course many will disagree with this and I most certainly respect their point of view.

While some of critics has few valid points many just trying to score some "political" points and advertise their product. Certainly that dog food industry has some role in all this.

So let's see what this method is about and why it is being criticized by its competitors.

As the name implies this methods is based on use of training collar or prong collar and the leash during the training period.

In nutshell this program uses physical correction when dog disobeys command. The dog is usually given one to two seconds to do what he was asked to do and if he doesn't, the trainer walks to dog and do physical correction without yelling or excessive force and than dog is put in proper position and afterwords is praised for it.

This has twofold benefits. First it marks negative behavior as well as positive behavior establishing very clear line of communication with the dog. Dog is never punished before he knows the command and what is expected from him.

Second benefit of this approach is that dog learns very quickly that he is no longer "pack leader" but rather is the follower.

It should be said that dog has long training leash on during his training and as we progress with the training this line is getting smaller and smaller and finally we moving on to work without leash which is final point of this training.

At this stage dog has learned all basic commands and therefore has earned much more freedom than he ever could have before. This is win-win since now his owner knows exactly how his dog will behave no matter what level of distraction he might encounter.

Positive Reinforcement Training is based on rewarding dog by some kind of treats for certain behavior such as if we want dog to sit. Simply put this system manipulates dog's desire to get food to elicit wanted type of behavior.

Dog is manipulated to do wanted behavior and than treated for it. Overtime dog learns that in order to get his treat he needs to earn it by doing what he is asked to do and than his owner will reward him with his treat. The action that dog perform are reward driven and as such seem to be more "human" than let's say collar & leash training method.

This approach makes a lot of sense, especially for smaller dogs. However, it is not clear what if dog's desire to do something else is stronger than desire to get his treat? Of course we talk here of many different levels of possible distractions.

At some time in addition to treats also voice commands are given so that dog gets conditioned on that as well.

It should be said that very similar training method is also used to train other other animals such as dolphins and or even killer whales with very good results.

Dog Clicker Training is very similar to "Positive Reinforcement Training" with only difference that just before the treat is given to dog, positive behavior is marked by the click. Before we continue let's just make sure we are all on the same page and let's explain what is the clicker. "The Clicker" of course is small mechanical device that produces a sharp sound or a click

Now many are questioning why to use clicker to mark positive behavior, couldn't we just use the hand signals or the words to achieve the same result. It seems that key word here is timing. While words are influenced with our feelings, the clicks are always the same and based on some evidence the learning rate is much faster if clicker is being used.

In addition to this dog hears click much better than the words and seems to respond better to click.

The training itself starts by introducing desired behavior first and when dog repeats it several times meaning he has learned it, the trainer proceed to give that behavior a name such as "sit", "come" etc.

It is interesting that when dog doesn't do what he is asked to do, this method doesn't assume that dog disobeyed command but rather re-evaluate if reward was at the right level and re-adjust the reward itself.

When the training is completed, dog should perform desired behavior without a click.