How to Teach Your Dog or Puppy Any Trick or Any Command
By Larry Parr
Training your dog or your puppy is not as difficult as many people think. In fact, your dog or your puppy wants to be trained. Your animal is waiting for you to train it. If your dog could talk it would beg you to train it.
It's true. No matter how difficult you believe your dog or your puppy might be to train, your best friend is dying for you to exert your authority.
Why? Because deep down, on a cellular level, all dogs are pack animals. All dogs were once wild, feral, relying on a pack for survival as well as companionship. As such they require a leader. The leader of the pack. This leader is generally referred to as the Alpha Dog...the Number 1 Dog, the dog all other members of the pack follow and take their cue from.
Today you and your family are your dog's pack. And deep down, on a genetic level that we can't see, your dog is still baying at the moon and waiting for the leader of its pack to tell it what to do, to keep it safe. Your dog is desperately searching for it's alpha, its leader.
That leader needs to be you. You need to to be the Alpha in your pack.
If you aren't the Alpha Dog in your home, your pack, then you need to change your behavior and become the leader. If you don't your dog will be confused, rudderless, and very likely to act out. This acting out can take many forms, one of the most common being disobedience.
Let me give you a simple example. You feed your dog each day. You control the food. The one who controls the food is the leader, the Alpha...yet you don't provide leadership once you put the food in the bowl. This confuses your dog. Can you see how this could lead to poor behavior?
Don't get the wrong idea. Being the Alpha Dog does not mean that you need to yell at your dog and give orders. Far from it. Yelling only confuses your dog even more. Many people seem to think that if you just speak loudly enough and slowly enough your dog will understand what you are saying....
Get a clue. You and your dog do not live in a Disney cartoon where animals understand human speech and think and act the same way humans do. Would you expect a creature newly-landed on Earth from the planet Mars to think and behave like we do? Of course not.
Your dog is every bit as much of an alien creature as that Martian.
Your dog does not understand the words you yell at it. Your dog may very well understand the basic meaning of a few simple commands, but the individual words are just so much gibberish.
Never yell at your dog, and never hit your dog. Neither is acceptable and neither has anything to do with training your animal.
Let me give you another example. Let's say that your dog has gone out into the backyard to do its business but you're in a hurry and after just a few seconds you yell at your dog to come back in the house. Your dog ignores you.
You become frustrated and angry. You yell again, but again you get no response. Now you are really mad. You scream at your dog to get back in the house and you point to the door with a trembling hand. Every atom in your body screams your range and your anger.
Now step back a moment and look at this situation from your dog's perspective. You need to do your business and you need to do it outside. But your owner is telling you to come back into the house. What do you do? You can't go back into the house because you still need to do your business and you've been well trained not to do it in the house.
Suddenly your owner is yelling at you in an angry-sounding voice. His tone and his body language is getting angrier and angrier by the moment. You are getting more and more confused - but one thing is perfectly clear:
If you go back into the house you are going to be in trouble, possibly even get hit.
What do you do?
What would you do? If someone were yelling and screaming at you, using threatening body language, would you be anxious to go into a house with them?
Of course not.
One of the reasons your dog won't return to you when you yell at it is because you are TELLING your dog not to come to you.
You are telling your dog the exact opposite of what you think you are telling it. You are telling your dog to stay outside while you foolishly think you are yelling at it to come back indoors.
You are not giving your dog a confusing command - you are giving your dog a perfectly clear order to stay away from you and to stay away from the house. And you are giving the house a negative association.
Because of that, any time in the future when you order your dog back into the house there will always be a hesitation, a fear on your dog's part, a dread that something bad will happen if the dog returns to the house.
What should you have done? You need to start by swallowing your first instinct, which is almost always to yell incoherently at your animal.
Instead, invite you dog back into the house with a friendly voice, perhaps even a treat. Even if your dog continues to seem to ignore you keep your voice light and friendly and keep your body language positive as well.
Even if your dog continues to ignore you do not get angry, do not yell, do not employ angry body language.
Create a simple command such as "Come here" or "In the house." Keep the command light and friendly and have a treat in your hand.
When your dog finally does return to the house pet your dog, tell it how good it is and give it a treat. Do this even if you have been asking your dog to come into the house for ten frustrating minutes.
Do you see the difference? By doing the exact opposite of your instinctive yelling, by being happy and friendly and giving your dog a treat instead, what you have taught your dog is that the house is a great place to be and that if the dog listens to your "in the house" command in the future he (or she) will get a treat rather than getting yelled at.
By doing the opposite of what most people do you teach your dog the lesson you really want to teach it and, within a short time your dog will gladly and quickly come into the house when you call rather than holding back and dreading coming home.
Not only will this have the effect you want on those cold nights when you don't want to have to wait forever for your dog to come back into the house, but making your home a happy and positive place for your dog to come to will also help to keep your dog from ever running away.
Positive reinforcement for dogs and other animals is not some Pollyanna concept, or some Politically Correct nonsense; positive reinforcement is the best and the fastest way to teach your dog or your puppy any trick or any command.
To do otherwise simply confuses your dog and almost invariably teaches it the exact opposite of what you think you're teaching it.
Larry Parr is a full-time freelance writer who owns and trains dogs. His best-selling dog training manual, TEACH YOUR DOG OR PUPPY ANY TRICK OR ANY COMMAND IN 3 HOURS OR LESS � GUARANTEED! has helped hundreds of dog owners train their animals in record time and with absolutely no stress. You can find out more about Larry�s dog training at: http://www.train-your-dog-in-3-hours.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_Parr
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Teach-Your-Dog-or-Puppy-Any-Trick-or-Any-Command&id=686404
