Are you at your wit’s end with your new puppy? Have you cleaned up one too many messes in the living room and woken up one too many nights to the sound of endless barking from the doghouse? If so, then you are probably looking for some help. We’ve compiled a list of dog training tips for beginners.
The first thing you will want to remember is that training is a process. Your hard work will not come to fruition overnight, especially if your dog has developed some bad habits like barking at strangers. It may take a while to break those bad habits and establish new ones. Have patience! Things will improve. Let’s get started and take a look at 7 Dog Training Tips for Beginners.
If you are looking for a quality kennel to keep your dog while you work on dog training, The Dog Kennel Collection offers a variety to fit your needs.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Start with the Basics
When working with your dog, it is important to start at the beginning. Understand where your dog is in his/her training journey and start there.
Use Basic Commands
Starting with basic commands is one of the important dog training tips for beginners. Use commands like “stay”, “sit”, “down”, and other fundamental commands to help your dog establish you as the leader. Learning these commands may also be important to your dog’s safety in certain situations.
Using basic commands to train your dog not only can help keep your dog safe (for example: Using stay to prevent your dog from running into traffic) but establishes a bond between you and your furry friend and promotes discipline in your dog, which in turn establishes good habits. Take a look at this article to learn some basic commands for your dog.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Use Positive Reinforcement
Using positive reinforcement while training your dog is important because it rewards them for their good behavior and encourages them to do it in the future. Training like this will produce good results over time.
Increase Motivation and Confidence
If your dog is being rewarded for positive behavior (If it obeys your command to stay for the first time), it will feel motivated to continue. It’s similar to training a child to obey and rewarding them with something they like. Rewarding your dog positively will help it feel a sense of security and connection with you as its owner. Dog treats are a great reward for good behavior, and we have a list of dog treat recipes you can make for your dog on our blog.
With positive reinforcement, your dog will continue to grow in confidence and will begin to understand what you require of it, knowing what behavior causes what outcome. This will help your dog to feel more relaxed and secure.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Keep Training Sessions Brief
Like most kinds of intense training sessions, it is important to keep them in fairly short intervals. Dogs do not do well when pushed to the limit and tired.
Help with Short Attention Span and Retention
In our list of dog training tips for beginners, this tip is important to understand. Dogs have a short attention span, and practicing commands or other training methods for a long period of time can cause them to become bored, distracted, and make it difficult for them to learn. They are more likely to retain what they learned if they undergo short training sessions rather than long ones. For some ideas on what a training session should look like, read this article.
Increase Positive Association with Training
Dogs are naturally upbeat and will enjoy training times more if the training periods are short, interesting, and yield positive results for them. If you want your dog to enjoy learning new things with you, be sure that he/she associates positive things with training time. This is one of the best dog training tips to keep in mind.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Be Sure to Socialize Your Dog
If you want a well-mannered and happy dog, it is important that they get some kind of interaction with other canines like themselves. Though humans are good buddies, too, dogs need interaction with their own kind.
Develop Good Behavior and Help with Bonding
Socializing your dog is important as it helps them learn how to play with other dogs and deal with different personalities and situations they encounter. Supervised playtime with dogs (It should definitely be supervised if they are not well trained) helps your dog to learn how to deal with aggression and cope with problems like fear and anxiety. This can help your dog improve in training if it learns how to deal with these behaviors around other dogs.
Give them Exposure
Dogs who never spend time with other dogs or in other surroundings may not learn how to control themselves when exposed to different stimuli. Making sure they are exposed to other types of dogs, as well as different sounds and sights, will help your dog learn to deal with behavior issues like fear and will help them respond to your training in a good way.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Be Consistent
Like child training, consistency is very important. Your dog deserves to know what to expect from you. Being consistent in your behavior and training is very valuable when learning the best dog training tips for beginners.
Reduce Confusion in your Dog
If you respond in anger when your dog misbehaves and then ignore it the next time, your dog will never learn what to expect from you. On the flip side, if you treat your dog for good behavior and don’t acknowledge it the next time, it may be confused again with your lack of consistency. Consistently reward your dog for good behavior, and it will begin to understand what you expect and strive to please you.
Promote Independence in Your Dog
Consistency in training will help your furry friends to be equipped with what they need to learn on their own. They will learn what is expected of them and be able to use their good behavior independently, increasing their performance level in training.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Don’t Punish Your Dog
Contrary to what some people may believe, punishing your dog, especially physically, will probably not bring the results you want to see. It may actually damage your relationship with your dog. This is one of the important dog training tips for beginners, and many people don’t put it into practice.
Potentially Damages your Relationship with Your Dog
Punishing your dog physically may hurt your relationship with your dog by building fear and mistrust and causing them to associate you (and training time) with punishment. This can cause your dog to be less willing to obey you and make training more work than necessary.
Punishment can be Dangerous
Certain types of punishments may hurt your dog, especially if you are not careful and sensitive to what they are feeling. Using things like a choke color or hitting them when they misbehave can do not only emotional damage but may cause lasting physical harm as well.
A quote from an article written on this topic says, “Punishment may teach a pet that something is unpleasant, but it does not teach the pet what is desirable.” To delve deeper into this topic, check out this article from VCA Animal Hospitals.
Dog Training Tips for Beginners: Exercise your Dog
Another one of our dog training tips for beginners is simply to exercise your dog. Dogs benefit from the outdoors just like humans, and time outdoors may help them to respond better in training.
If you need a place to keep your dog outdoors, The Dog Kennel Collection offers quality customizable kennels that will provide the perfect home for your dog.
Improve the Physical Health of your Dog
One obvious benefit of exercise for your dog is better physical health. Dogs should spend about 30 minutes to 2 hours exercising outside. Consistently exercising your dog will help it stay in good shape and reduce its chances of disease. Going on walks, teaching them to “Go fetch,” and running with your dogs will increase their stamina and mental stimulation as well.
Increase Focus and Strengthen your Bond
If a dog does not get a chance to “run-off” its energy, it may be more restless and not as receptive to training. Getting a chance to run around outside and stretch its legs will help your dog to stay focused in training. Spending time with your dog outdoors and exercising with your dog will build a bond between you and will improve its cooperation in trust and training.
All that to say, training your dog is a lot of work, and there are a variety of good methods you can use to help you. It is very important to stay patient and understand that proper training takes time. Learn not to react out of frustration but instead encourage your dog in its endeavors. Before you know it, all your hard work will pay off, and you will have a delightful pet, your dream dog.
Benefits of a Dog Kennel for Training: The Dog Kennel Collection
A dog kennel may be a good fit for your dog and can be helpful in promoting good habits in your dog. So how does a dog kennel improve training?
Provides them with a Safe Space
A kennel, especially a comfortable and clean one, can give your dog a safe space to retreat when it feels threatened or anxious. Having a spot where your dog can go when it is feeling overwhelmed is important, and a kennel may be a quiet place to retreat to.
Prevents Destructive Behavior
Unsupervised dogs, or dogs who are in training, may find themselves in trouble around the house. Destructive behavior like chewing on shoes and getting into the trash can be prevented by giving your dog a space like a kennel where it can be safe and without those temptations.
Reduces Separation Anxiety
Because dogs are very social creatures, they may experience separation anxiety when you are gone. A kennel may provide them a safe space to retreat and rest while you are away.
If you want some tips to learn how to kennel and crate train your dog, check out this article.
Dog Kennels from the Dog Kennel Collection
Here at The Dog Kennel Collection, we provide a large variety of kennels for your dog, in sizes that accompany one dog as well as sizes that may fit up to 16 dogs. We offer commercial kennels and residential kennels for every use. Here are a few features of our kennels:
- 30-year shingles and durable painted siding for maximum weather protection
- Lined with glass wall for easy cleaning
- Chew Proof Dog Door
- Easy-to-Maintain Poly Decking
To see all the features of our dog kennels, check out our blog.
