Pet Training for Humans?

Train yourself first and your pooch will follow, suggests this canine behaviourist, who tells us that ensuring the whole family is in on the training is essential

Training your dog is all about communication. Your facial expressions, tone of your voice and your body language say a lot about what you feel about your dog and he/she is reading you every minute of the day. If you give out wrong or confusing signals, your dog will soon lose interest in listening to you and then you have what is generally called, a problem dog. Before you actually begin training, here are a few things every pet parent should remember.

• All members of the family must follow the same rules. Do not give out mixed signals that will confuse your dog. For eg: If mom of the house doesn’t want the dog in the kitchen (it is a dangerous place for the dog or a child anyway), and the kids or the father allow it, the dog is going to pick on the easy thing to do, not listen to anyone for anything.
• Research your dog’s breed to help you understand  peculiar behaviour and how to avoid indirectly teaching him
• anything wrong. It will also help you formulate a specific training plan.
• Be patient with your pooch. He is only trying to understand a language that’s alien to him. Dogs do not understand the words we use. What they do understand is the sound of words associated with the action. So if you keep shouting NO while he is chewing up your favorite cushion and he seems oblivious, it just means that he doesn’t really understand the meaning of the word NO yet.
• Screaming only leads to excitement which further increases the chances of the naughty behavior turning into a bad habit. Be firm yet calm when you are communicating with your dog. If you are screaming sentences at him, all he is thinking is ‘Oh I guess I should keep doing this to improve myself on destruction task’ or worse, he will ignore all that you are trying to teach him.
• Every good behaviour should be rewarded immediately for your dog to start associating reward to ‘good’.
• Just like kids, dogs should have rules too. That does not mean you love them any less. It’s to ensure you, your family and friends keep loving him the same way or even more, always.
• Remember that whatever your dog is learning now will remain with him for next 12-14 years. So if you are not going to allow a fully grown 40 kg dog on your bed later, the time is NOW to start laying down the rules.
• Negative reprimanding, hitting or any sort of physical reaction to a wrong
• behaviour will do no good. Fear doesn’t teach good manners, it only hides the bad ones which fester and can blow up as a serious behaviour issue later.
• Dogs by nature love to work towards a reward. Make your dog feel useful. Show them how important they are not just by buying an expensive toy or planting kisses, but by actually giving him some task to look forward to.

Make training fun and be the person your dog wants you to be. If you aren’t interesting enough, he isn’t going to listen to you.  Happy pet parenting!

The writer is a canine behaviourist and trainer at Cheeky Paws Canine Consulting. He can be reached at www.facebook.com/cheekypawscanineconsulting or call 9884780654.