Amazing Pets Academy

Pets need training in order to live happy lives and in order for us to be happy living with them. They need to know which behaviors are appropriate and which are inappropriate. So, just like when you’re raising children, you have to find effective methods of disciplining your pet. Here are some tips to help you teach your pet right from wrong, without sacrificing your relationship with them.

1. Establish yourself as the alpha dog. To do this, you must have rules and you must enforce them. The way that owners lose their status as the alpha dog is often simply by not being consistent in training. If it’s not ok to chew on your shoes, then you must scold the dog and remove the shoes every single time. In a dog’s mind, the pack leader owns everything and will guard what he owns. If you’re not guarding, then you’re not the pack leader. And guess what, if you’re not the pack leader, then the dog assumes that he is. Once your dog accepts you as the pack leader, things get a lot easier. There are many other articles you can read on becoming the alpha dog in your home.
2. Use positive reinforcement. Praising your dog when he does the right thing is far more effective than scolding when he doesn’t. If you only scold when he’s wrong and never praise when he’s right, you’ll have difficulty bonding. He wants to please you, but he also wants what he wants. You need to make sure that pleasing you is such a pleasant experience, that it overrides getting what he wants.
3. Never hit him. Not even with a newspaper. You want your dog to respect you, not fear you. A firm tone of voice is usually all that is needed to correct your dog. Hitting your animal will create one of two situations. He will either fear you, which means you’ll never have a true companion bond, or he will become aggressive.
4. Aversion training works well for some dogs. This is when the trainer responds to inappropriate behavior with something that the dog will not like – but not something that will hurt the dog. So, when your dog jumps on you or someone else, you squirt him with water, or make a loud noise, like with a whistle. Aversion techniques should never be painful, only irritating, and they, like any other training method, must be used consistently in order to be effective.
5. Realize when your pet needs special attention for training. Some dogs are simply more difficult to train than others. If you’ve adopted an adult dog, for example, you may have training issues that you wouldn’t have with a puppy. Before you result to hitting or screaming at your dog out of frustration, get help from a professional trainer.

There are many ways you can make your dog behave without resorting to physical punishment. After all, having a good relationship with our pet is just as important as having him behave.

Phyllis Zerkle writes about how to find a vet tech degree online.