Dogs are much like children when it comes to being eager to please you. In essence, you are the dog’s ‘pack leader’ and it is important for you to teach your dog how to behave. They don’t come equipped with that knowledge and in the wild, would learn that from the canine pack leader. You should never hit or abuse your dog as he or she will learn to be fearful of humans. Speaking in a harsh way to your dog can also upset him or her. The key to successfully training your dog is using praise and good treats when your dog gets the behavior right. This will help your dog understand when he or she is displaying good behavior that pleases you, and your dog will learn much faster and he or she will retain the information. This is called positive reinforcement.

Think about this - if you were at your job and your boss was trying to show you how to use a new computer program but all he did was yell at you when you made a mistake, would you be motivated to learn? What do you think your response to this kind of training would be? Now what if your boss gave you a bonus each and every time you did something right? That would be a better motivation for you, wouldn’t it? In fact, you would probably try twice as hard to do something correctly so that you could get that bonus! The process would definitely stick with you and you wouldn’t be confused from all that yelling. This is what positive reinforcement is and that is how it works for your dog as well. You must have correct timing and great consistency for positive reinforcement to work.

When you have correct timing, you offer the praise or the treat to your dog within a few seconds of his display of good behavior, listening to a command, etc. If you don’t give the treat or praise immediately after he displays the good behavior, he could become confused as to what he is being praised for. So, if your dog sits when you say ’sit’, you should give him the treat before he lies down. If you give him the treat after or when he is lying down, he will get the message that ’sit’ means lay down and this is what he will do in the future. So, as soon as his bottom touches the floor to sit, you should praise him or give the treat. In order to use consistency, you and every other person who is near the dog should use the same command words for a particular behavior. This will help keep your dog from becoming confused about what to do or what type of behavior to display.