Positive Dog Training

Your dogs wake up every morning wanting to be loved. They want to be your friend and in most cases they want to please you. The job of an owner is to learn how to communicate with his dog that it feels secure. I usually compare the relationship between the two as the same between a child and a parent or the same as an employee and a boss, where you have a friendly relationship with your boss.

Most people ask about dog obedience classes. I think there is a place for them, but I am not sure that it is a good idea to take your dog through a formal obedience class unless the training is correct. The problem with obedience classes are, many trainers still use old fashioned ways where they give the dog a command and then jerk it on a leash. Crank and jerk methods went out the door a long time ago.

The better way to now train your dog is through motivation. There are many different ways to motivate your dog to want to do what you tell him to. You can make your dog become a safe member of your family pack. You want your dog to enjoy training, to be calm and be self controlled yet listen when you ask it to do something.

Good dog obedience training is not breed specific, it is more temperament and drive specific. What that means is whether a dog has a solid temperament or is a friendly dog it will still trained the same way. However there are variations to the training that have to be made according to the temperament and drive of each dog. No two dogs should be trained the same because they are not exactly alike. It should therefore be the goal of every owner to try figure out how to train their dog and make it enjoy it too.