Tips For Training Your New Dog

 

Getting a new dog is really exciting, but you also need to make sure you teach them discipline early on so they don't learn bad behavior. For instance, one of the first things you should teach them is the command 'come'. You should always praise him when he does what you ask. Keep your voice excited and tap your knees when you say 'come' to encourage him over. Working on it for a few minutes twice a day should do the trick.

Another command you should teach him is 'drop it' as this will be important for his safety. It normally only takes a few minutes, but be patient if your dog takes longer. Give him a toy and then say 'drop it' while offering him a treat. He should drop the toy for the treat. If he does, then you should repeat it several times, each time moving the treat further away until you no longer need it and he drops the toy automatically.

Teaching your dog to 'leave it' is important as you need to make them realize that what they pick up might be harmful. Take a treat and get the dog interested in it. Then tell him to 'leave it' after covering it over. Don't let him get the treat even if he begs, but give him a different treat when he gives up trying. If he gets the covered treat, he'll be harder to train so make sure it doesn't happen. 5 minute sessions should be enough here.

You also need to teach the dog to 'lie down' early on. Do this by offering a treat, then say 'down'. Lower the treat to the ground and he should follow you. Give him the treat and praise him as soon as he's lying down. If he doesn't get it at first, be patient and try again later. Don't ever physically push him down if he won't follow the treat. Hopefully 10 minutes training twice a day will help him master the command.

Finally, after teaching 'lie down', you should teach the dog to go to his place. Pick a place for the dog and put a bed or rug down for him there. Choose a word like 'place' or 'bed' to use as a command, then start by bribing him with treats to go to the bed. Hopefully it should only take a few tries. Then you should work on getting him to lie down at the same time and only give him the treat when he's lying down in bed.