Avoid These Common Mistakes During Dog Training

A lot of us never cease to be amazed on how smart and well-behaved are the dogs we see in the movies and television shows. If you happen to have a fury, four-legged companion in your home, and you wish for him to be just as intelligent and good-mannered as his cousins you see on the television tube, then you should definitely consider having him trained while he is still young. On the flip side, pet owners, when coaching their favorite animals, have the tendency to do a couple of frequent errors. Find below is a list of common mistakes people would usually do during dog training.

1. Calling your dog for punishment.

If you call the attention of your canine friend just to have him punished or put him on a leash while he is still enjoying playing in the park, then do not be surprised if he started not responding to you every time you call out his name. This is because they are starting to become afraid that they will only get hurt or punished. Just like young kids, these animals can also feel fear and trauma from past experiences. For this very reason, it is therefore going to be important to never give them the belief that calling their name would equal to any reprimand.

2. Punishing during the learning process.

Always keep in mind that punishing is very different from disciplining. Discipline teaches the animals to learn from their mistakes, whereas punishment allows them to suffer. If you think that this is the correct way of dog training, then you are completely wrong. This is because inflicting pain through punishment would in all actuality shift the focus of the animal away from what it should learn.

3. Not training your pet on a regular basis, or as often as possible.

Another thing to remember is that consistency is the key to remember things. This notion goes very well with dogs. Most of the time, we teach our four-legged friends the basic behaviors and tricks we thought they should know. But once they get the hand of it, some of us would have the penchant to let them go on "auto pilot." As a result, the animals would often have the tendency to forget what they have learned. Thus, it is therefore going to be really important to constantly remind these four-legged creatures the things you have thought them.

4. You bribe them too much.

Rewarding your pet for a job well done is a positive way of reinforcing it. On the flip side, too much of this act could also work against you. This is because the mind of your four-legged friend is going to have a fixation that his acts would be compromised with a certain reward. For this very reason, it is therefore going to be important to gradually eliminate rewards during dog training in order for the animals not to have the idea of automatically receiving a price every time he does something right.