Make Dog Training Fun For Your Dog

So many people have great intentions when it comes to training their dog. After all, training a dog is not that hard. You are simply communicating to your best friend that you want him to sit, to stay, to come. Your dog even knows some words of English already. (Try saying "cheese" to a dog!) He's smart. You're smart. But then you start off trying to train your dog and by the middle of the second lesson your dog is bored and you're frustrated. You give up. Why does this have to happen?

The single biggest reason people give up training their dogs -- and dogs get bored -- is because dog training isn't fun for them. But it can be fun! You can make training your dog fun for both of you. If training is fun then you will stick with it and your dog will enjoy learning. That's what it's really all about. You and your dog will be having a good time together.

So, how can you make training fun?

First of all, keep in mind that your dog learns everything from you. That means that he picks up on your attitude about training. If you think its boring then he will, too. If you approach training with a positive attitude and you're cheerful about it, then your dog will be a lot happier about his lessons.

There's an old saying that what you're feeling goes right down the lead to your dog and that's completely true. Your dog can pick up on everything you're thinking and feeling. Dogs are extremely perceptive. So, if you want your dog to have fun with dog training, the change in attitude has to begin with you!

Secondly, make training a game! You don't have to train your dog with boring repetitious exercises. You don't have to demand that your dog behaves like a robot. Instead of giving your dog a command and a simple "good boy," you should really be happy about what your dog is doing. Then reward him with something that he really, really cares about! Some dogs are strongly motivated by food. That's great. Don't just pop a piece of hotdog in his mouth. Make a big production out of it and tell him how great he did! Make him remember how wonderful it is to get it right when he does this exercise.

Other dogs are less food motivated or they may like something better than food. For these dogs you can pull out their favorite toy or a sock. These things may make them happier than anything. That makes it fun for them -- and for you! Other dogs may like it best when you spend a couple of minutes really focusing on them and petting them. If that's what makes your dog happy, that's what you should do as a reward.

By meeting your dog's special likes you are making him very happy when he does what you want with the training exercise. This makes training extremely fun for him and it should make it more fun for you because a) you have to be more involved in the training -- you're using your brain to train your dog instead of just going through the motions; and b) you are making your dog very happy and this makes most dog owners happy. All of these things combine together to make dog training a lot more fun.

You should also make sure that you don't overdo things. You only need to train in one or two short 20-30-minute sessions per day. Anything longer than that and you will be overtaxing your dog's attention span. Dog training should never be drudgery. It shouldn't be repeated so often that your dog's attention (or yours) wanders. Keep it fun, keep it short.

You should also move on to new lessons once your dog has mastered a command. There is no reason to keep repeating the same command over and over. You should go back to it to make sure that your dog remembers it, but endless repetition is not necessary and it's boring for both of you.

Look for ways to make training fun. You can end your training sessions with a play session, too. Your dog will enjoy playing with you after your lessons.

If you keep a positive attitude and stay happy yourself you will do a lot to improve your dog's attitude about training. Find the things that make your dog happy. Once you do these things training your dog will be a lot more fun.