Permanently Training Your Dog

A pet dog is indeed a man's best friend, but only as long as the dog is well-trained. A dog with bad habits can wreck havoc in your home, during meals, sleeping hours and play time. Developing bad habits are easy for dogs, just like a child would. The dog has to be trained to work with you, not against you and cooperate with you on feeding, playing, walking, sleeping and toilet training times and methods.

Having a well-trained dog can be a great pleasure, but getting there is not very easy. It is a journey that you and your dog have to make together - trite as that sounds, it is true. First of all, make sure that everybody in the family has something to do with the dog, and is familiar with it.

Then, you have to agree on what the dog's role is going to be, and where the dogs is allowed in the house - work out all the details. Your dog needs very specific and reliable instructions if it is to be trained properly.

Once all the details are worked out, stick to it and make a routine out of it all. Dogs are habitual creatures and when they know what's to be expected, they are more secure and happy.

The dog's feeding times are significant to it's proper training. While an odd treat is alright, don't encourage it. Appoint fixed times for everything. Having a fixed schedule is the best way to train a dog correctly, because the moment you deviate from the routine, none of the messes can be blamed on the dog.

Once you have those things in place, you can move on to simple tricks and commands, like sit, come, roll over - the whole deal. Here, nothing works as well as bribery and very lavish praise.

Remember that your dog loves being praised and petted, and when it does something right, tell it so, and encourage it, so that it will know what to do the next time.

A dog will make mistakes during the training period, but don't lose your temper at that. You can't train a gentle loving creature like a dog by putting in fear to it, so focus on treating it with love and respect and you'll have a well-trained dog forever.