Dog News

30 Super Easy Positive Reinforcement Training Tips

by Melanie

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You’ve probably seen a dozen different methods on how to train dogs, but the vast majority of psychologists and professional dog trainers will tell you that positive reinforcement training is the best way to go.  If you or someone you know is a first time dog parent, or you’ve got a new dog that is a little more difficult to train than previous pets, this chart will show you the easiest way to teach dogs commands and stop unwanted behaviors in their tracks.

Dogs don’t learn through punishment, because if they’re yelled at or hit, it’s very damaging to them, and they’re not being shown what you want them to do.  We know our fans are dog lovers and always treat their pets with love and respect, but so many people have pets and don’t treat them very well, and it makes you wonder why they have them at all, so this message is worth passing along.

Some people don’t mean to be abusive, but they’re easily frustrated and just don’t know proper training techniques, so they scream and beat dogs for not listening or “being bad,” likely because this was how they were treated growing up.  But dogs aren’t mind readers, and they don’t automatically know what is right or wrong, or what their humans want them to do.

Think about how you felt in school, or at work.  Did you learn and perform better when you were yelled at and threatened with being failed or fired, or did you do better when you were shown what to do and had encouragement along the way?  Dogs are no different in that regard.  So if you’ve got a puppy or a non-trained rescue on your hands, rather than spending time watching videos, just save this photo on your phone or computer, or print it (on two pages) and hang it up so you’ll always have a reference right at your fingertips.

 

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