WHAT IS DOG TRAINING?

Training is an essential tool to develop a particular skill and enhance an individual’s capabilities and potentials to a certain standard by instruction and practice. It always has specific goals of improving one’s capability, performance, and capacity; this can be applied not only to humans but to dogs as well.  

Dog training includes teaching a dog to react to commands and cues so they can act independently by deliberately changing their natural behavior. It uses behavior analysis and apply it through the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to change the behavior of dogs so they can assist owners in doing specific tasks or even participate in domestic life effectively.  

Importance of Dog Training 

Owning a dog demands time and effort because it is also your responsibility to ensure your dog is well-trained. Proper training will help you build confidence and strengthen the relationship between you and your dog.  Without proper training, your dog will struggle to socialise with your friends and family, as well as other dogs around them. 

Dogs are dynamic and are always learning. Training provides a sense of accomplishment and provides a way to communicate with our furry family members. 

Sometimes, it is hard for dogs to understand what we ask of them simply because they lack the proper training– this can be a frustration for both the dog and the owner. Hence, going through basic training skills and mental stimulation can be the exercise that can help bridge the gap in communication. Aside from this, there are a lot more reasons why training your dog is essential. 

Benefits of Dog Training 

Getting Life Skills 

Destructive behaviours might arise when you fail to train your dog. Instead of behaving well at home, dogs could become anxious and destroy your furniture when you are not around. Proper training helps dogs become equipped with the essential life skills such as discipline, obedience, and social interaction. Training also helps dogs adjust to certain situations. Not properly training your dog would lead to many issues in the long run. 

Understanding your dog better 

Training your dog is much more than educating your dog. It can help you better understand your dog and its needs. Some dogs respond differently to training than most. Others unconsciously make their dogs even more anxious because of a lack of proper understanding of their dogs.  

Avoiding Conflicts  

Conflicts and injuries will be avoided if you train your dog to socialise well with others and get comfortable with them. It is usual for dogs to approach and be approached by other dogs, so it is not practical to keep your dog away from other animals permanently to avoid conflicts. However, this does not mean that your dog must be enthusiastic about interacting with other pets. It just needs to get comfortable around others without getting anxious and aggressive. 

Behaving When Left Alone  

Leaving dogs on their own can be one of the most challenging parts of owning a dog especially if they have not received any form of training. Hence, training your dog to behave would spare it from howling and barking for hours and from chewing up anything they see at home. Noise complaints being filed against you will also be avoided. Training your dog very well at an early stage will reinforce good behaviour patterns and reduce separation anxiety.  

Ensuring Safety for Your Dog  

There are a lot of hazards out there that your dog is not aware of. If your dog doesn’t know how to listen to commands, they could encounter harmful situations, such as running into the road freely and getting hit by a car. Dogs can be directed to avoid danger if they are well-trained.  

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late 

You can always train an old dog with new tricks! Although it is best to train your dog while still a puppy, you can make up for the time you have missed and start training your dog regardless of how old it is at present. Obedience training for dogs is essential in correcting and adjusting any behavioural issues they may have. Training your dog can be challenging, but the rewards you can get from it are worth it. 

Training Methods 

Usually, a dog learns from its interaction with the environment and there is a variety of established methods of animal training that are very useful for dog owners. The most usual one is the basic obedience training that includes:  

1) Recall training that teaches the dog to come on command;  

2) Sitting training that trains dogs to sit in command;  

3) Walking or heeling training that teaches dogs to walk on or off lead with the handler;  

4) Staying training that teaches dogs not to stray on command;  

5) and sociability training that will prevent the dogs from being aggressive to humans, other dogs, and other animals. 

There are actually a lot of popular dog training methods and it’s almost impossible not to find out what method is going to be the best way to train your dog and yourself as a pet parent. Here are seven of the most popular training methods used today and find out who might benefit the most from using them.  

Positive Reinforcement 

Just as humans love to be rewarded for the good acts they do; dogs will repeat good behavior when it’s followed by a reward. If there needs to be some correction, rewards like a toy or treat are removed while bad behaviour does not get a reward or any acknowledgement.  

Rewarding a desired behaviour happens within few seconds after it happens. It is in this way that the dog comes to associate the behavior with the reward and gives the dog a distinct sign of the exact moment the behavior was completed. Commands also need to be short and to the point.  

Scientific Training  

Scientific training relies on information that is continually building and changing—making it hard to define. The main goal of scientific training is to understand the nature of dogs and condition their ability. It also measures the effectiveness of rewards and punishments.  

Creating new studies and experiments are important to better understand dog psychology to work with dogs. These studies serve as guide for trainers to better work with dogs. Some trainers who use this method also believes that it’s important to learn how to train dogs and maintain their good behavior without the need for rewards. 

Clicker Training 

This method also relies on positive reinforcement and relies on the use of devices to make a quick, sharp noise like whistles to send signal to a dog when a desired behaviour is accomplished. This can be used to add verbal commands and shape new behaviours.  

Electronic Training 

Unlike the other methods that use positive reinforcements or rewards, this one relies on punishment for bad behavior instead of rewards. A dog learns from interactions it has with its environment. This can be through classical conditioning, where it forms an association between two stimuli; non-associative learning, where its behavior is modified through habituation or sensitisation; and operant conditioning, where it forms an association between an antecedent and its consequence.  

Model-Rival or Mirror Training  

This relies on the fact that dogs learn by observation. Dogs learn to mimic behaviors by having a model of good behavior or a rival to compete resources. Therefore, in this method, the trainer might praise the dogs for completing tasks on command or scold them for unwanted behavior. As the observer, the dog then learns what to do correctly from the model.  

Alpha Dog or Dominance 

This strategy relies on the dog’s instinctual pack mentality in order to create a relationship of submission and dominance. Dogs follow a social hierarchy and when they see themselves as alpha, they need to respect their owners as the alpha and submit. The dog trainer is in charge and dominant over the dog.  

Relationship-Based Training 

This training method focuses on a more individualized approach for dogs and humans because the relationship between the dog and human has a huge factor in strengthening their bond and in training the dogs. Unlike the previous methods, when a dog does not perform a desired behavior, the trainer should not punish the dog but figure out why the dog failed instead.  

Conclusion 

Overall, training your dog is a very important step to take when you are a dog owner. Having your dog properly trained reflects how responsible of a dog owner you are. It also shows that you consider the well-being of others especially when they get to interact with your furry companion.  

Whether you are a new dog owner or have hundreds of dogs, getting the best and proper dog training is a must. Not sure where to start? Head on over to our website’s services page to set up an appointment with Jay, the Knight of Dog Safety™.