As a dog owner, what is the best training that you can advice to a newbie?

[Kristen]

I'm a new pet owner. I would like to ask anyone here what would be the best training advise you can give to me? Anything I should take note of in the first few months or year that I'm training my dog?

[DebraGill]

You actually have an option to have a pro do it for you. However, if you're a hands on pet owner, there are a lot to learn. But most of them come in as an experiences as you grow with your pet. Keep in mind they are generally easy to train and can be highly motivated by food or treats. Simple stuff like sitting or stopping could be taught in a day or two. Follow through should be done everyday because your pet might forget what you taught him yesterday or last week.

[Bill]

You have asked a very broad question. Books, many books have been written on this subject. The best brief advice I can offer is to always use positive reinforcement when training. Make it fun. Both you and the puppy have fun. Keep traiing sessions brief (5 - 10 minutes).

You must be your dog's leader, mentor, and guide through life, not his "boss". He is not born knowing human ways of life. He must be taught.

Leader = dance partner

"every pet needs a human who can lead. Not like a boss, but like a partner in a dance—someone who gives clear signals, rewards desirable behavior as it occurs, removes rewards for inappropriate behavior immediately, and sticks to the plan consistently until the new, good behavior is a habit."

Dr. Sophia Yin
Veterinarian and Animal Behaviorist | Dr. Sophia Yin, DVM, MS

[Richard321]

Prior to doing any steps to train you pet, it is very important to have good interaction between you and your pet. The success of training a puppy depends almost entirely on the way you treat and communicate with your pet.

[luv2write]

Be there for your dog. If you ignore him or her you will most likely pay for it. They need the attention.

[Justontime]

You already have lots of good advice, I would say be consistent and always try to think about the potential consequences of your actions.

[Stephanie]

Use lots of treats and always make training time fun time. If the dog doesn't seem to 'get-it' don't blame the dog - look at yourself and re-valuate your teaching techniques.

A couple of my personal training tips:

[1] usually when teaching the dog something new you use hands signals and words then as the dog understands the word, the hand signal most times is dropped. I never stop using the hand signal completely. Sometimes I ask the dog for something by hand signal only and sometimes by verbal command only. My dogs know to respond to either. The reason I do this was because my last dog, dear Sherry, as she got older she went completely deaf and she only knew commands by words......Sadly it seems my Jakey is going deaf too.

[2] I have walked a couple of puppies and one of the things I do is get them a little bit fixed on a special toy. This toy only ever comes out on walks and it is the best toy in the whole world, usually it is a tennis ball or a tuggy type toy - I give the toy a name - tuggy, ball. Playtime with the special toy is always the most fun - wanna play with tuggy, come lets play with tuggy - etc, etc. I start with 2-3 short little play sessions on a walk, then the toy goes away till next time. I use lots of treats with the toy for teaching the command 'leave' too. Now, the reason I do is because it gives me something extra in my tool box if I ever need to get that dog back to me in an emergancy situation. An emergancy situation is any situation where you need your dog to come back to you straight away - maybe you can see an aggressive dog heading for your dog maybe the grass cutters have suddenly come onto the field - any situation where the dog decides it just isn't going to listen to 'come' today. A few times I have had to fall back on the toy and called "come lets play tuggy" and it has worked.

[3] teach your dog an emergancy 'down' - one that the dog responds too even when it is on the run. I had an incident a couple of years back I was out with Jakey and my partner Graham, I had 2 other paying dogs with me and I said to Graham take Jakey back to the car with you and I'll just pop these 2 dogs home and I'll meet you at the car park. So we split, a few minutes later I heard Graham called out Jakey's name, I turned and saw my boy heading for me - trouble was there was a road between us, I thank God I had taken the time to teach him the down command and that he knew it by hand signal - he wouldn't have heard me over the traffic.

Just a few tips from my experiances.....

[Justontime]

Those are really helpful tips and very useful reminders for all of us thank you. When you have a dog it is important to make sure your family stick to the rules too. Children are often tempted to sneak a bit of food to the dog when they are eating, this is bad for many reasons, but if you don't stop them you will soon have a dog that begs and behaves badly at meal times. There are lots of other examples but what I am trying to say is that a lot of good work can be undone very quickly if other family members do not stick to the rules.

[Kristen]

I'm trying my best to become a good partner of the pet. Although there are three of us in the family, I do most of the "training" of the pet. It's actually more of adjustment to our family stuff rather than training because she's already trained by my sister.

I'd have to keep in mind about my child giving or sneaking in food/treats during meal times. Thanks again everyone.

I've also read somewhere that attention is a powerful reward. What can you say about this? Do you think it would help if you give small part of your attention then leave the dog wanting for more?