Common Training Mistakes That Can Be Avoided With Dog Obedience Lessons

Dog ownership comes with several responsibilities, such as: providing nourishment and shelter, maintaining proper grooming and hygiene, and acute attention to medical care. Another very important responsibility lies with ensuring that the dog’s behaviour is both acceptable and respectful – within the family and with other people and other dogs/pets.

To this end, many dog owners feel that they can train their dogs to be well-behaved and respectful without the aid of professional dog training services. While this is an admirable endeavour, it can often lead to unintended outcomes (bad behaviours) due to these common home-training mistakes:

• Reinforcing Negative Behaviour – Giving any type of attention or response (either verbal or physical) after the dog misbehaves can actually encourage more of the bad behaviour from the dog in order to get more attention
• Repetitive Commands – Repeating commands over and over until the dog responds will basically teach the dog to stall or be indifferent rather than reacting immediately
• Complacency – Assuming that the dog has learned its commands/proper behaviours can lead to a lack of reinforcement (for both owner and dog) and an eventual decline in the dog’s rate of response – regular practice keeps a dog’s mind sharp and active
• Improper Length Of Training Sessions – Extending a training session too long will cause the dog to become disinterested and sessions that are cut too short might not be sufficient to product any tangible or repeatable results
• Overreliance On Treats – Sometimes, simple praise and signs of approval/affection will be adequate to reinforce a positive response – otherwise, the dog may refuse to respond or behave properly unless a treat is offered or shown ahead of time
• Overreaction – Showing excessive anger or force (verbal and/or physical) can lead to a stand-off between dog and owner in which the dog cowers or refuses to continue
• Lost Opportunities For Positive Reinforcement – Reacting to negative behaviour instead of capitalizing on situations where you can teach/reinforce positive responses
• Inconsistency – Allowing the dog to occasionally break the rules and/or exhibit bad behaviour can actually disrupt trust and confidence in the owner-dog relationship
• Lack Of Confidence – Being timid/nervous in your training approach will encourage the dog to exploit such weakness in an attempt to assume a dominant or alpha role

These common dog training mistakes can result in troublesome and lasting misbehaviour and a strained owner-dog relationship, regardless of the breed and notwithstanding its unique personality and disposition. For such reasons, it may be beneficial in the long run to invest in professional dog obedience lessons.

The Benefits Of Dog Obedience Lessons With A Professional Trainer

Although it may be personally more preferable, and financially more practical, to conduct your own dog training, this approach might actually result in introducing or encouraging unwanted behaviours from the dog and additional frustration and irritation for the owner.

Investing in dog obedience classes with a professional trainer can alleviate these undesirable behaviours and emotions while concurrently enhancing the enjoyment, contentment, and companionship of the owner-dog relationship.

Professional classes offer the following benefits for you and/or your dog:

• Tailored content and routines to match your dog’s needs and personality
• Consistency in the training methodology and reinforcement techniques
• A concentrated timeframe to focus the dog’s attention on its training goals
• Instilling mutual respect for the needs of the dog and the needs of the owner
• An aura of confidence to establish the dog’s role and position with the family
• Enforcing the importance of listening and responding in spite of distractions
• Learning the techniques for proper at-home follow-up training by the owner

It should also be noted that the success of dog obedience lessons relies on the ability of the dog owner to appropriately reinforce the training though practice and adherence to the instructions of the trainer.

Are you looking for professional dog obedience lessons to improve your dog’s obedience and behaviour? Call Alpha Paws today at 905-830-9500 or 1-647-694-4584 to discuss which type of dog lessons and classes would be the best option for your dog.