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5 Things Your Dog Trainer Needs You To Do

Charlotte Garner

Be Patient

Try not to rush your dog through the training process, it won’t benefit either of you. By being patient and calm throughout and not expecting too much at once, you will get much better results. It is often the case that your dog may have been experiencing their behavioural issues for several months or even longer, before you reach out for help. Because of this, it is vital that you are patient with your dog and with the training process as a whole. This is a surefire way to achieving the best training results possible. If you become impatient and frustrated with your dog, they are much less likely to respond positively to training. 

Work as a Team

By strengthening the bond that you share with your dog, you are guaranteed to get better training results. If your dog trusts you and looks to you for guidance and support, they are much more likely to respond well when you are teaching them new things. Creating a trusting partnership between your dog and yourself is the key here. Part of this is making sure you pay out when your dog does something amazing. Find what motivates them most, whether that be treats, toys or verbal praise and make sure your dog gets it in bucket loads when they do something you want to see more of. 

Be Consistent with Cues

If you are inconsistent with your verbal cues, it is likely that your dog will quickly get confused which may lead to frustration building. Set out a plan of exactly what you want to achieve, how you are going to get there, and be sure to stick to it. So, if you choose to use the cue ‘Down’ to get your dog to lie down, then always use that cue, nothing else. Don’t then say, ‘Lie Down,’ ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Get Down’ as although they all mean different things to us humans, to your dog they are all very similar. 

Stay Committed

Your training journey can often be lengthy. You will have good days and great days and sometimes there will be days where you feel you are going backwards instead of forwards. However, you must keep at it, stay focused, keep going. Whether you have bought a puppy into your life or adopted an older rescue dog, you have made a commitment to them to love and look after them to the best of your abilities. This commitment should include training your dog in order to keep them safe and give them more freedom. 

Practice!

This is such a vital step! You absolutely must practice as often as you can to get the best results from your training. If you only try something once, then never go back to it, your progress is likely to be almost non-existent. Instead, if you make time to regularly dedicate to training, your progress will advance much more rapidly. You may be surprised at just how often you can fit in mini training sessions throughout your day. Whilst you are waiting for the kettle to boil or when the adverts are on the television are both great opportunities for compact training sessions that your dog will not only love, but also benefit from. 

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