Young dogs should begin training at an early age to help develop good behaviors, but even older dogs can learn to avoid bad habits. Before you seriously begin training, try to do a little research on your dog’s breed to determine if there are any bred personality traits or specific little quirks that the breed might possess that would influence training methods.
Humane training is a necessity if you want to maintain a good relationship with your dog. Good behaviors need to be rewarded, while bad ones should be ignored or corrected.
Strong physical reprimands and devices such as choke chains can cause much more harm than good in the long run. Over time this can cause the dog to become skittish around people or lose the drive to please its owner. Humane corrections include using a stern voice, withholding rewards or physically moving the dog where it should go without hurting it.
Common commands such as sit, heel, stay, and come are generally easiest to teach through reward-based training early in life. Dogs learn these commands most easily when they are puppies before the dog has a chance to develop bad habits or a rebellious streak. Much like their human counterparts dogs develop personalities over time that are the result of their experiences and what they are allowed to get away with. Because of this it can be more difficult to train older dogs on these basic commands.
Dogs are eager and ready to learn animals. With a little patience and a lot of consistency, it’s not that hard to teach dogs what behaviors you like and what definitely isn’t allowed. Retain a position of confident leadership and you shouldn’t have any problem having a happy, well-adjusted dog as a result. Make sure that you deal with your dog from a position of obvious leadership, but at the same time don’t be cruel.
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