Keeping Your Dog Motivated

Keeping Your Dog Motivated

by Owen Jones

Keeping the attention of a dog while training is not always easy. Dogs can be easily distracted, and it is important to not allow the dog training sessions to be sabotaged by boredom. Making dog training fun for the dog and the human alike is essential to creating a happy, well adjusted and well trained dog.

Providing random positive stimuli during the day is a great way to keep the interest of the dog. Doing things the dog enjoys, like walking in the park, riding in the car, and playing with other dogs, are good ways to keep the dog's attention, but you must reward him for small successes.

For instance, in order to reward the dog for coming to you when you call him, ask the dog to come to you, without giving any clues about going for a walk, a car ride, or other treats.

After your dog has come to you and obediently sat down, attach the leash and start the reward. This can be either the before-mentioned walk in the park, ride in the car, or anything else the dog likes to do.

Giving some sort of reward, whether a treat, a special outing, or just a scratch behind the ears, every time the dog does something you want, is a good way to maintain your dog's motivation while you are dog training.

If your dog knows something good is going to occur every time he follows your command, he will be more motivated to please you every time.

Distraction training.

When training a dog, it is vital to not let distractions ruin the training. The dog must be trained to ignore distractions, such as other people, other dogs, other animals and loud noises, and concentrate on what is being taught These types of distractions can even be used as rewards when training the dog to come when told.

For example, if your dog like playing with other dogs, whether in a local park or with the neighbour's dogs, let him play freely with those other dogs. Then go into the park or yard and call your dog.

When he comes to you, give him lots of praise, treats and other rewards, then immediately let the dog to go back to playing with his friends. Repeat this several times and praise the dog each time he comes over to you.

The dog will quickly realize that coming to you means good things (treats and praise) and not bad ones (being removed from the park).

So-called distraction training is one of the hardest things to teach, because dogs are naturally social animals, and breaking away from the pack is one of the hardest things you can ask your dog to do. Most dogs will be understandably reluctant to leave their canine companions, but it is important to persist in dog training.

Training the dog to come to you may require some creativity on your part at first. For instance, waving a favourite toy, or a lure, is a great way to get your dog's attention and put the focus back on you. If your dog has been clicker trained, a quick click can be a good motivator too when you are training your dog.

Once your dog starts to become used to coming when called, you can begin to reduce and then stop the visual cues and focus on getting the dog to obey your voice alone. It is vital that your dog responds to voice commands alone, since you will not always have a toy or other lure to hand. - 20511

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New Unique Article!

Title: Keeping Your Dog Motivated
Author: Owen Jones
Email: owen@amiabledragon.com
Keywords: dogs,dog training,obedience classes,pets,animals,family,advice,self help,terriers,classes,school,garden,outdoors,other,uncategorized
Word Count: 598
Category: dog
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