Just About Jacks

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 training starts it is best to research the dog’s breed(s) to get an idea of its personality ingrained traits or any specific quarks the breed(s) may have when it comes to training.

Training your dog humanely is the key to establishing a healthy relationship with your dog. This means that during the training phase you reward good behaviors and ignore and/or correct bad ones. 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. Using a stern voice, withholding a reward, and physically relocating a dog painlessly can all cause the desired training effect without physically hurting the dog.

The most common training commands – sit, stay, heel, come and leash walking are easily taught through incentive (reward based) learning. Dogs learn these commands most easily when they are puppies before the dog has a chance to develop bad habits or a rebellious streak. A dog with a strongly developed sense of independence is less likely to learn since he’s become used to getting his own way too often. When possible, teach your dog basic commands early to avoid this sort of problem in the future.

Remember, your dog does want to please you. Therefore, it is important to be both patient and consistent with the behaviors you are willing to allow and those that you are not. Working from a position of confident leadership you will quickly establish yourself as the leader of the pack and have a well behaved, happy dog to show for it.

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