Are You Making These Dog Training Mistakes Errors?

You love your dog, but dog training mistakes can make it feel like nothing is working despite your efforts. The culprit? The mistakes that you never knew you made.

Training dogs is much more than sit, stay and shake. It is an ongoing and daily dialogue that is influenced by your time and frequency, body language, and emotional intensity. And the most destructive training mistakes? It is they that slip out of sight altogether.

5 Common Dog Training Mistakes You Should Avoid

Lack of Consistency in Household Rules

When you tell your partner no jumping, and he or she allows the dog to jump all over him or her every night, and you tell your partner no jumping, your dog is not acting out; he is just confused. Dogs are not able to selectively apply rules based on the individual. All family members need to be on the same level; all your efforts silently lose their grip day by day.

Rewarding At the Wrong Time.

The basis of all animal learning is timing. Rewarding your dog within 3 seconds of the desired behavior is equivalent to rewarding whatever your dog was doing over those 3 seconds instead of the sit or stay that you want. Dogs are in the moment; to be effective, your treat or praise needs to arrive within one to two seconds.

Command repetition.

Saying “sit, sit, SIT!” helps you teach your dog that the initial few cues are not mandatory. Issue an order once and instruct them to get in place when necessary. Repetition has the demerit of desensitizing the cue and, over time, conditioning your dog to ignore you, which is exactly what you do not want.

Not doing Mental Stimulation.

The physically exhausted dog may be mentally restless, too. Finding nothing to entertain the mind, surplus energy is released as destructive chewing, constant yelling, or hyperactivity at home. Activities like the puzzle feeders, scent games and brief training sessions engage the brain in a way that walking around the block cannot.

Punishing Way After the Fact.

Punishing your dog when you come home and see the chewed sofa is only going to teach them to be afraid of you coming home. Dogs are unable to associate an action in the past with a consequence in the present. Unless you snag it in time, you lose it altogether.

Red Flags That You Are Committing These Mistakes.

• At home, your dog is an obedient animal, but outside, it pays no attention to you.
• You say a command twice or more than twice before you get a reply.
• The end of training sessions results in frustration – or even the provision of treats to cool the situation down.
• Your dog only reacts when you are holding food in your hand, and it is in your sight.
• The gains of this week are swept away in the following week.
• The various members in the family subscribe to different rules without knowing it.

What Good Dog Training Really Is.

Those dogs that appear to be naturally well-behaved are nearly inevitably owned by calm, consistent, and deliberate owners – even when the training is in the unglamorous, tiring early weeks. No shortcut, and there is a definite trend.

Training does not require hours per day. It requires it to be there, always, at the smallest of the smallest engagements: the way you welcome your dog at the door, the way you treat mealtimes, the way you react to the dog when he or she barks. Every moment is a training moment, whether you like it or not.

Bestie of Successful Dog Owners.

• Train in brief, sporadic trainings of 5-10 minutes, multiple times a day.
• Reward the precise instance the desired behaviour takes place – not a second after.
• Establish rules in the house and make sure that no one in the family flouts them.
• Phasing out food rewards, substituting them with praise and play.

• Use commands in varied settings such that reliability becomes an actual condition, rather than a circumstantial one.
• When in a bad mood, never practice, but take a break and restart fresh.
• Reward small accomplishments; you cannot always make progress in training in a straight line, and that is perfectly okay.

All of these dog training mistakes can be fixed with the right approach. Dogs are incredibly forgiving and receptive – even a very strong habit can be reformed with the proper approach. Neither do you have to be an ideal trainer. You just must be a steady fellow.

Petsfolio Dog Training Services.

Struggling with training? You need not work it out yourself.

Petsfolio links you with professional dog trainers who create a tailored training regimen that is based on the personality of your dog, its age, and your very own lifestyle, with actual and lasting results.

What we offer:

• In-Home Training Sessions
• Online & Virtual Coaching
• Qualified and seasoned Instructors.
• All Breeds & All Ages Welcome
• Custom Behaviour Training Plans 
• Problem Behaviour Solutions 

Free Consultation with Petsfolio will help you visit today and provide your dog with the training it deserves.