How to train your dog at home
When you decide to share your life with a pet, you are about to experience a great change. This is about a new member of the family, an intelligent being that will be with you for several years and will go through great times with you. You are about to become a pet parent, so it is very important for you to take care of the correct training of your dog.
Here are some keys to training your dog at home. It is all about providing him with a home where he feels safe and loved, but also establishing some basic rules that must be obeyed to ensure that you can live together in harmony.
The importance of training from puppyhood
Once you have taken on the commitment of training your pet, it is essential that you apply all your efforts to achieving success. Particularly if it is a puppy, teaching and training him from an early age will be fundamental to his later development.
With a good training programme, based fundamentally on positive rewards, not only will you teach your dog how to behave both in the house and outside, but you will avoid future behaviour problems. A dog taught from puppyhood becomes a faithful companion and obeys your commands, keeps to the rules at home and has no fear of being left alone when you go out.
Keys to training your dog at home
We cannot lie to you, training your dog at home is not an easy road. It is something that requires time and dedication.
Some of the keys to achieving success are:
- Perseverance. Once you start the training, don’t give up. Your dog needs time and many repetitions to learn. So, we recommend perseverance and patience.
- Rewards, always positive. It is the best form of training, and in this all the experts on dog behaviour agree. The idea is to reward the animal’s good behaviour, avoiding punishment or violence.
- Consistency. You have to be firm when the dog does something inappropriate. You may feel pity or tenderness, but you have to be able to say “no”, strong and firm. Thus, the puppy will know when something is wrong because he does not get his reward.
- Coordination. It is important that all the people who share space with the dog agree when making the rules. That everyone uses the same voice commands and the same orders so that the animal rapidly becomes used to them.
Tricks that never fail in each stage of the training
Now that you have the keys to training at home, you need to see the tips that work best in specific cases.
Teaching him to do his business
If he is a puppy, at first, he is not allowed to go out until he has had all his vaccinations. Use this stage to establish a pattern when he needs to do his business.
Use newspaper or kitchen towel for the animal to urinate on. You can also choose to arrange a sand patch. Normally, a dog likes to choose a place for this task, so prepare several pages from an old magazine and get him used to doing his business on it. Then you can reward him with prizes, such as treats or caresses.
Teach him to do his business outside
When he is ready to go out, it is time to teach him to do his business outside his home.
The best way, every time you take him out for a walk, is to take some old magazine pages or paper towel with you. Let your dog see you leave them close to a tree or a patch of earth. If he is already accustomed to using them, he will not take long to learn.
When your dog is trained to urinate outside, he will be ready to come with you to pet friendly places, such as establishments or means of transport, with no risk that he will do his business in the wrong place.
Make him come when you call
This is a very useful trick that you can use a great many times, when you need your dog to come away from some danger or not to approach a certain person.
At home, use some treat or his favourite toy, move a little way away from him and say “come here”. When he comes to your call, give him the prize and lots of praise.
It is important always to use the same voice command so that the animal associates it with that specific action. Do it for 5 or 10 minutes every day.
Teach him not to chew things
If the dog is a puppy, he will be teething and will feel the need to chew things to ease the irritation.
The key is not to let him chew your hand or things at home such as shoes or furniture. Get him some toys that are specially made for chewing. Some of them have good smells to attract the dog, and with others you can hide a treat inside to back up this behaviour.
Teach him to stay at home alone
There are many dogs that suffer real anxiety when they are left alone at home. You probably know of some dog that spends hours barking and crying when his family are not there.
If you don’t want this to happen with yours, it is essential that you teach him how to be alone. Do it gradually so that he gets used to it and does not feel it as something that makes him desperate.
Start by not coming at once if the little fellow cries and barks when, for example, you are in the bathroom. Later, try going out for a short time, five minutes to begin with, and then little by little for a longer time. Leave some special toys for him, to help your dog overcome his anxiety due to separation.
When to call on a professional
It could be that you don’t feel able to train your dog well or you haven’t the time and sufficient patience to do it. In these cases, you should know that there are professionals, such as behaviourists, dog trainers and ethologists, who can help you enormously.
Sometimes it is better to call on professional help and not to have to deal with your dog’s bad behaviour later, when it will be much more difficult to correct.
In short, when you take on the commitment of training your puppy, it is vital that you make every effort to do it well. Use positive results and reward your dog when he does something good. If you train your dog well, you will achieve his good behaviour in the future, and this will be an enormous source of satisfaction.