Three Common Dog Training Methods to Avoid
Three Common Dog Training Methods to Avoid
Article by Phil Garfield
Dogs are one of the most common pets world wide. Because of this, it makes sense that there are many different dog training methods out there. Unfortunately, most of these training methods are less than ideal to use for your pet.
Because of all of these differing dog training methods out there, many new pet owners get confused which to follow and even start using methods that are highly inaccurate or counter-productive for their pets. This article will show you the top three dog training methods that you should avoid like the plague!
Method 1: Using Punishment as Training
You’d be surprised how many pet owners use punishment as their “bread and butter” for obedience training. Unfortunately, as with bread and butter, this is one of those dog training methods that is very “unhealthy” for both you and your pet.
Think about it. When you punish anything, whether it’s a dog or a human being, you’re using negative energy. It’s like you’re a dictator and your pet is your slave. This is a very negative relationship between both and will only lead to problems in the future.
You want to establish a positive, loving relationship with your dog. Punishment is NOT how to do it. There are much more effective training approaches out there that work much better.
Method 2: The “One Person in the House Trains the Dog” Method
I couldn’t think of a more creative title so I just named it the most descriptive title! Basically this is one of those common dog training methods that people follow without even realizing it! Here’s a common scenario:
There is one dog and multiple people in the house that play with, feed, and take care of the dog. Out of those many people, only one actually trains the dog to listen and obey them. The others merely play with the dog.
This dynamic is highly ineffective if you are serious about training your dog. The reason is that only one person training a dog, no matter how great their training skills are, will not get the dog to listen to everybody. The dog will realize that it needs to behave around one person, but know that the other people don’t care. Dogs are smart! They know who the “dominant” people are and who they can get away with more “mischief” with.
I’ve seen this problem happen with many pet owners where they try really hard to train their pet but cannot achieve any results. The reason is often that while one person is trying to train their pet to not do one thing, the other people in the house are actually rewarding the very thing!
An example of this is when dogs jump on people. This is not good behavior and one person could be training them to stop this. At the same time, another family member may think it’s cute and pet and cuddle them after they do this. What’s a dog to think when different reactions happen with different people?
Method 3: Following No Dog Training Methods – Using Intuition
I know many pet owners that think that because they have children and successfully raised them that they can get their dog to listen to them as well! Aside from the big ego, this approach assumes that dogs learn exactly the same way that humans learn.
While this is true to some extent, dogs are dogs and people are people. Different approaches are needed for different animals. While they may be more subtle than training a giraffe, they are still there and have a big impact on the results you’ll see.
It is important to understand exactly what you are teaching your pets to do and not to do. If you don’t, you may very well end up doing things counter-productive.
The best solution to this is to pick up a book or go find some training course out there that has a depth of coverage on the topic.
Other Poor Methods of Approach
If you’ve been trying to train your dog for a few weeks now and haven’t seen any real results then I’m pretty sure that you’re following a “Method to Avoid” approach. While I only listed three methods, there are thousands of other approaches that don’t work. Take the results that you are getting as a signal if you are using a good method or a poor one. If you haven’t seen any good results from your approach, move on and try another one.
About the Author
Phil_Garfield, dog trainer for the masses, teaches others how to train a dog with a free Dog Obedience Training course!
Successful trainers know that motivation is the key to successful dog training. The economics of dog training is a key concept. No motivation, no training. You will learn the principles used by professional animal trainers to efficiently build any behavior you can think of to any degree of difficulty you can imagine. Jean Donaldson is the award-winning author of Oh Behave! Dogs from Pavlov to Premack to Pinker; The Culture Clash – A revolutionary new way of understanding the relationship between humans and domestic dogs; MINE! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs; FIGHT! A Guide to Dog-Dog Aggression. Jean founded the San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers, which has gained the reputation as the Harvard for dog trainers and behavior counselors. She has lectured to dog trainers in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and Japan. Her books have been translated into six languages. Visit jeandonaldson.com
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