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How To Not Train A Dog
from: Kyle BesserMost dog owners want to train their dog. However, most dog owners underestimate the time and effort it takes training a dog. If a dog owner does not put in the time and effort and use good dog training methods, the result is frequently a common set of dog training mistakes that could be avoided. Understanding how a dog learns and using effective dog training methods will save a dog owner a lot of time, effort and frustration.
Dogs are not furry children. The average mature dog has a mental development somewhere around the level of a human two years old, but there are more differences than there are similarities between an adult dog and a 2 year old child. Dogs can be amazing at processing language, but dogs don't reason the way humans do. Dogs don't connect cause and effect in the same way humans do. If you try to train a dog as you would a 2 year old child, you will probably not get the results you want.
It can be frustrating to repeat the same command over and over, only to have the dog apparently ignore you. Most times, the dogs are not ignoring the command as much as failing to understand the command. It may seem that it should be obvious. The dog has done the behavior successfully many times before, but today are they just being stubborn?
Some dogs probably are what would in humans be called stubborn, but dogs can be easily distracted or fail to connect today's command with yesterday's behavior and subsequent reward. There are alternative explanations for their behavior other than being stubborn.
Patience is the number one quality needed when training a dog. You have to be prepared to repeat the same command, day in and day out, and sometimes not get the same result. Many dogs take two years to learn anything beyond the simple basics to the point that the dog training commands consistently stick.
Part of that patience means keeping your temper when your urge is to lash out physically. It is easy to take physical punishment as the first route of correcting a dog's behavior, but that is the wrong thing to do. The dog hasn't evolved to understand why you're hitting them. Physical punishment instills fear, not trust. Dogs, like humans, much more readily follow those they trust than those they fear.
Dogs make choices very differently from people. Dogs will often just endure the punishment without learning anything. Physical punishment simply isn't an effective dog training method.
Here's some dog training advice on how NOT to train your dog:
1. Forget that your dog has a nature different from humans. Talk to your dogs like they are human.
2. Believe that the dog can connect events across time and circumstances and draw the same conclusion you would.
3. Get impatient and frustrated when they don't behave as you want them to. Punish them for not behaving the way you want.
If you follow this useless dog training advice, you'll reap the reward of a maladjusted dog. Be prepared to change YOUR behavior before you try to change the dog's.
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