How to Start Training Your Dog

Getting Started Speaker: Right away there's little things that you can do everyday that will increase your bond with your dog, as well as reinforce your dominance. Without this establishment of dominance, there is a lack of respect and no real motivation for your dog to do what you're requiring him to do. You want your dog to start paying attention to you, to focus on you, to want to please you. These things will help make that happen. The foundation of bonding and dominance will set the stage of success for you and your dog. Since different dogs have different levels of attention, I recommend that you start training for two minutes, five to ten times a day. This can easily be done with most dogs, even with the shortest of attention span. Jump Start Lessons Here are some quick jump start lessons that you can do everyday with your dog. Every time you feed your dog, I want you to integrate the lesson that you are learning. For instance, lesson one is the look command. So each day when you feed your dog, I want you to practice that command before feeding your dog. You will say, look, while practicing the command, which we will cover later, each time before your dog eats. Every time you leash your dog, you should use the lessons that you've been working on. Every time you take the dog outside, to go to the bathroom, to go for a walk, you should use these commands before you do any of those things. A few other things that you can do that's going to encourage your dog to pay attention to you is to require your dog to move out of your way. Every time your dog is in front of you, keep walking as if your dog was not there. This will teach him or her to pay attention to where you are and what you're doing. You can take that a step further by bumping into your dog purposefully throughout the day. Having your dog move out of your way is an easy way to reinforce that you are dominant over him or her. If you integrate these lessons into your everyday dealings with your dog, it's going to make training more easy and effective for both of you. So to review, I want you to use verbal praise, tactile praise, food praise, as well as remembering, 100% compliance, 100% of the time, and keeping a positive attitude. Each lesson will focus on a specific command. It will be broken down into what the command is, how to teach the command, opportunities to use this command in your everyday life with your dog, as well as tricks of the trade that makes teaching this command easier for both of you. There will also be a demonstration of what the command looks like when its done properly.