Behavior

Many dog owners are afraid to train their dogs themselves because they feel they lack the experience necessary to do the job well. There is no simple, short, "to-do" list that will tell you everything you need to know. It takes a lot of information to train dogs well. Professional dog trainers spend years of trial and error to narrow down the most effective techniques. Some of what these trainers have learned has been packaged into complete training manuals, but the extensiveness of such a manual goes beyond a simple list of tips.

There is one important advantage that you have over a professional dog trainer. You will spend more time with your pet than anyone else. You will be more familiar with your dog's behavior than anyone else. Knowing and understanding a dog's behavior places you a big step ahead on the dog training ladder. There are two types of behavior you should be familiar with. Those are the Nature behaviors, and the Nurture behaviors

Nature behaviors:

Learn the history of your dog. Do research on the breed. Was your dog bred to be a hunter? Does it have a history of scavenging? Is it an indoor lapdog, or a more aggressive outdoor dog?
It is important to use your dogs history in training. Understand that if your dog was bred to hunt, you need to focus your training more around those instincts. Play more fetch. Make those types of dogs work harder for their rewards. It is in their genes that they have to stalk, chase down, and then tear apart their prey before getting to enjoy a meal. Work with that genetic instinct rather than against it.

Nurture behaviors:

If you got your dog as a puppy, you will be familiar with how it was raised. If there were small children in the house, the dog may not think of itself as being bottom in the "pack hierarchy", since there are smaller creatures than itself living with it. This can be dangerous if the dog thinks it is in charge of small children, resulting in harmful playing and bites.

If your dog was raised somewhere else, and you got your pet from a pound or elsewhere, try to find out as much information as possible. If the dog was abused or ignored, it will need special care. It is important to show the dog as quickly as possible that it won't be treated the same way in it's new home. The sooner those issues are resolved, the sooner you can move to other types of training.

There is one last general guide to training that is important to follow. Always be consistent with your training, and never show indifference to your pet. Being consistent keeps your pet healthy. If it is sometimes rewarded for good behavior, and other times ignored, this will just cause confusion. If your pet is often shown indifference, then it will show indifference in return, and it will be difficult to train.

You can find more dog training resources at http://www.dogtrainerpro.info

Allen McDaniel has spent time learning from leading dog training experts and behaviorists and is happy to be sharing what he's learned with the online community.