1. Don’t rush and stay calm
It doesn’t matter if your dog understands everything you tell them or not, you have to maintain a positive attitude. Don’t get angry or frustrated with your pup if they don’t get it the first time!
If you stay calm and relaxed, you will encourage your pet’s capacity to learn and have fun while doing it. Your dog tends to adapt their behavior after your attitude, so it’s important to think twice before reacting.
If you yell at your pup, they won’t learn anything useful and they will start being scared of you. Keep in mind that pups are like children and you need a lot of patience!
2. Don’t forget about your pup’s temperament
All dogs have different personalities and temperaments, so they have different rates of processing and learning the new information they receive. Besides that, each breed comes with its own characteristics, so you will have to adjust your training technique based on your pet’s temperament.
3. Give them immediate rewards
Dogs don’t think like humans, so they don’t understand long-term causes and effects. They’re fast learners, so you have to give them a reward within a few seconds after they did what you wanted.
By doing so, you will help them reinforce the behavior and associate the treat with the action you wanted them to perform. Another thing you have to keep in mind is to give them the reward fast enough, so they don’t get confused.
For instance, imagine that you teach them the “sit” command and they sit just for a second. By the time you give them the reward, they’re already standing back up. In a case like this, you’re actually rewarding the standing behavior, not the one you wanted.
