Ask any dog owner what the best dog training advice they ever get is and you’ll probably get several answers. Some dog owners use treats while others rely on dog training tricks. Which is right for you? Well, it all depends on your dog’s behavior, what you’re trying to accomplish, and your own personal style.
Last week’s article asked readers to submit the best dog training advice they ever get. This week’s post features some great dog training tips from dog owners who have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The top dog training tip was to utilize a basic Halti command to prevent pulling on the leash. Works like a charm!
The second best dog training advice came straight from the horse’s mouth: Horses don’t pull. This flies in the face of much of mainstream dog training thinking, which tends to place the dog’s responsibility with the owner. Yet, horses can be stubborn, especially when their owner doesn’t pay enough attention. In fact, many “manners” of trainable animals are directly counter-productive. So, what dog owners really need to know is that horses don’t pull because…. Well, you get the idea.
Many dog owners have found some amazing Twitter followers who are absolutely fed up with their pet’s lousy behavior. They use Twitter to rant about their problems…. Sometimes in a very entertaining way. One dog owner complained about how his dog wouldn’t eat on command because he “wasn’t hungry.” His followers had some suggestions for resolving this behavior.
One dog trainer suggested that the dog should be forced to eat if he wanted to, which would teach him “the dog obedience trade.” Another suggested squirting the dog with water if he wasn’t going to do his “duty.” Others simply said to feed the dog in a bucket, but this only worked for a few days. These folks want new puppy training tips, apparently. And so, they search the internet, trying to find a good solution.
Some folks claim that positive reinforcement is the answer. According to them, by using positive reinforcement, the dog will learn to expect good behavior, and reward good behavior. There are two problems with this thinking. First, it doesn’t work, and secondly, it can lead to all sorts of dog problems.
Positive reinforcement only works if you are consistent. You have to train for consistent results. In the case of dog training on twitter, a quick, “good dog” is not going to cut it. If you were to only tweet every time you had a correction, you’d get an ineffective training technique. Even if you could get one correct tweet out during the day, you’d have to wait until it was time to tweet another correction before your dog adjusted his behavior. The idea is to start off with corrections, then build up.
I know lots of people who have used positive reinforcement in their dog training on twitter. The key is to find out what works best for your dog, and not follow everyone else’s advice. With some work and a bit of luck, you can get a great dog training regime going, which will save you a bunch of time and a lot of effort.
Using positive reinforcement, in dog training on twitter, requires that you be consistent. Correcting one dog incorrectly, while you are on holiday, is completely pointless. What’s more, dogs are social animals and they need a regular routine if you are to achieve success. Try walking your dog to the same spot twice a day. If it doesn’t improve your dog’s behavior, don’t spend any more time correcting it.
Some people have great results when they use dog training on twitter by using “reward good behavior”. This is actually pretty effective. Rewarding a dog after it has done something right seems to work quite well, and it also builds up the dog’s confidence, which is a critical part of training.
Some people, however, really misapply positive reinforcement. They actually use it as a reward for poor or inappropriate behavior, which is totally counter to the whole philosophy of dog training using positive reinforcement. When you are looking for dog training advice on twitter, make sure you choose those who are experts and those who use methods such as reward good behavior.
