How To Train a Dog

Training your dog takes more than just holding a cookie in one hand and a clicker in the other. It requires good timing, consistency, and some basic knowledge of how dogs learn. The best approach is to attend obedience classes. While that may not work for every everyone, training is important to enrich your relationship with your dog and teach him important skills.

Dog training is the application of behavior analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to modify the behavior of a dog, it also involves teaching responses to cues or commands, or performance of actions not necessarily natural to the dog. Dog training is defined as the purposeful changing of a dog's behavior, either for the socialization to the domestic environment, basic obedience training or training for specialized activities including hunting, entertainment, dog sports, law enforcement, search and rescue, and working with livestock.

Training dogs for specific roles date back to Roman times at least, the training of dogs to be compatible household pets developed with suburbanization in the 1950s. During training of a dog, the trainer uses different methods to modify a behavior of the dog, actually, he did this by putting a dog in different situations and conditions in his surrounding environment. Following are learning behavior's which a dog experienced during training.
Operant conditioning
Classical conditioning
Non-associative learning
Observational learning
The best way to train your dog is to reward them when they do what you want. This technique is known as reward based training and it the most humane and effective way to train your dog. It makes also training fun and helps strengthen the bond between you and your pet.
Using training techniques that a dog doesn't like can be dangerous for both owners and dogs. Punishment techniques can cause fear, anxiety, and aggression in dogs, and they can also damage the connection you have with your pet. Following are some of the fruitful ways to train your train without damaging connection with your pet.

• Listen To Your Dog

Learn to listen to your dog. If your dog feeling uncomfortable meeting another dog, animal, person, don't insist that he say hello. He is telling you that he is not comfortable for a reason, and you should respect that.

• Have realistic expectations

Changing behavior takes time. You need to have realistic expectations about changing your dog's behavior as well as how long it will take a time to change behavior's you don't like. Often behavior's which are normal will take the most time such as barking, digging, and jumping. You also need to consider how long your dog has rehearsed the behavior.

• Friendly Environment

Friendly socialization has been shown to decreased fear of other dogs and people and improves dog's ability to cope with new situations. Research has shown that dogs that have not been socialized are more likely to develop antisocial behaviors. Puppies should attend a puppy socialization taught by experienced, qualified trainers. Puppies attending these classes should be healthy and have received their first vaccination.

• Dog's temperament

Always keep dog's temperament in mind. All dogs have different temperaments. Just like kids, different breeds learn differently and at different rates. Some dogs are stubborn and challenge you at every turn. Others will bend over backward to please you. You may need to adjust your training techniques to meet the need of your dog temperament.

• Give immediate rewards

Dogs don't understand long-term cause and effects. They learn fast. You must praise or reward your dog within 2 seconds of the desired behavior to reinforce that behavior. If you wait too long, he will not associate the reward with the action you asked him to perform.