Training their pet is something that every dog owner goes through, whether it is basic obedience to competitive agility. You don’t even have to spend too much time training but it is important to do with a new dog and especially a new puppy.
How you start of training is up to you. We highly recommend Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment training methods which come from something called ‘Operant Conditioning‘. Make sure you are not using Positive Punishment and Negative Reinforcement methods which we highly discourage.
Positive reinforcement is generally mentioned a lot from dog trainers, but ‘negative punishment’ does not sound that friendly even though it is. In Operant Conditioning, ‘negative’ means to take something away or to remove something and the ‘punishment’ discourages the behaviour. So ‘negative punishment’ is just taking something away that will discourage the behaviour.
For example, you are training with treats and after your dog does something correctly you reward them, this is positive reinforcement. It is adding something that encourages the behaviour. If your dog then does the wrong thing and you don’t give them a treat or any praise, this is negative punishment which will decrease the behaviour.
Using these two methods, you can train your dog in any area. Consider starting off with ‘Obedience Training’ as it includes the most essential commands such as sit, come, stay, drop etc. Then, if you and your dog are enjoying training sessions you could try getting into some dog sports e.g. agility, dock diving, flyball, disc dog, musical freestyle, heelwork to music, trick dog, rally etc.
But why is training your dog so important? There are so many benefits to training your dog, training also just helps you and your dog grow a stronger trust and friendship together. Dog training provides mental stimulation to your dog, this is key to having a well behaved, happy pup. As said in the name, mental stimulation is when you stimulate the mind and so you are keeping your dog productive and not bored, this is a huge benefit for some breeds especially working dogs.
With training, your dog will become increasingly well behaved, less boisterous and more happy. It can also help your dog to go better on walks and more mannered around people.
Dog Training in general is so much fun and something that lots of dog owners enjoy. So start off with your dog, training the simple commands part of obedience. Make sure you are always using positive reinforcement and negative punishment.