An Overview Of Dog Training Styles – Part 1
There are not so many different training styles as there are trainers as believed by most. In spite of being individuals, trainers can be classified into clearly defined categories.
The readily frustrated
Other than human child rearing there is nothing that demands so much of one’s patience and commitment than soliciting the desired behavior from a dog. Unfortunately, not all humans possess that much inherently. So it is very important to self-train as it is to train the dog.
Prepare yourself to commit at least half hour to one hour daily to train the dog. The instant you feel that you cannot take it any more, whether that occurs in just 10 or 30 minutes, stop the session. Try hard to increase this limit of your endurance gradually every day.
The easy to surrender
Dogs are descendants of wolves that are pack animals and inherently tend to follow a social hierarchy. The pack includes the alphas or the leaders to the omegas or the passive followers and every type in between. For a successful training it is very important that the human establish the role of the alpha or the leader of the pack. You should be training the dog and not the other way.
While you should be gentle and firm, never surrender your role as the leader. You should possess patience not just to contain your anger when facing frustration due to the dog’s failure to acceptance, but to continue with the sessions. Realize that training a dog to accept your commands is not to satisfy your ego or to feel superior, but for the safety of the dog and those around it and to develop the dog into a loving and loyal companion. Though this is not accomplished easily, with patience and consistency your dog will eventually follow your directions.
The irrational
Though a dog’s mental ability can be compared to that of a human toddler, it is unreasonable to expect them to reason like humans, even like a toddler. The main reason for human frustration in dog training is because one expects a dog to understand and follow commands too quickly. Be reasonable, patient and take time to know the limit of your dog’s capabilities.
Dogs are individuals, just like humans and their capacity to understand and reason will vary depending on the breeds and the individual. While some breeds like retrievers and terriers can grasp and follow commands readily, some like bassets and collies take more time to respond. Age also matters. A three year old will be more attentive than a ten week old puppy.
It is best to understand the nature of your dog and work with it. Resorting to harsh tones or physical punishment will only be counter-productive. Your goal should be to build trust and to make the dog follow you with preference and not out of fear.
While these styles are quite negative, we will brief about some of the more positive styles in Part II.
An Overview Of Dog Training Styles - Part 2
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