Why Won’t My Dog Listen To Me?

This is common question that most first-time dog owners ask me. Before I answer your question, let me ask you a few instead.

Do you use cookies, collars, head halters or clickers to make your dog listen to your commands?
Do you have to raise your voice every time you want your Dog to listen to you?
Does your dog always come or sit on command - anytime and anywhere you want him to?
If your answers are mostly in the negative, its time you seriously reconsider your role as a sincere dog trainer and an ideal pet parent.

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Get Your Dog To Listen To You

Before you begin any training, you must first establish yourself as the “ALPHA”. Your dog must know that you’re the leader of the pack and it is YOU who is in charge.

Here is a list of simple DO’s and DONT’s that you must follow if you want to be the Alpha:

Always go out or come in through the door first - remember you are the leader;
Always eat first - give your Dog something to eat only after you’ve finished your meal;
Don’t circle around your dog when he is lying on the floor - make your dog move out of your way instead;
Don’t let your Dog set the rules - pay attention to him when you think fit and not whenever he demands;
Don’t permit your doggie to sleep with you in your bed - demarcate his sleeping area clearly.
Once you successfully established yourself as the Alpha, training your dog and making him listen will be a lot easier than you can imagine. Remember, if your dog does not learn to “listen”, all your training effort will be in vain!

If you want your dog to “listen” to your commands, you must first consider the genetic makeup of your Dog. Training a Golden or a Labrador Retriever to “fetch” is far more easier than training the same trick to an Alsatian or a Poodle.

Does your dog know his name? Does your dog look at you whenever you call him by his name? This is the first and the most critical thing that you must teach your dog. If your dog doesn’t respond to his name, you cannot have his attention for teaching him any other commands.

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To make sure that your Dog recognizes his name, take a treat in your hand and hold it away from your body. Call your dog’s name. He is most likely to look at the treat in your hand. Continue calling his name untill he turns and looks at your eyes. Give him the treat immediately. Repeat this exercise by holding the treat in the other hand. Once you’re sure that your dog has learnt to recognize his name, just call his name and reward him for looking at you by petting or with a hug.

You must understand that dogs respond far better to positive reinforcement than they do to coercion or force.

Nancy Richards

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For stay-at-home dog parents, or for that matter, all dog owners, it is essential you know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your Dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your dog to have complete trust in you.

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Let us see how…….

How To Bond With Your Dog ?

Building a bond with your dog is the first and the most crucial step to training him successfully. As soon as you bring a dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When your Dog is secure in the knowledge that he belongs to the family, he is more likely to respond better to your training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your dog is almost impossible.

4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Dog :

Spend quality time together;
Take him out in the world and experience life together;
Establish and promote a level of mutual respect; and
Develop a way of communicating to understand each other’s needs.
Building a bond with your Dog will not only help you manage him better but will also make your dog calm, quiet and an extremely well-adjusted pet.
Love Your Dog and He Will Love You back

Once you’re succesful in building a bond with your dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

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How Your Dog Learns…

Your dog’s learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase - This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase - Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase - Here you must continue practicing with your Dog in different locations and in an environment with few distractions. You can take your dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you’ve taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help learn and retain lessons better .

The Testing Phase - Once you’re sure that your dog has achieved almost 90% success….he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer loactions with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response at the very first time, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your Dog to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

Your dog succeeds!!! (Trumpets please!)
In case your dog fails, re-examine the situation. Review and/or change your training. Then try testing again.
Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase - Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember:

Never scold your dog if he fails. It’s not his fault. You have failed as a trainer!
You must be patient and persistent for your efforts to show rewards.
Appreciate and love your dog when he does it right! A little encouragement will work wonders for your dog.
Training is easy when you do it right.

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Crate Training Dog

Many dog owners have the mistaken believe that crate training a dog is cruel and unkind, but done correctly, the opposite is in fact true. Properly crate trained dogs tend to be more secure and are easier to manage. Crate training a dog is a very useful method for housebreaking. Crate training a dog is not difficult, but it does require constant effort.

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Leash Training Dog

A very common problem most dog owners face is their dog tugging and pulling on their leash. When leash training, your first task should be to get your dog use to its leash. If your dog is constantly pulling and tugging on its leash, then its time you seriously considered leash training your dog.

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Dog Training Collar And Leash

Just like any dog leash training tools, choke chains, when used correctly, are not inhumane. Choke chains are a very effective leash-training tool. Only use a choke chain for leash training your dog.

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Bringing Home A New Puppy

No one can accurately give an account of how and when Native Americans started to take on wolves as pets and smooth the way for such apparently vicious animals to develop into family members. But one thing is for sure however; every puppy lover from far and wide owes a big debt of thanks to them since dogs are known to be the unmatched choice for pets. It was approximately 12,000 years ago when wolves gradually began to seek out the companionship of man rather than to merely continue to exist on their own in the wilderness. This lead to the discovery that dogs certainly make magnificently faithful and extraordinary pets. More on Bringing Home A New Puppy

Gently start training your puppy, especially when their very young. Puppies are not too much unlike children, everything is new and wonderful so their attention span is very limited. Puppy training early is a must. More on Puppy Training - When Is Too Early To Start?