First Day of 6 Days Mini Dogy Traning — Part 1

Have you decided to start dog training now? Ok, let’s begin the first wonderful day!

Before you start dog training course, you must prepare two important things: dog leash and a pack of dog food. These two things are the key and always be used for dog training during the next 6 days training course.

Teaching your dog to know his name

How to choose a good dog name? You can find many good dog names in post:  Dog Names List–2000+ Dog Names and Top 10 Male and Female Dog Name may give you more idea.

Call your dog his name for serveral times at the beginning, let your dog know his name. If your dog doesn’t pay attention to your calling. Ok, give your dog the titbit, call his name again, and reward him for looking at you. Next, hold the titbit up to your face so the dog has to look up at you when he responds to your calling his name. Repeat this several times and the dog will soon learn that, when he looks up at you, he is rewarded.

As the same time as you reward the dog with food treat, also use verbal praise, tell your dog he is very good. As you progress, the sound of your voice will be the reward, the occasional titbit merely a bonus. Repeat the exercise using a toy to attract the dog’s attention. Call his name and squeak a toy, or tap a ball on the floor.  Hold the toy up to your face, call your dog’ s name, then throw the toy gently (remember, he is on the lead so don’t throw the ball too far!).  Allow the pup to chase the toy, and gently guide him back to you to continue the game.

Experiment with different toys, treats and tones of voice to learn what works best for your dog. Always reward your dog when he responds to his name and he will come to know that that specific sound really is his own name.

Once you can be confident of getting your dog’ s attention and holding it for a few moments at a time, you will be able to start incorporating recalls and positions into your training sessions.

Teaching your dog to sit

A dog in a sitting position is more relaxed and attentive than one that is bouncing around. The dog can pay attention to you and take his cues as to what to do next from you when he is sitting quietly. You can slip a collar and leash on, examine him and groom him easily from a sitting position. The sitting position is ideal for the dog to greet people. A dog leaping up on visitors is cute, but a 30 kg muddy monster may not be so welcome!

With the dog on his leash to stop him wandering off, attract his attention with a toy or titbit and slowly raise the reward above his head. Your dog’ s head should follow the treat. As the head comes up, the bottom must go down, placing your dog naturally into a sitting position. At the exact instant that the dog’ s bottom touches the ground, give him the food treat and praise him, but DO NOT SAY SIT.

Repeat the exercise a number of times, until your dog understands what you expect from him. Some dogs catch on very quickly, others will take a little longer. So you must have more patience. Once you are sure that your dog will sit as you raise the hand with the treat, start saying “SIT” . As you give him the treat at the exact moment he assumes the sit position so he can associate the action with the word. Do not be tempted to use the command before you are confident that your dog understands what you want from him.  Remember, at this stage, your dog does not yet know what “sit” means -it is just a noise.

If you use the word repeatedly while your dog is jumping around, he will learn to associate the word with what he was doing when you said it. “Sit” could come to mean leap around and play, not park your bottom on the ground!  Dogs understand body language far more readily than they understand our verbal form of communication. In time, you will be able to phase out the hand signal and use the word “sit” alone, but do not be in too much of a rush to do so.

Get into the habit of giving only one command.  If you have to keep repeating yourself, you are either not keeping your dog’s attention or he does not understand what you want.  Go back to the beginning, show him again, and reward him every time he gets it right.

As soon as your dog has caught on to the idea of sitting when he is asked, it is a good idea to get into the habit of asking him to sit and briefly attend to you before he gets anything he wants. Ask your dog sit and attend to you briefly before you feed him, play a game, groom him, give him a cuddle or proceed with other training.

First Day of 6 Days Mini Dogy Traning — Part 2