How to Train Using Your Dogs Personality
An article contributed by featured author: Allen Jesson
...... in how to contain their sometimes over friendly advances and must be taught the “down” commands and the “lick / no lick” commands as their warm personalities can be a bit overpowering for some peoples liking.
The Shy or Reclusive dog will be in adventure to train, as first you have to find the pet. This animal will make it a point to stay out of your reach and usually out of your sight. These animals can be stubborn during the training process and they must be taught to answer when called. Leash training most easily facilitates this with a lot of rewards for appropriate behavior. Negative reinforcements rarely work with these animals, as they perceive this is a further reason to avoid your presence.
The Nervous or Easily Frightened dog is very similar in training technique to the Shy pet. They require patience and understanding during training and much in the way of positive reinforcements. Avoid using negative reinforcements unless a particular behavior could prove immediately harmful to you, the pet or another individual. This animal will not respond well to negative reinforcements and these will damage the trust relationship between you and the pet. Trust is a very important issue with these animals and this must be established before any other training will have any effectiveness. These dogs almost always have had prior abuse or neglect issues. Learn as much as possible about the past of the animal and find what behaviors trigger the fear responses of the animal. For example, if you raise your hand when you say “no” and the dog whimpers, drops to the ground or tucks its tail and runs, you can safely assume someone has struck this dog at least once. If this is the case, modify your training behaviors and hand movements to be less threatening to the animal. Perhaps, instead of raising your hand with the command, just give the verbal cue. This still implies the same lesson to the animal without producing fear, which is contraindicated in training. After the dog learns to trust you, hand gestures can be added later at the animal’s comfort level.
As we discussed before, each animal is different and you may see traits of any or all of these personality types in your pet. You should use this knowledge to modify your training and achieve a happier, healthier bond between you and your pet by reinforcing the animal’s own personality.
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