Teaching a dog to have confidence and do it right!

So you want your dog to listen but you need that "attitude" of confidence and almost an air of excitement?  Well how do people teach that?  Well I have found what works for my dogs.  A few years ago I was training a rather difficult exercise that I could just not figure out how to teach it with motivation.  So, unfortunately for me and my dog, I used an old method that would get the dog to produce the desired behavior because it had no other choice but to do it.  Now at this point in my training every time I come to this particular exercise my dog shows hesitation and no confidence at all.  So now I have to fix it but I have all that conflict stored up from when I initially taught the exercise.  The better thing to have done back then would of been to have more patience and used my brain a little more to figure out how to get my dog to respond.  Using force will save you time if you have to teach something, BUT you will sacrifice some of your relationship with your dog and will probably lose that confidence that you would have had if the dog learn in a positive nature.

Now this does not mean corrections dont have their place in a training program but if you are teaching something I suggest to find a way to make it fun for your dog and you.  This might take a bit longer but you and your dog will be happier for having done it.  One of the tools I use is a list of the top four training treats my dog likes to eat.  The way I go about figuring this out is to pull out some of those treats I think my dog likes.  After I do this I cut the treats into tiny pieces about the size of a nickel.  I will then show them to my dog, with one kind of treat in one hand and another kind in the other.  After that I will separate the the treats and let the dog pick which one it wants first. I will repeat this a couple more times to be sure of the results.  You can do this with as many items as you want, but I recommend doing 3 to 5 different items.

Remember when you are training your dog to have patience, think out what you are wanting to accomplish, and most importantly have FUN! "

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