By the time you finish reading this article, you will be equipped with the knowledge on how you can train your dog to be more obedient. I am sure you have thought of hiring a dog trainer for your pet dog, due to unsuccessful attempt of training it before but I am sure after reading this article you can train your pet dog successfully. So, what are you waiting for? Let's proceed.



I am sure you have tried and tested a lot of methods and techniques to train you dog. However, you have to remember one thing. You cannot expect your pet dog to listen to you the first time you command it. Why? well, you need to understand and know your pet dog. In other words, you need to have an understanding with your dog. That way, you can train it properly.

So what are the first steps? Simple. For starters, you have to remember these three principles. They are: reinforcement, punishment and extinction. By mastering these three simple principles, you will be on your way to training your pet dog to be more obedient.

What do I mean by reinforcement? It is the dog's reaction to the trainer where behavior either becomes better or worst by means of specific actions. Let me explain further. There are two categories of reinforcement. They are: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

What is positive reinforcement? Positive reinforcement is about giving rewards or praise. If your dog behaves or obeys you, then you reward or praise your pet. By doing this, your dog will understand that it will be rewarded as long as it obeys you or behaves.

Negative reinforcement happens when the trainer removes an unpleasant situation to make the dog obey. An example of this is when you want to teach your dog to sit. I am sure your dog will not budge if tell it to sit. What you can do is that you can pressure on the collar and release the pressure once the dog obeys you.

The next principle that we are talking about is the punishment principle. Again, there are positive and negative punishment. A punishment is seen as a positive punishment when the trainer does something unpleasant and thus it results in the dog's negative bahaviour to decrease. A negative punishment on the other hand is when a punishment is handed out, the positive behavior is diminished or eliminated.

The last principle we are going to talk about is the extinction principle. Extinction is about total elimination of a behavior. This happens when a certain behavious is not reinforced and thus, resulting it to be wliminated or extinct. For example, your dog keeps whining but you keep your stand and not allow it to have its way. Your pet dog will learn that whining will do him no good so it stops.

For most people, they believe that positive reinforcement is the best way to train a dog. Yes, it may be for some but this might not work for the others. So before taking on any of the principles discussed, it is still better to have an assessment of your dog's behavior prior to any training. In this way, you will know which of the principles would give you the best chance of success when it comes to training your dog.