New Year's resolution - train your pup !
We’re big fans of training dogs. At Doug’s Dogs we run a year round programme of classes and 121s, training hundreds of dogs over the years.
Training (whether in a class or at home), is really important process to ensure that you and your dog have a good, long lasting bond. Simply put, training helps you to communicate with your pup, so you have a better understanding of each other. With better understanding ‘mistakes’ and problems are avoided !
We use ‘positive reinforcement’ or ‘force free’ methods for training. What does that mean? Simply put, we praise good and ignore bad. The more we praise good, with rewards/treats and love, the more our dog wants to do the good things; and they’ll do less of the ‘bad’ things.
If you’ve got a puppy and are thinking about signing up to a good quality class - do it ! It will be the best investment in your dog that you’ll make. Here are some tips to get the most from the classes:
Sign up to a class for when your puppy is fully vaccinated and around 3 months old
Buy a good treat pouch so that you can deliver rewards to your dog quickly
Use a fixed length lead rather than an extending lead, for clear and simple handling of your dog
Buy high value training treats - it’s worth spending a bit more for high fish or meat content products
Check out Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy for lots of good training advice from Steve Mann, founder of IMDT (Institute of Modern Dog Trainers)
Don’t forget, training is for life :-)