Understanding Dog Behavior: Tips for Training Stubborn Dogs
As pet owners, we understand that healthy food, plenty of water, daily exercise and loving attention are all essential for a dog’s wellbeing. However, many owners underestimate the importance of dog training and the benefits for both the owner and their dog.
There are both physical and emotional benefits to properly training your dog. From an emotional perspective, it teaches dogs to socialise, gives them confidence, and strengthens the bond between you and your dog. Physical benefits include being able to protect your dog more effectively, ensuring a safer home environment for you and your loved ones, and having a more well-behaved pet.
If you’ve decided to train your dog but finding it challenging, there can be several reasons for this. Identifying the cause for this behaviour is the first step to finding the right solution.
Understanding dog behavior
What many owners describe as a stubborn dog usually refers to the dog being difficult to train.
A reason for this stubborn behaviour could be dog’s breed, as some are known to be headstrong and independent. Examples of these breeds are:
- Afghan Hound
- American Foxhound
- Basset Hound
- Bulldog
- Bull Mastiff
- Bull Terrier
- Chow Chow
- Pekingese
Commonly, behaviors like aggression, hyperactivity, being distracted, feeling bored or a lack of interest in the reward can also be confused with stubbornness. Physical barriers can also contribute to what is perceived as stubbornness – some dogs can be hard of hearing or simply struggle more to learn new things.
Remember, as an owner, you have to take ownership of your role in the training process. More often than not, difficulty with training comes down to our lack of clear, consistent communication skills with them. This is why repetition forms such an important part of dog training.
An important rule when it comes to consistency is to ensure all the people living in the house, whether it is house mates, partners or family, ask and reward behavior in exactly the same way as you do. Creating a consistent set of commands should be the starting point of dog training – whether you live alone or not – to ensure the dog isn’t confused by conflicting communication.
Training tips for dogs
Implementing these recommended tactics will make training time more efficient with your dog.
Ensure a calm environment that you can control
Just like people need a quiet environment when studying, the same goes for dogs. To ensure your dog can stay focused during training sessions, identify an indoor or outdoor area that is calming, has no distractions, and is safe.
Be patient with your dog
Always remember it is a process. To give a sense of progress and achievement, it’s a good idea to start with your dog on easier tasks that are familiar, such as sitting. Once they have mastered this, take small steps by only changing one variable at a time.
Make it a habit
Training is not something you do once a day. Training your dog should be part of your daily routine. Rather then having a longer training session once a day, break it up into short training session around one specific behavior.
Use rewards, not punishment
Punishing your dog for bad behaviour will only increase their anxiety and break the trust between you and your pet. Positive dog training is always the way to go, which can be rewards-based – petting, playing and treats are all good options to reinforce good behavior. Try and identify what your dog values highly and use that as a reward when they display highly desired behavior you want them to repeat.
Nutrition also plays an important role in dog training. Dog food needs to contain the right nutrients to give your dog the energy and focus for daily dog training. The good news is that Bobtail® contains VITARITE®, which meets the needs of all breeds of strong South African dogs. With its unique combination of vitamins and minerals, your dog’s immune system is boosted and muscle strength and agility enhanced – all needed for those daily dog training sessions.
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