You just brought home a new dog – congratulations! Whether you’re on your own or have a family, your new dog ill bring you many years of happiness. There are a few things you should be prepare your new dog for in order for it (and you) to live a happy, healthy and stress free life. These tips will help guide you as to the best practices of keeping a dog.
Discipline
You may not want to, but trust us – it’s in your dog’s best interest to introduce discipline. You need to think and work one step ahead of your dog, and lay down the rules with love and firmness. You’ll find a better behaved dog on your hands. But remember –a dog that’s well behaved now may not stay that way. A dog’s behavior constantly changes; so make the discipline constant, too.
Training your Dog
A well trained dog can go anywhere with you. This freedom gives your dog confidence and allows it to reach its full potential as a smart, soulful and people-oriented companion. However, a poorly trained dog can be a loud and destructive irritation around the house, becoming more of a burden on you. Training is your responsibility – if a dog isn’t well trained, it isn’t his fault, it’s yours!
To make the process easier, start training when the dog is young. Even though you can teach an old dog new training tricks, you’ll find it simpler if you start early. Start your training somewhere that is familiar to your dog, where there are minimum distractions.
Socialize your Dog
Socialization is an important part of the training – you don’t want to end up with a fearful or aggressive dog. Again, it’s important to start young. Take your dog to as many new places as possible. Introduce your dog to other dogs and people. Good doggy manners are important if you want to bring your dog to the dog park or to other people’s homes.
Always try to make training fun. If something works, keep using that training tactic over and over again. Use play time as a time to train, that way, it’s never a chore and always fun.
Tags: dog training