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BestDogsIngredients
by Wendy Edmondson

The world of dogs has many different ideas when it comes to dog behaviour and dog training. Sifting through the many forums to find out which one would be the best approach for you and your new canine best friend can feel like a mountainous task. It seems however that most ideas for creating leadership by training has been borne from the idea that positive reinforcement is counted as being the most likely to create the best results.

Dogs and dog owners both need to be comfortable with the approach to this new found relationship and therefore regardless of which specific program a dog owner chooses, confidence in the programme will help to counter as many of the mistakes we may make if we felt at all unhappy with the system we were about to use.

An enjoyable approach to the training process is an outlook we would be better adopting as we begin our journey into the unknown world of dog training and dog psychology. Positive learning is always an outcome to adopting the right approach for any experience we are about to have. We all understand the benefits of feeling good about what we are doing and how those feel good factors can affect what and how we do things. In dog training we are looking for a long term benefit for all and that sounds like it might feel good don’t you think?

So we have the right training designed to start us off, we have the right approach to what we are about to do. What next? What other ingredients do we need?

Well might I suggest that Patience with the programme, Consistency in doing that programme and a good Partnership between you your dog when working that programme?

Why patience? Because patience gives us the time to learn MORE, the time to process MORE, where we can achieve a better understanding of the what, the why and the how, to do a task. Many great learning opportunities are missed when patience is not applied. Patience in training is the key to animal welfare. Imagine rushing your meal, gulp by huge gulp you shovel down the food in your rush to ‘get it over’ See now how the textures, the colours, the smells and consistency of what you have just eaten are missed as the brain hasn’t had time to register them? Learning is no different. We need to allow our brains to process information in a multi sensory way to make that learning stick more easily. When patience is applied to our training programmes we take more information in and have better understanding of ourselves and our dogs’ behaviour before during and after the experience. That feels like being let out of a cage to me.

Consistency in leadership training between you and your dog is paramount for our unconscious to become GOOD doing this, because before we start anything new we don’t know that we don’t know how to do it. When we BEGIN to do something new, we now realise that there are things we don’t know. With practice and consistency therefore we can then begin to understand how to DO what we thought we couldn’t and here we are much more able to move to becoming practiced and polished as this activity easily becomes second nature to us. The reward for this behaviour change is in built, not only in us, but our beloved pet too!
So what has a partnership got to do with it? Without the partnership you cannot even set sail on this journey of learning. A good partnership is like a beautiful duet, a great team that helps to create a fantastic connection between you and your dog, where the beginnings of a wonderfully unique friendship and understanding between master and pupil can flourish, the image of which when working together will forever be a part of your union.

Don’t let this let this wonderful opportunity for you and your dog to learn escape you. Let Patience consistency and a friendly partnership between dog and dog owner help you to a rewarding family life.


Author's Biography:

Wendy is the owner of dogs02

Posted on: April 28,2008


Email:
wendyneil2@aol.com
Website: http://www.dog02.com



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