Dog Training Evolution

When we welcome a new puppy into our home as a new member of the family we can sometimes overlook the fact that our dog will grow very large (depending on the dog breed) very soon in the future.

In just a few months your puppy may weigh 40, 50 or even up to 100 pounds. If your puppy ingrains bad habits (such as jumping up) while it is small, he may keep these habits when he is bigger and heavier. Many people allow their puppies to misbehave in ways that will not be acceptable in the future.

If the puppy does not learn how you expect him to behave early into his puppyhood, he may develop these habits for a long time and they may be harder to undo later on.

The modern approach to training dogs is training them as early as possible into the dog's life. Ideally, training should begin very early into your dog's puppyhood.

Otherwise, if you leave a few weeks or months without training your puppy, you can run into the problem of having to undo bad habits and behaviors that your dog has picked up during the months where no training was put in place.

The old school training system was more associated with punishment, sometimes even harsh punishment. In the past, many trainers would advise that you do not train your dog until it was six months old. They would not train a dog any earlier than this as they deemed the methods used for correction to be unsafe for the dog.

By the time the canine is six months old he will have learned many bad habits. These bad habits are then corrected using punishment methods that would have being unnecessary if the dog was trained earlier on in his life. When a dog is learning bad behaviors during the first six months he will become more stubborn to releasing these bad behaviors later on.

In this day and age, dog training has evolved into using reward and non-reward techniques. Non-reward does not mean punishment. It simply means that you withhold the praise or food bit while remaining neutral. Then when your dog behaves in a satisfactory manner you reward him with verbal and physical praise or with a food bit.

Positive training methods these days ensure that you have a friend for life, instead of a dog that has being instilled with fear. The dog is trained in a more loving and supportive environment where the trainer is seen as a friend instead of a dictating ruler.

With the rise of positive dog training techniques, owners have begun to train their dog by themselves. More and more owners have taken it upon themselves to train their dog on their own without the use of a professional dog trainer. Modern dog training has evolved into a friendlier and more sophisticated approach.

Many dog owners now use clicker training to train their dogs. Clicker training involves using a small mechanism which makes a clicking sound when you press it. The dog then associates this clicking sound with a forthcoming reward or praise.

The dog soon learns that whenever there is a clicking sound, a reward will be forthcoming and he should repeat the behavior that you have already instructed him to do previously.

Another form of positive dog training involves using the luring dog training method. This method literally lures your dog into getting the dog treat or toy (followed with verbal and physical praise).

If you are interested in learning how to train your dog using positive training methods then check out this site where you can learn general dog training as well as specific dog breed training such as Labrador training and other breeds.