6. Be patient, persistent and consistent. These three behaviors on the part of

an owner will develop similar behaviors in a dog. Patience means that you

understand that learning new behaviors may take some time and a lot of

practice and repetition. Persistence means that you, as the owner, do not

give up when training does not seem to be going well. Consistent means that

your dog knows what to expect from you. For example, if you always say NO

when your dog is misbehaving, they learn to recognize NO as a sign of

disapproval. Conversely, if you only give treats for good behavior, your dog

will learn to recognize such positive feedback.

7. Start early. As soon as you get a dog, you should begin training in some

capacity. If you are getting a late start, it may take some time to catch up.

The key to remember is that training is often nothing more than reversing bad

habits and behaviors. If your dog is young, they haven’t had a chance to

develop a significant number of these bad behaviors and training will be

simple. With an older dog, you really have to unteach everything the dog

knows about behavior and start to reteach behaviors that you find acceptable.

8. Be kind and gentle for best results. An owner who constantly punishes his

or her dog for bad behaviors is bound to be a lot less successful than an

owner who is gentle and kind, rewarding his or her dog for acceptable

behaviors. Consider offering your dog plenty of praise, and be gentle when

redirecting his attention from a bad behavior to one that is more acceptable to

you.

9. Have reasonable expectations. For example, if your dog misbehaves at

home you are wise to expect that he will misbehave at the dog park or in the

yard. Therefore, if your dog is having trouble paying attention to your

commands you will want to make sure to keep him on a leash when outside.

If your dog jumps on people in the house, expect that he will be rough with

other dogs. You can reverse these behaviors through positive training, but

you need to realize that bad behaviors will most likely continue regardless of

the circumstances until they have been unlearned by your dog.

10.Always enforce your commands. If you give commands, but do not enforce

them, your dog will learn that there is no reason to listen to you. On the other

hand, if you back up your commands with reinforcement he will quickly learn

that you mean business. For example, if you tell your dog to sit and he

ignores you, gently push him into the desired position and praise him. Always

praise good behavior as a means of enforcing your commands.