Common Training Mistakes Part 2

Anniina is Your Inner West Sydney dog trainer with 10 years of experience

Too long or too short training sessions

Teaching new behaviours to a dog takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight!

Keep your training sessions short and fun to ensure the best results. If a training session runs for too long, it becomes boring and frustrating. If it’s too short, it’ll take longer to get results.

Dog’s obedience behaviours aren’t proved

If you teach your dog to “sit” in a quiet of your own home, that’s the only place your dog will reliably sit. It’s a mistake that many owners make; thinking that something a dog is good at doing at home works everywhere else as well. You need to generalise the new behaviour in different environments with varying conditions and levels of distractions.

You need to gradually increase distractions. Once one level of distractions is perfected, move out to another one. You can add another person or dog. Gradually move on to busier environments until the behaviour happens consistently.

You rely too much on treats and not enough on praise

Treats are often the best way to initiate a behaviour or to reinforce that behaviour later on. But constant use of treats can work against you. Once your dog learns the behaviour, replace treats with praise, play, toy, or whatever else he likes. Remember that unpredictable treat rewards work to sharpen a behaviour. Frequent, expected rewards usually slow performance and focus. Also, don’t forget that you are a reward as well! Your happy response is a reward as well.

Your Positive Inner West Sydney Dog Trainer

I’m your Inner West Sydney dog trainer. I’m here to help you to build the best possible relationship between you and your pooch with amazing results.

I have 10 years of experience in dog training and have successfully rehabilitated many reactive dogs. As a dog trainer in Sydney, I specialise in obedience training and use reward based positive training methods combined with vocal correction when and if needed.

The training session can be held at your own home or at one of our beautiful Inner West Sydney Parks.