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Of all the hard things to do in caring for a pet, training it has to be the hardest. Fortunately for us, dogs are smart enough to quickly learn new techniques, abilities, and tricks. Dogs have been trained for thousands of years. From the primitive natives pulling heavy loads, to the modern world, where they are trained to help the blind, deaf, and those with special needs. Dogs are referred to as "mans best friend" because of their high trainability.
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You might ask, "I've tried to train my dog for years, and all he'll do is sit… some of the time."
Well, as always, there are easy ways of going about things, and there are hard ways of going about things – and training dogs is no exception. The hard way of going about this is the way most people in the world today might try to train their dog. Here is an example:
You catch your dog getting into the garbage; sniffing the old Maxwell house can and licking up any stray green beans left over from last nights dinner. You, the owner rush over with a rolled up newspaper, and swat him over the head, shouting, "Ya stupid animal! Get outa there!"
Ok, maybe I exaggerated some, and maybe I didn't, but this method still won't teach the dog anything. The dog can be super smart, and has the ability to do lots of really neat things, but when it comes to discipline, it just doesn't know what its being hit and yelled at for. I'm not saying to let the dog get into the garbage can, do everything possible to keep him out of trouble, both for your sake and the dogs. Giving him a stern "No!" will probably do the trick. One word commands tend to do the best when training your dog.
The easy way of going about training your dog lies not when he's doing something bad, but when he's doing something good. How does the dog know when he's doing something good? The answer is, by giving him treats (kibbles, toys, pats, rubs, sometimes really good food like roast chicken, turkey, and ham). For example, when you see the dog completely bypass the garbage can, there you can treat the dog, giving it whatever treats you choose. There is a problem with this though, most of the time you aren't standing around watching the dogs every move, and by the time you get to the dog to give it his treat, it's already doing something else, defeating the purpose. This is fixed by using a clicker, whistle, or other noise making device (I find that a clicker works best). Train the dog that whenever you click, that means it is going to get a treat. You can do this in one five minute training session by just clicking, and giving the dog a treat right after the click. Usually by the time the training session is over, whenever you click, the dog will look up expectantly, lick its lips, and look around for a treat. Now, whenever you catch your dog doing something you want it to do, just click, and treat. Pretty soon, the dog gets the idea that whenever it does the thing that you want it to do, it gets a treat; marking a big behavioral step forward. This method is called the "Clicker Method" invented by professional animal trainer Karen Prior. For more on the clicker method, see Clicker Training For Dogs.
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