Aggressive dog behavior training

Here is some simple, easy to follow, dog training advice for both the new and older dog owner. This advice is mostly common sense – but sometimes we find it not that common!

The very first thing you should know is that, whenever possible, start very young. Puppies at eight weeks can be trained – and that’s about when it’s ideal to start. Older dogs can be trained as well (you can teach an old dog new tricks), but it will just take a bit longer.

The next seems counter intuitive. I propose that seeking out professional trainers is faster and cheaper than training on your own. When you account for all the time and energy you’ll spend with mixed results – this may be the best way to go. Look at your local community center or yellow pages for a training course near you. Note that these folks likely offer specialized training as well – puppy training, aggressive dog behavior training, off-leash training, and others.

An area often overlooked by people training their dogs is consistency. You and everyone the dog regularly contacts must react in exactly the same way for the same dog behavior. That means that if he barks at the door when your home and that’s not OK, then it can’t be OK to bark at the door when you’re not at home either.

There’s some controversy over positive and negative training. Positive training includes things like patting and treats, while negative training includes hitting and yelling. I don’t think there’s controversy – negative training doesn’t work. Only practice positive reinforcement. Never yell or hit at bad behavior.

Another missed one often is timing of rewards. Whether it’s a treat or an “attaboy” it needs to happen immediately after the desired behavior. Otherwise, the dog has no idea what he’s being rewarded for.

So there are five very basic things you can do to train your dog. The best bets – start young and seek out help!