How to Train a Dog at Home

I’ve been writing a lot about specific issues in terms of how to train a dog, but today I want to talk about how to train a dog at home. The reason being is that even if you take your dog to a professional dog trainer of dog training sessions, you will still need to learn how to train your dog at home.

For you to be able to train a dog at home successfully, you need to be aware of your dog at all times, especially when you first bring your dog home. Before we get into specifics about how to train a dog at home, here are some tips that everyone looking to home training their dog should be aware of.

How to train a dog at home – General Tips

1. When you are training your dog at home, there should only be on trainer at any one time. More than one will confuse your dog and make the training less successful.

2. For you to effectively train your dog at home, or anywhere for that matter, you should always be prepared with lots of rewards. Rewards will motivate your dog and she will more likely listen to you when you have something waiting for her. While yummy treats are probably the best motivators you shouldn’t underestimate the power of toys and praise as they will go a long way when you are training your dog at home.

3. Before learning how to train a dog at home, you should always remember to keep your training sessions short and sweet. Five to ten minute sessions work best especially for young puppies that have a short attention span. When I was training my boxer dog, I was training him in five minute sessions.

4. A very important part of dog training is becoming the alpha dog. Dogs are pack animals and without a firm leader they will try to fill that slot themselves. You must show the dog who’s the boss by always being consistent. Sure, your dog will try to push the boundaries to see how far they can push but consistency will help you train a dog at home. It is important to also remember that all members of the family need the same levels of consistency. If you are telling your dog one thing and someone else something else, you dog will never understand what is right and what is wrong.

5. Patience is very important when learning how to train a dog at home. Your dog will make mistakes… believe me, my Beagle made tons of mistakes in the house but I was eventually able to train him by being consistent and patient. During any training sessions at home you find yourself getting frustrated or angry, stop the training session. Even if you don’t react your dog will sense your frustration and may not respond as well as if you were calm and relaxed.

I also want to touch on some of the most dog training commands you should begin to teach your dog.

How to Train a Dog at Home – Most important dog training commands

1. How to potty train a dog.

2. How to train a dog to sit.

3. How to crate train a dog.

In my opinion when these are the most important dog training issues you need to address, especially potty training. Many dogs end up in shelters because they are not potty trained. Some people who didn’t take the time to learn how to potty train dog will end with months and months of frustration.

Don’t worry about the more complicated dog training commands or tricks in the beginning. You are learning how to training a dog at home you should focus all your efforts on dog training that will set the base for other not so important dog training such as training a dog to fetch. While these fun tricks and games can be fun, you can focus on them as well but not in exchange for the other more important dog training commands.

How to Train a Dog at Home – More Tips

1. I wrote about this in some of my other posts but I thought it’s worth mentioning again because I hear it over and over again and frankly it pisses me off. DO NOT rub you dog’s nose in his own mess thinking that you will accomplish anything. Some people think that doing this or hitting their dog with a newspaper will actually help,but it actually only does one thing… make your dog afraid of you. My advice? Don’t do it.

2. When training a dog at home keep distractions to a minimum. Pick a quiet spot in your home to do all the training. Once your dog has learning a command and is responding to it on a consistent basis you can try it in other places and around more distractions.

Well I hope you found this post informative and stay tuned for some more posts such as:

How to train a dog to heel

How to train a dog not to bark
and much more.

Thanks for reading this post on How to Train a Dog at Home.

Berto