by Joseph Then

Just like any new pet owner, you are excited because there is an addition to the household.

What am I talking about? Well, I am talking about you getting a new pet! After picking up the dog of your choice and bringing the pet home, you realize that your pet is quite dominant and hard to control. What should you do? The first thing that comes to your mind is that you should train your dog. But, before you start on anything, ask yourself this; do you really know what you are doing? Do you know what you are going to train? Do you even know how to train a dog? Well, just like with any tasks, don’t come unprepared. You should understand and also acquire the knowledge first.

The first thing you should do is see where the origin of your dog is. A dog is a descendant of wolves. Although dogs have been domesticated thousands of years before, there is no doubt that there will be some characteristics similar to a wolf that is by instinct ingrained within your pet. An example would be its sense of smell. It uses its sense of smell to do basically do everything. Unlike us, we use our five senses to understand our surrounding. Therefore, we learn that even though dogs are domesticated they still retain some of their most basic instincts. That is the most important thing that you need to keep in mind before taming a dog.

If you feel that the time has come to start training your dog and show who’s boss then by all means start teaching your pet but remember three things for pet training: Focus, Take Control and claim all thing as your possession that is inside the house, of course.

Let’s begin with focus. Why do you need focus? Well, if you start training a dog, you may lose your cool as dogs do not understand simple English like sit down or stay. I bet you will find it very annoying. Some people think that the best way to deal with this is to beat the pet or even yell at them, Stop! You should not do that as it won’t do you any good. All you need to do is to be calm, steady and always remain firm. The most important thing that you should remember is that you should always remain calm when training your dog.

Next, take control of the situation. If you are teaching something new to your pet, maintain eye contact. By doing so, the dog will understand that you are in charge and the one in authority. Actually the submissive pet will look away. So if you often gaze away from your dog while speaking, it might come to an understanding that you cannot control your pet hence, remember to keep an eye contact with your pet.

Last, claim all things as yours whether this is about toys, food, rugs and so on stand your ground. Only once your dog understands that you are the one in charge should you allow your pet to share things with you.

So, there you have it. Now that you are aware of these things, all you need to do is to keep these things in mind and start training your dog. It takes time to achieve the desired results but always remember to give tender loving care to your dog.

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