Thursday, March 10, 2011

Guide to Finding a Dog Trainer

Many dog owners encounter behaviour problems at various stages of their pet's life.

Knowing whether to go hunting for a dog trainer to help fix the problems is one thing, but knowing how and who to choose to help train your dog is quite another!

Training your dog is an important part of responsible pet ownership. While common puppy behaviour problems and housebreaking are discussed in many books and publications, here we'll discuss your options for basic obedience training and whether you want train your dog yourself or hire a trainer.

Obedience training can begin as early as three to four months if you train the dog yourself. Most trainers believe puppies aren't mentally or socially developed enough to benefit from group obedience class until they are six months old. Any sincerely interested dog owner can train his or her own dog, provided your dog hasn't already acquired a lot of bad habits.
You and your dog may want to attend a couple of lessons at a good training club. You may also want to arm yourself with a good training book.

Sponsored: Professional dog trainer in Durham.

Dog owners need to reinforce their dog's conditioned responses. Certainly the more practice and proofing you do with a dog, the more reliable his response will be. Skilled human beings, from tennis pros to typists, need practice to stay in top form. This is because all learned skills need reinforcement. So before you even hire your dog trainer, you need to be totally committed to the concept that, ultimately, YOU will be responsible for maintaining the dog's good behaviour.

When searching for your dog trainer, the best sources tend to be:

  • Vets
  • Friends and family
  • Owners of well behaved dogs!
Above all, you will need to be comfortable with whoever you appoint. Someone who you feel you can trust and who you are happy and confident with.

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Article distributed by Armin Phelan on behalf of petbuzz : : social media for pet brands.

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