Tips To Successful Training.

If you want to be successful in training your dog you have to remember four basic rules yourself:

  1. Develop an understanding of how your dog thinks.
  2. Don’t blame the dog for lack of communication.
  3. Have patience and consistency.
  4. Reward good behaviour and reprimand bad behaviour.

Never train your dog when you are angry or in a bad mood as dogs are sensitive to your voice and body language so remember to think carefully about what you are about to ask your dog. Never raise your voice to your dog unless you are reprimanding him/her.

Dogs do not understand our language and have to reply on tone of voice and body language although they can be trained to react to certain sounds at a certain volume. If you say “no Bess” with a gentle low volume it will not have the same meaning and “NO BESS” in a loud high volume.

We never advise you to use your dogs name during a reprimand, just the word “NO” in a very stern manner, as you never want you dog to associate his name with a negative experience always a positive one.

When you are giving your dog any commands stand up straight and give with authority and meaning, always remembering to reward good behaviour, you can do this either with their name saying “Good Girl Bess” and a pat on the head or a treat

Dogs need consistency in their training schedule and lots of patience from their handler. You must keep practicing the command until the dog reacts correctly without hesitation, although you must be repetitive don’t let your dog get bored, remember there are many ways to get the same result.

When learning the RECALL, this is one of the hardest things to teach your dog, you must never call him to you to tell him off as this is the quickest way to teach you dog to go in the opposite direction!! Dogs need to think that coming when called is a positive and rewarding experience.

Taking Your New Puppy Home.

As puppies move to their new home it can be an anxious time, for puppy and owner. This can lead to a variety of symptoms, amongst which can be an upset stomach, (don’t worry this is short lived) and whining on the first night. Please try not to respond to the whining as this will encourage your puppy to be noisy seeking further attention and taking them longer to settle when alone.

It will take at least two weeks for your puppy to adjust to their new routine and surroundings. This is a time when a puppy needs plenty of love affection, handling and reassurance.


This is a very important part of your puppy training. It is crucial that your puppy is well ‘socialised’ as this affects their behaviour as they are growing up. Instead of them being nervous, frightened or even aggressive, they will be well natured and friendly.

Socialisation simply means introducing your puppy to the world around him, all strange people, places animals, smells, shapes, objects noises and the list goes on. This should be done as soon as possible when they are at their most curious stage.

You will need to help your puppy with these new and exciting experiences, making sure you give him lots of encouragement and praise. Some experiences he will have to wait until he is fully immunised before you can embark on them.
All walks should be enjoyable and short for the first few months. Try to vary them to encounter different circumstances.

Toilet Training.

We have found that toilet training can be very successful if you use a crate/cage. A dog will learn very quickly not to go to the toilet where they have to sleep using the crate is a proven way to help you and your puppy develop this. People make the big mistake of buying a large cage this is defeating the object as the puppy can sleep one end and go to the toilet at the other end.

You must never use the crate to reprimand your puppy as this has to be a safe and secure environment for them.

When you go to bed put puppy in the cage telling him he’s a good boy and you will see him in the morning. When you get up in the morning you will greet him with a smile and a positive attitude as he is contained in the cage and cannot get to anything to chew or leave you little parcels all over the floor. All you the have to do is put puppy outside to go to the toilet whilst you clean out his crate ready for him to return.

Training is an ongoing experience for your dogs whole life. Dogs respond to love, kindness, fairness and good guidance, just as we do. They will always be more than just a dog, they will become part of your family and a friend for life.

Good solid socialization is the key to all types of training, this should be started by the breeder and continued by the new owner. Poor socialization can cause dogs to grow up fearful of other people, dogs and strange surroundings this is due to lack of self confidence.

Lets remember dogs are a pack animal, but most dogs need to be led. There are not many dogs dominant enough to be "leader of the pack". Whether or not your dog is dominant enough to be a leader depends on its owner and how they train their dog. Every dog whether it be a puppy or trained dog will test their new owners to see what they can get away with. You must stand your ground when it comes to discipline, and be careful not to undermind any other family members, if you did this your dog would start to climb the ladder of dominance within their home enviroment. Your dog needs to be bottom of the pecking order within its family.

Lead Training.

Do you let the lead go tight when you have your dog on the lead? The lead is the link between you and your dog. Dogs can feel the vibrations you send through the lead. A tight lead is one reason why dogs will aggress or show dominating behaviour because to the dog a tight lead means to be tense since the lead is "tensed" too. The tension message felt through the lead causes your dog to fight against the lead by pulling, straining and struggling which develops dominating and aggressive behaviour. By your dog being the leader out in front of you or held tight next to you, this causes a dog to be the leader of you. The tension tells the dog that you are fearful or nervous of something. Since dogs can smell fear pheromones and probably sense or smell nervousness in people, this can cause the dog to react aggressively as a means of scaring off the cause of your fear or nervousness. The cause may even be something you or your dog does not even see. If you generally have nervousness towards a situation, the dog may react towards it aggressively. If you have an aggressive dog and you fear or are nervous towards the dog, the dog will sense this and could react aggressively towards this emotion. Fear and nervousness from the owner and other people is a big factor to cause aggression while the dog is being held by a tight lead. In the training for protection dogs, they purposely use a tight lead to cause this reaction and with the owner pretending to be scared to promote the dog to aggress.

What you need to do is let there be slack in the lead and when your dog gets to the end of the lead, jerk the lead in a quick snap or yank while commanding, "Heel". Then quickly bring the lead back into the slack position each time your dog pulls and this will teach them to not pull you or let the lead go tight while they are on the lead. You may have to repeat this quickly until they stop pulling.

If this is installed in your dog correctly from day 1 of lead training all other training will follow with ease as this simple exercise is a foundation to all other basic obedience.

A Good Trainer is:

  1. Patient.
  2. Willing to spent the time training.
  3. Understanding.
  4. Decisive
  5. Fast handed
  6. Effective with training methods.
  7. Flexible.
  8. Emotionally disciplined.
  9. Can administer praise and punishment equally.
  10. Able to see where they are at fault
  11. And the list goes on.

Dogs are like people, don't get it right all the time, every dog has off days. Do you live your life in order to please your employer all the time?