Helpful Ideas For Improving Your Dog's Retention

As all dog owners know, training a dog is fun yet challenging at times, particularly if you have never done it before. Although many dogs respond well to simple obedience training when the right training principles are applied and they often get the hang of new commands after just a few repetitions you may feel that you need to improve your dog's retention a little during training. Why not try following some of these suggestions.

Always use the same commands. Have a concrete set of commands established and always use the same word or phrase for each command so that your dog doesn't become confused.

Establish one person to do the training. Make sure that only one person (the “alpha” of the family) does the training. Other family members can join in once your dog has mastered the basics.

Deliver training sessions in manageable 10-15 minute slots rather than forcing your dog to get through an hour long session once a day. Dogs will probably only focus on a repetitive training session for 15 minutes or so at a time and so several shorter sessions are much better for their concentration.

Dogs like to have fun whilst training. If your dog enjoys the training, he will be more likely to engage with you and remember what he has been taught.

Rewards are the quickest way of teaching your dog a new trick or command. Once your dog learns to associate treats and rewards with a certain behavior, he will repeat the action.

It's not necessary to just use food as a reward. Try rewarding dogs with a chew toy or just a cuddle or a play if you feel they will respond better to this.

Start giving your dog basic commands whilst standing close to your dog. As your dog starts to respond more, gradually start to move away and add some distance between you and your dog

Be consistent. During your training sessions, do things the same way each time until your dog gets the hang of it. Doing things a different way each time could confuse your dog and prevent them from retaining the command you are trying to teach.

Don’t move too quickly - take your time learning each command. Even the smartest dogs are likely to get confused if you move too quickly from one trick to another.

Break more complex commands down into bite sized chunks of more simple commands. Once your dog has mastered these then you can begin to put these together to form the more complicated sequence.

Training a dog does not have to be scary - If you are consistent in your training methods, your dog is far more likely to enjoy the training sessions and to retain the training you have taught him. This can save you hours of tears and frustration!