Page 320 - The Complete Dog Breed Book Choose the Perfect Dog for You, New Edition (DK)

320 C ARE AND TR AINING

TRAINING YOUR DOG

To enjoy spending time with your dog, both in the house and
outdoors, you need to train him to be well behaved. Training
strengthens the bond between the two of you and provides your
dog with some of the mental stimulation he craves. If you learn
how to communicate with your dog and read his body language,
it will make teaching him much easier and more satisfying.

Communicating with your dog INVITING GESTURE
Dogs and people have very different ways of communicating Facing your dog and crouching
with each other. Although dogs become quite good at down with open arms is a
positive signal. Anytime you
interpreting what people mean, successful training face your dog directly, you are
depends on people learning to “talk dog.” inviting interaction.
A dog does not understand language; he
merely responds to different sounds. “Lie” wrong and that treats and attention usually follow a cheerful
and “down” may mean the same thing to tone. Most important of all is body language. Eye contact is a
humans, but they sound very different to dogs. vital part of communicating with your dog, but remember
So you should choose a simple verbal cue for that a prolonged stare can be seen as a threat. Dogs do not
each command and stick to it. Tone of voice also immediately understand hand movements, such as pointing;
matters; puppies learn quickly that a low, they have to learn to make an association between what
growly voice means they are doing something your hand does and what they must do to earn a reward.

HAND SIGNALS
Your dog will probably recognize your
hand signals before he learns what
the voice cue means. It is important
to be as consistent with your hand
signals as with your voice cues.

VOICE CUES
With repetition, your dog learns that certain words mean
he should perform certain behaviors. A good test to see if
your dog has learned the voice cue properly is to see if he
will respond to your voice even if you turn your back to him.

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