TRAINING Your dog: Train obedience with simple commands like ‘Come, Sit, Heel, Stay, Down, and Leave’. These basic instructions will keep your dog healthy and happy, and will ensure your sanity. Avoid using your voice if your dog is chasing cats; instead, start whistling. Your dog won’t know the difference, but your neighbours will appreciate the change in your vocal cues. Train your dog not to expect a walk every day; teach him that sometimes he will have to stay home and binge watch rom-coms, solo. Always make a big deal about your dog’s ‘good’ behaviour while at the same time ignoring or squashing your cat’s ‘naughty’ behaviour with unusual methods, like using ear medication to punish a cat that has misbehaved. Consider a muzzle for your dog when you identify certain body-shaming habits, as they may seem adorable to you but are actually harmful to your canine. Teaching your dog ‘Speak’ and ‘Silence’ can be useful, and occasionally rewarding them with a treat will make training your dog more enjoyable.
Train Them Early: Always train your puppies young so that they’ll be better trained.
When training your pets, consistency is very important to success. When you train, use the same command and technique every time.
3. Rewards are effective: Food, praise, affection for good behaviour — better to reward than mete out punishment. Ditto for developing a special relationship.
4. ‘Hang in there’: Training is hard work and ‘special treatment’ sometimes interferes with bad habits, so, although tasty titbits such as chicken or chop won’t make new behaviour happen any sooner, be kind to your pet while you’re training it. Don’t expect too much too soon.
5. Keep Training Sessions Short: Dogs and cats have very short temporal sections, and should not be asked to pay attention longer than 10 to 15 minutes at a time, especially when beginning training, before taking a break. Sessions should be this long to start with, and then can be lengthened gradually if your pets are comfortable with it.
6. Train your pets by clicker: The original inventor was a woman who trained dolphins. Then people started using it to train cats and dogs. It’s all about training animals to associate a desired action with a sound that’s made by the clicker. Imagine your pet doing something fun, and getting the sound from the clicker; in time, she’ll want to keep doing whatever it was that caused the sound.
7. Command Authoritatively: Give clear, authoritative commands to your pet while training. Use your chin wag and a palm (hand or body-language gesture) to support your language.
8. Train One Response at a Time:Don’t try to teach your dog too many behaviours at once. Work on one thing at a time until that is mastered, then add more new behaviours.
9. End With a Bang: You end every training session with your pets on a high note (even if they don’t quite make it with the behaviour) so that they finish feeling successful and wanting more.
10. Find a trainer or behaviourist: If you’re still having trouble training or resolving behavioural issues, find a certified animal trainer or behaviourist who specialises in human-companionate animals.
However, this is only training, and that takes patience, time and, importantly, a positive attitude and consistency. That same positive reinforcement will help you teach your dogs and cats new things, new behaviours for sure, and maybe even a couple or more new tricks, and you and your animals will grow in positive rapport as well.