Common Mistakes People Make When Training Their Dog
One of the most common mistakes people make with dogs is not giving them enough exercise. Dogs who are cooped up in the house all day with no outlet will almost certainly develop bad behaviors out of boredom.
Not only are many dogs not getting enough exercise, but many premium foods are touting higher and higher protein levels, suitable for canine athletes. Dogs who are on diets too high in protein will have excess energy to burn. Before you buy a high protein, grain-free food, ask yourself if it's really appropriate for your dog and his activity levels. Is there a reason you're feeding your dog as though he is a sled dog running the Iditarod? Make sure you are buying food which provides the right diet for your dog's activity and energy levels or you will have a hyper dog with behavioral problems.
Too much energy, not enough exercise, the wrong diet -- these are just a few of the mistakes people make with their dogs, but they contribute to dogs which are hard to train.
In training, make sure you don't accidentally reward bad behavior. For instance, don't soothe a puppy who throws a tantrum in his crate. Don't pet a dog who jumps on you. If your dog is barking don't give him a treat to shut-him-up. This will only increase this bad behavior because you are rewarding it.
On the other hand, don't accidentally punish good behaviors. For example, if you see that your dog is misbehaving, for example: digging a hole in the garden, and you say "Come" and then when he obediently comes to you, you scold him, he will think he is being scolded for coming, and not for digging the hole in your rose patch. So in the future he will be less likely to obey the "Come" command because you have taught him that it can sometimes result in punishment.
Another mistake many people make is to do things the hard way when there is an easier way. The easy way is to use good management techniques for dealing with dogs. That means to set up your house and yard in a way to keep your dog out of trouble as much as possible. Put the remote up high so your dog can't reach it. Put socks and shoes away so your puppy can't chew them. Basically, put everything away, all the time, so your dog can't ever reach anything! At least until he's past the age when he wants to chew on things. The same principle applies for many other problems, however. It's much easier to avoid some problems with dogs than to have to solve each bad thing a dog might figure out how to do. Here's a tip: "baby gates" are the answer to many problems - especially during potty training!
Other training problems are caused by things as simple as bad timing: the bad timing of praise, reinforcement, or correction. If you simply CLICK! at the wrong time, you can have a problem. You have to stay focused when you're training and make sure you're clicking and treating for what you want to reinforce and reward. Think of your CLICK! as taking a snapshot with a camera. You are capturing the behavior. So don't CLICK! at the wrong time and capture the wrong behavior.
Finally, inconsistent training can undo everything you've worked toward. If you CLICK! at various times, or if you don't practice steadily, or if you allow your dog to jump on you sometimes but not others, your training is not going to pay off.