Dog Training Methods Explained

Most dog owners like the idea of having a well-trained, well-behaved dog. A dog who comes when you call and who walks calmly at your side is definitely preferable to a dog who runs away from you or drags you down the street when you’re trying to go for a walk.

Not only is it embarrassing when your dog won’t behave, but there are safety issues involved when your dog won’t listen to you. If you are interested in training your dog, there are several different dog training methods that are normally used. Some are more popular than others right now.

1. Traditional Dog Training

Traditional dog training, also known as the Koehler Method, was pioneered prior to World War I by Col. Konrad Most. It was used to train dogs for the military. After the war this method became very popular with dog trainers and became the standard way to train dogs. It became popular with the general public when William Koehler published a book titled “The Koehler Method of Dog Training” which is still in print today.

If you took a dog training class during most of the 20th century, it’s likely that you and your dog were taught using this method. Traditional dog training uses a choke collar and relies on corrections and punishment to train the dog. It also uses negative reinforcement to train the dog. This means that your dog learns to do what you want in order to stop something unpleasant from occurring. For instance, you can teach your dog to sit by pushing down on his rear. Your dog will sit to avoid the pressure on his hips.

The pressure on his hips is unpleasant so he sits to get away from the pressure. This is negative reinforcement when a dog does something to make something unpleasant stop happening. Traditional dog training is still used today, though it is not nearly as popular as it once was. Critics dislike it because some of the training can have unintended consequences, and they claim that tools such as the choke or slip collar are misused too often.

2. Positive Reinforcement

In the middle of the 20th century another dog training method was formulated based on positive reinforcement. This method was also used by trainers with the Navy to train dolphins with great success and then applied to dogs. It wasn’t until the 1990s that it began to be popular with the dog-owning public. Positive reinforcement relies on praise and rewards to encourage a dog to want to do what you want.

Punishment and negative reinforcement are not used with this dog training method. When your dog behaves the way you want, you reward him immediately and praise him. This lets him know that he did something good. If you wait too long to reward and praise your dog, he won’t know why you are rewarding or praising him. This means that timing is very important with this method.

Clicker training is one form of positive reinforcement. This clicker is used to “mark” the desired behavior so your dog knows he did something you like. People who use positive reinforcement like it because it is easy for anyone to use this method and it is fun for the owner and the dog.

The method can be used to teach obedience as well as to work on behavior problems. Critics claim that positive reinforcement can rely too much on treats and that when you leave off the treats the dog loses interest in doing what you want. Of course, when training with treats you have to gradually teach your dog to wait longer and longer for his reward. Positive reinforcement is a very popular dog training method at the moment.

3. Dog Whispering

Dog whispering as a training approach has been made popular by trainer Cesar Millan through his television program The Dog Whisperer. The method originated with others and is based on canine ethology, or the study of canines in the wild. According to this theory, dogs are descended from wolves and they continue to display certain instincts and inherited behaviors even when living with humans in the home. In order to successfully live with your dog, you need to understand these behaviors and make yourself the leader of the dog’s pack, or the “alpha.”

Trainers and people who practice dog whispering claim that this approach allows the owner to communicate effectively with their dog and to put a stop to problem dog behaviors. However, there are many critics of dog whispering. They point out that science does not support dog whispering. Dog whispering claims that wolf packs are based on a dominance model for the wolf hierarchy. In fact, the wolf pack seems to be based on a family model, with a mother and father wolf and younger wolves acting as subordinates.

This undermines a dominance theory for the wolf pack and removes the need for an “alpha.” It requires, instead, a parental model. Dog whispering is also noticeably lacking a way to train dogs in obedience. It focuses instead on problem behaviors. Critics also claim that dog whispering tends to be very violent. Critics also claim that while an experienced trainer such as Cesar Millan can make dogs behave, as soon as he leaves it’s likely that the dogs he works with revert back to their old problem behaviors with their owners.

4. Mix and Match Techniques

For most people dog training is a matter of using what works. Even when you sign up for a dog training class you will probably find that your trainer uses a combination of dog training techniques to teach different lessons, according to what they have found is most effective.

For instance, there are several different ways to teach a dog to sit. If one way doesn’t work, your trainer will probably have you try a different approach. Even trainers who use traditional dog training methods are usually not opposed to giving dogs treats as a reward. Training dogs requires some degree of pragmatism.

Dogs and people are living beings and we aren’t theories. We want to learn and teach our dogs the commands they need to know. There is nothing wrong with mixing and matching different theories. The more you know about training dogs, the greater your selection when it comes to teaching different commands. So, don’t be afraid to try different approaches. You can be creative when working with your dog.

These are the basic dog training methods being used today, alone and mixed together. When you talk to a dog trainer you can ask them what training method they use and you will be able to place them somewhere according to these categories. Y

ou can decide which kind of training sounds most appealing to you. Some dogs do better with certain kinds of training. Most dogs enjoy positive reinforcement training, though some dogs to like the very regimented style of traditional dog training. Try different techniques and see what you and your dog prefer.

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