In this article, I will share with you three important things when you have a dog that I learnt from Brandon McMilan’s Masterclass on dog training: build trust with your dog, exercise your dog and socialize it, and lead but not dominate your dog. I will explain why these things are very important and how to accomplish them. If you just got a dog or you're going to get a dog, this article is probably worth reading.
First and foremost, try your best to gain trust from your dog. Dogs will not learn from you if they don’t trust you. To build trust with your dog, you have to be honest. Dogs can tell when you are being honest with them and they can also tell when you are not. If your dog doesn't trust you then you will not be able to train them. To build trust with your dog, you can let it sit next to you on the couch, give it treats, or bond with your dog. Trust from your dog can happen any time. It could happen in a day, a week or a year. Your dog will show you when it trusts you and when it is ready to be trained.
The second important thing to keep in mind is to exercise your dog and socialize it. Dogs came from species that ran many miles a day. Let’s say that your dog is having problems and he or she is making a mess in the house, but it is perfectly trained, then most likely the problem is that your dog is lacking exercise. You don’t need a dog trainer, but you need a dog walker. Now what about socializing your dog? Well if you have a puppy and you don’t socialize it properly, then when it grows up it will be scared or aggressive. You have to socialize it with different environments, different people and different animals. If you have a rescue dog and it is older then it might be harder for you to socialize your dog but you can still make changes.
The third important thing to keep in mind is to lead but not dominate. If you dominate your dog, it is going to be afraid of you. When you lead, the dog looks up to you and wants to learn from you. If you lead but not dominate, then you can be much more efficient with your training. Be patient with your dog and let the dog take its time to understand what you teach it.
Today I discussed three important things to keep in mind when you have a dog before you start dog training: building trust with your dog as soon as possible can make training much easier, exercise your dog as much as possible and socialize it in different environments with different people and pets, and leading but not dominating your dog can make training more efficient. Hopefully this article helps.