When you are training a dog, you must remember that dogs need more than just love, affection, and effective dog training techniques to become good pets. Training a dog is about understanding who the dog is, which includes their normal behaviors, their physical, emotional, and mental needs. It is a vital piece of dog training to create a happy and fulfilling life with your dog.

Dogs are more than happy that they aren’t people and would prefer not to be treated as one. After all, they get all the perks of being people but with out any of the headache!

Generally, it is OK to treat your dog like a person – but don’t expect your dog to act like a person. Dogs just don’t and can’t think and act like humans. This is especially vital to remember when training a puppy. Just because a dog isn’t like a human doesn’t mean he isn’t wonderful, but you do need to remember the differences with a new puppy. No matter what the breed, your puppy has the heart and spirit of a wolf buried inside him.

You also must bear in mind when you are training your puppy that they learn words through association and repetition. This means they cannot successfully obey a command until there is something they can identify the meaning of the word with. An example of this is teaching a dog to sit, you may say the word sit with a commanding voice but this won’t mean anything to them unless you give them a little help to get into the position and then this will need to be practiced many times. Understanding how your dog learns will help you to succeed in your training.

Without any training puppies will do whatever feels good for the moment, whether it is tearing into your favorite pair of shoes or stealing that awesome smelling steak off your plate. Part of successfully training your puppy and getting rid of unwanted behavior means providing your dog with acceptable alternatives and making sure they get plenty of exercise whether you take walks or toss a frisbee in the backyard.

There will come a time in the training process when you issue a command that you’re convinced your dog understands, and he’ll give you a puzzled look as if to say “that doesn’t mean anything to me.” When and why regression occurs isn’t as significant as the way you deal with it. When you anticipate ordinary regression it enables you to handle it and help your dog work through the difficulty. Both of you, dog and trainer, will commit mistakes in the course of training, and that’s all right as long as you try to discover the lesson it contains.

It is not completely understood why regression happens nor is it important to dwell on. The important thing is how you view these regressions. Instead of being upset over a set back use it as an opportunity to continue training, knowing that success is just ahead.