These key principles for successful dog training are essential.
1. Consistency is crucial. Without this your dog will be confused and you will be frustrated.
Dogs want to know where they stand and what the rules are. They love boundaries
. It provides them with security and predictability. If we are not giving them a consistent signal they won’t trust us nor will they respect us. Worse yet, they won’t listen to us.
If it is okay for them to jump on you except when you have your good clothes on, how will they know the difference. Either they can or cannot jump on you. They understand yes or no, not maybe yes or maybe no.
Photo by Eric Chan
When you ask them to do something you need to be prepared to follow through with the request. Every day is a training day. You will either train them to do something right or something wrong. Sounds like kids doesn’t it?
2. Patience and calmness. Dogs can read us like a book. They feed off of our energy and intent. They know what pushes our buttons. It’s called cause and effect. Their behavior produces a response from us. Either positive or negative. We either reward them with a treat or affection or we deny them of both.
Never work with your dog when you are not in a calm and patient frame of mind. Puppies are especially 
impressionable. If you loose your cool, they could loose their confidence. They are a mirror image of who we are.
Years ago I had a sweet little terrier mix that started to get upset and was actually getting sick to her stomach. This was unusual for her and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until I had a hard look at myself. I had suddenly become very busy with work and was rushing around and under a lot of stress. It was my own state of mind that affected hers. It wasn’t directed at her but it was all around her and she reacted to it. When my life got back to normal, she stopped getting sick. That was a life lesson for me.
3. Time is the cornerstone to building a strong relationship with your dog. You learn to understand each other and to work and live together as a team. It takes team work. There are not any quick fixes in training. It takes time and energy.
I have had some amazing dogs in my lifetime and the ones that stand out the most are the ones I spent the most time with. Dogs can learn so much
Rudd Weatherwax trains Lassie.
from us just by being with us. They need quality time just like kids need quality time and the results will speak for themselves.
Dogs learn from our body language. Our movements, our gestures, our voice. We need to learn from them as well and it all takes time.
If you are consistent, patient and spend time with your dog, the results will be amazing!
Keep an open mind because they will teach you a lot about yourself. Our dogs will mirror us for the good and for the bad.
