Dog Training Tip 101

Teaching Your Dog What "NO" Means

Dog training tip 101 is about teaching your dog what "NO" means. I have seen a lot of people walking their dogs and telling their dog "No" when their dog does something they don't want it to, such as barking at another dog, or pulling on the leash. The problem that I see is that in many cases, the dog basically ignores the command and keeps on doing what it wants to do. When I see this happen, it's obvious to me that the owner has not been taught what "No" means.

There are two different ways you can use to stop your dog from doing something you don't want it to do. Both of them require some training. You can, and should, be the one to do the training.

If your dog has gone through obedience training has been trained to obey the "sit stay" or "down stay" command, give them one of those commands. Your dog will either sit or lay down and you will have complete control of your dog.

If your dog hasn't had obedience training and doesn't sit or lay down on command, you can teach your dog what "No" means. Here's a dog training tip on how to do it.

It is best that the your dog has a training collar on, such as a slip collar, a martingale collar or a pinch collar, but the method will work with a plain buckle collar, it will just take longer.

One basic rule that cannot ever be broken is that you have to be in a position to correct your dog any time you give the dog a command, and "No" is a command. That means your dog will be on a leash.

When your dog does something you don't want it to do, you give a sharp "No" command, and give a quick jerk on the lead. That means you sharply pull the leash, and then quickly release the tension on the leash. If your dog stops what it was doing, you immediately praise your dog. If your dog doesn't stop what it's doing, you give it another "No" command and jerk the leash a little harder. You keep doing this until the dog stops what it's doing, and you give the dog praise for stopping, no matter how long it took for your dog to stop. If you keep this up, your dog will eventually learn what "No" means.

The philosophy behind this dog training tip is that in order to train your dog, you have to get your dog's attention. You want to make it uncomfortable for your dog when it does something you don't want it to do, but immediately be rewarded when it stops doing it. Timing and consistency are also very important. You must always correct your dog immediately if your dog doesn't obey a command and you must always immediately reward your dog for obeying the command. These are part of the three dog training secrets.

Once your dog understands what "No" means, you will be able to stop him from doing anything you want him to stop doing by just saying No.

A trained dog is a happy dog and has a happy owner.