Reward training is a good, incentive-based training method that can be used on all dogs; however, it can be especially useful on smaller breeds who are too little to use more insensitive types of training, such as the choke collar method. Reward training is used extensively as a wonderful method of training for many types of dogs, such as police dogs and Hollywood film dogs. However, you do not have to have a K-9 or a Lassie in order to use this method. It is a good idea for normal, average housedogs to learn the fundamentals of obedience. This makes for happier pets and people, and reward training is a great way of doing this.
Reward training is basically a system of "train and treat," in which dogs are given some type of treat or praise after accomplishing a training task, such as sitting. In essence, they are rewarded for their obedience. You can teach your dog to follow almost any command using this method. It is as simple as finding a way of relating your dog's obedience with a treat using constant and consistent reinforcement of a command. For example, to teach your dog to sit, you would consistently hold a treat over his head while repeating "sit" over and over again. Once your dog sits, give him his rewards and some much-loved praise, and eventually your dog will associate the word "sit" with a reward.
Clicker training is another type of reward training. Basically, one uses a clicking device of some sort, and each time your dog does something good, you click the clicker, and immediately give your dog a treat and praise; thereby, leaving your dog to associate the clicker with proper obedience. This will eventually leave your dog with the understanding of and the ability to react to the clicker. More difficult obedience requires much more patience, endurance, and time on your part. Many make use of a decoy in order to train their dogs. The decoy is used to make the dog do a particular trick of his own will, and once the dog has accomplished this, he is given a treat or praise, a reward of some kind.
This method is used a great deal in the world of entertainment. A very important part of teaching your dog proper obedience is to eventually have him obey you at all times. The best way to start training is in a quiet place free from distraction.
However, once your dog has learned his obedience training in this situation, it is vital that you take him out into public areas, such as parks, where there are plenty of disturbances around him, and teach him to obey in these situations as well.
Patrick Carpen is the designer, writer and owner of the website http://dogtraining.infobay.ws/ Infobay.ws is a content based, consumer oriented website that provides professionally researched, and up to the minute content on selected subjects.