Training your dog can be an endlessly fascinating and potentially rewarding task that will pay off a lot in the long run-or it can be a thoroughly frustrating venture that will turn out to be a huge waste of time, money and effort.
What is surprising is that while you may be inclined to think that the results of training your pet has everything to do with the behavior and actions of your dog, the fact of the matter is that any results that you will achieve-whether positive or negative-is largely due to your own effectiveness as a trainer.
There are right ways and wrong ways to train your dog, believe it or not, and knowing which is which will go a long way in ensuring favorable results.
One of the most common mistakes that aspiring trainers commit is treating their pets as if they were human beings-albeit with a little less mental capacity.
While it is true that dogs on the whole are remarkably intelligent creatures and are capable at times of displaying strikingly human like characteristics, you cannot really expect them to understand and consequently behave as humans do.
To expect this of them is really quite futile and will only lead to a lot stress and frustration on your part.
It has been said that dogs are akin to a two-year-old human child in terms of brain development and mental capacity.
Nevertheless, there are still many fundamental differences-particularly in the areas of understanding and reasoning-that will never be surmounted.
The earlier you come to grips with the fact that you are dealing with an animal and tailor your subsequent training efforts with this realization in mind, the more stress free and effective your training will ultimately be.
As you can imagine given the level and breadth of a dog's mental capacity, it takes someone with immense reserves of patience in order to train them in the proper manner.
This is an area where so many aspiring dog trainers often fail.
Many people simply do not have the capacity for patience and persistence that is required to be a successful dog trainer.
Lack of patience on the part of the trainer is actually one of the reasons why so many gravitate towards less favorable methods of training their dogs.
Impatience towards the dog is most often manifested in a lack of interest in training them further, but a far more damaging and disturbing consequence is when it leads to physically punishing the dog.
You have to realize that dogs, like most animals, will instinctively flee from the threat of any physical pain.
If they are on the receiving end of this punishment from you they will not understand why they are being subjected to this and will most likely cower in fear rather than modify their behavior to avoid further punishment.
Aside from the moral issues that this brings up, this is why physical punishment is not considered an effective training method by any means.