Dog obedience training is a crucial part of your relationship with your dog. A well trained dog is a credit to you as the owner and will give your pet confidence in social situations and help him fit into the structure of your family. So all dogs should receive some kind of training and many people opt to do it themselves. This makes sense from a financial sense as proper lessons can be expensive. It is also less of a commitment when you are doing the training yourself as you can do it when you want or at weekends. However many people are less than successful in the training partly because the inherent flexibility of doing it yourself equates to unfocused training or because they fail to do enough research into dog training methods. This article will list five common traps that people fall into when embarking on obedience training their dog.

1.As already mentioned the biggest problem is not being committed. But this is not really a surprise to you, I am guessing as a lack of commitment in anything will ultimately lead to a poor outcome. Staying committed is about returning to what first motivated to undertake the task and then being disciplined.

Renew in your head why you began to train your pet. Imagine the satisfaction that you will get from having a stronger relationship with your dog than merely playing fetch with him from time to time. Consider the peace of mind that you will get knowing that your dog will be well behaved in the wider community.

Committed also means keeping the desire to learn. Read up about the breed of your pet. Find out what methods work well or what the dog is best suited to. Don't give up learning about the breed of dog. This will benefit your connection with the dog, inspire you to come up with new routines and make the training process easier.

2. No consistency in your actions. The biggest problem with this is that it may become boring and you want to move onto something else. You need to teach at your dog's speed of learning not your own. Repeat the same procedure over and over again until your dog gets the command. Keep it simple to begin with. Only teach one command at a time and don't move onto another command until your dog knows the command well. Your pet will also suffer from boredom at times so you should keep the lessons fairly short

3.Being negative rather than positive in your training methods. Don't punish a dog for not doing a command correctly or failing to understand what you asked of it. This is cruel to the dog but also confusing. Ultimately, pain will have a negative affect on the animal and lead to psychological problems. Results have shown that positive reinforcement, through encouragement and even a reward, is far more effective. Quickly your pet will want to please you and this will make training easier for both of you.

4.Being closed to new ideas. Don't stick to one idea because it was recommended by so and so who is a professional dog trainer or a best selling dog training book. All tips and techniques are not gospel and are open to modification or amendment based on your real experiences. You see, dogs are just the same as humans in that they learn at different paces and pick up things differently. As you continue to work with your pet you will get a better idea of the best and most effective methods.

5. Strive to get a balance between keeping the training interesting but stay consistent. Avoid making the training too predictable and dull. Think of things that can spice it up from time to time. This will always depend on how your dog responds to new environments but why not try moving to different locations for the training. Maybe try a touch of playing before the lesson begins and then keep the lesson short. Mix the peripheral things up but try to keep the core one command per lesson consistent.

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