Dog Training at it's Best: the Dietmar Knoechelmann Guide
(PRWEB) April 13, 2016 -- Many people struggle to train their dogs well. All dog owners know this first hand. Dogs have a character of their own. Like humans, dogs are best trained in the early stages of their live. Everybody that has ever tried to learn a language in adulthood can attest to the fact that it is much more difficult with age then when we were young. Dog Behaviourists have identified the same trait in our four-legged friends.
Being an expat and having lived in many countries around the world with my two four-legged Golden retrievers I have seen and hear my fair share of dog education stories, tactics, successes and failures. Apart from dogs trained for military or law enforcement, the most trained dogs I have seen are German hunting dogs. So I asked myself, what is the magic trick?
Dietmar Knoechelmann, a German hunter who has trained a fair share of dogs, to give us an exclusive view behind the scenes of German dog training and he said there are four golden principles to training your dog well:
1) Be consistent with your education: A dog understanding is very simple. He associates his individual actions with their consequences. So for example, if the dog jumps onto the sofa and is not allowed to and yet you speak to him in a soft and loving tone, he will associate this action with a positive outcome and will go on to believe that it was good. Being consistent in your messages to the dog is so important!
2) Show your dog the hierarchy: Dogs live in a hierarchy. They learn to place themselves in this hierarchy and will obey those he believes are above him in the hierarchy.
3) Make use of educational tools: Decades of the dog training profession has demonstrated the usefulness of tools in the process of training your dogs. For example, training your dog to the sound of whistles and different types of training leashes.
4) Have fun together! Enjoy the process of training your dog. It may seem hard and long sometimes but if you make it a fun experience for you and your four-legged friend, you will both enjoy it.
On behalf of the Dog-Owners Journal we would like to thank Dietmar Knoechelmann for taking the time for the interview.
dietmar knoechelmann, dietmar knoechelmann, https://www.facebook.com/dietmar.knoechelmann, +972 547677178, [email protected]
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