Retraining Dogs

Dogs are best trained by repetition. Even when dog training is done by a professional, it does not guarantee your dog will remain trained and not revert back to a behavior or set of behaviors you don’t partially care for. If you are not putting daily retraining or repetition into your dog’s schedule, don’t expect your dog to retain the commands and training he once learned. In order for your dog to be obedient, retraining a trained dog should be ongoing.

Simple Tips on Retraining Dogs:

• • Reinforce the desired behavior(s) by continually repeating the command over and over again with consistency and use rewards (for more information on reward training, click here). Whether those rewards are verbal, or a yummy treat, their favorite toy, or a clicker, rewarding when training is essential. Also essential is maintaining praise and discipline.
  • Start by teaching one command a day, reteach it daily, until the behavior is learned, and then add another command to it. Repeat, until the basic commands (sit, stay, heel, come) are learned and then move on to the more advanced commands.
  • Incorporate the desired behaviors into your daily life. Practice commands whenever you can and in a variety of places such as your kitchen, getting your mail, at the dog park, when walking your dog.

When learning how to train a dog, many people start off with good intentions and train consistently. After a while, they think that a daily retraining session is unnecessary because the dogs exhibit the desired behavior for the short-term. Dogs need time and repetition to learn and retraining dogs is a training process that should go on throughout the life of your dog.

What you are looking to accomplish when retraining your dog is to establish trust between you and your dog and the ability to take your dog anywhere with you with confidence in their ability to follow your commands.