Posted by on 4/29/2020 to

Dogs are not only great family pets, but they also have significant benefits for physical and emotional health. Having a dog in a family can help children learn a sense of responsibility and care.

Raising a dog to be an excellent companion and beloved family member is best accomplished by training with kindness and patience. When you bring a dog or puppy into your home, you should know that it can pick up on your habits and those of your family, both good and bad.

So, teaching the whole family to train a dog is very important. Here in this article, we discuss how we can involve our family members, especially children, in dog training.

Effective ways to train your dog

There are many ways to train your dog, but positive reinforcement is the method that most dog professionals agree on and is the best method for you and your dog. Reward-based training is much more effective (and humane) compared to punishing or scaring because it helps strengthen your relationship with your dog and increases the dog’s confidence. A dog treat pouch and dog training clicker are specially designed to help and facilitate reward-based training of your dog.

If you punish or scare your dog during training, it will teach your dog that people are scary and unpredictable, and your dog will be afraid or anxious. Dog training is a long process, and it requires patience and consistency.

With a dog treat pouch and dog training clicker, you can effectively train your dog by giving a treat for desirable behavior and the dog will associate the sound of the clicker with the reward. You can train your dog outside the house or anywhere by keeping the treats and clicker close at hand.

Teaching Your Whole Family to Train the Dog

A dog can live happily in those homes where the rules are clear and consistent, so your entire family should be on the same page for effective training.

Here are some additional tips on how you can teach your family to train a dog successfully:

Consistency is KEY. All family members should be consistent with the rules. For example, if you do not want the dog to sit on the couch, but your one family member encourages your dog to sit on the couch, it will create confusion for your dog.
You should call a meeting and discuss the rules with your family members. You must listen to everyone and make rules that will be acceptable to everyone.
You should positively teach your family members in “action steps.” For example, if your dog is chewing everything, the action steps you can teach are: One, you must first dog-proof the environment. Second, provide your dog with chew toys. If you see your dog chewing on his toys, press the clicker and give him a treat from the dog treat pouch. This will teach him that you like when he chews on his toys and will encourage him to engage in this behavior more often.
Lastly, if you find yourself without your training tools, just do the best you can. For example, if you want to reward a behavior and you don’t have your clicker handy you can still say YES and give a treat or if you don’t have a treat you can still say YES, praise profusely (I always say, ‘Throw your dog a party!’) and love on your dog.

Video: Training with a clicker and treat pouch Part 1

Video: Training with a clicker and treat pouch Part 2

About the author:

Kelly Moren of Kelly’s Dog Training has been training animals professionally for two decades – working with service dogs, working dogs and even the pets of celebrity clientele. As a pet dog trainer

and dog daycare owner Kelly is an expert at training dogs directly and training people to train their own dogs. She’s an active member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT). Kelly is a big proponent of life-long learning and giving back to the community. She has completed over 57 units of continuing education at the collegiate level focusing on animal training and pre-veterinary studies and volunteered her expertise to implement and refine standardized temperament training practices in SPCA shelters to enable more permanent success with placing shelter dogs in family homes.