MetroSniff's 5 Cs of Dog Training - Cooperation

5 Cs, cooperation, Fundamentals - By Staff Writer on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 16:17

It takes a village to train a dog.  Everyone in the family must, know the rules for the dog, actively participate, and keep the consistency of the training. If one person is encouraging behavior counter to the training the entire program will be lost.  Everyone must give the same consistent message to your dog.  The same goes for strangers.  If you are training your dog not to jump tell people as they approach to pet your puppy that they are being trained or ask them not to pet her.  While you might feel awkward at first it will be worth it when your dog is not jumping up on everyone that enters your house.

Get the cooperation of everyone by sitting down to a family meeting and figuring out the rules for the dog.  Everyone should agree and everyone should understand how to enforce the rules.  By making a list of the rules and keeping them somewhere visible it will help everyone stay on the same page.  If there are children in the house you should help them to understand why they must help keep the rules and you can use it as a way to teach them responsibility.  Get children actively involved in training and they will be more likely to cooperate with the dogs rules.