VOICE:
The tone of your voice will indicate your approval or disapproval of a particular behavior. The volume or modulation of your voice will also help communicate the importance or urgency in responding with a particular behavior. Never shout at your dog. This may scare a weak dog. A frightened or intimidated dog stops thinking, therefore, stops learning. Use of voice tone and volume is extremely important in training a dog. Train in a casual normal tone and volume, thus, the dog learns to respond to this. If the dog is taught only by shouting, then the dog will be conditioned to only respond to shouting. No one wants to be shouting inside their home at their dog all the time.

PRAISE:
Praise is used to positively reinforce a particular behavior we want repeated. We praise by saying, "Good" followed by the command given. By repeating the command along with the word "Good" you are reinforcing what the dog should be doing plus praising him at the same time. When praising, it is important your voice tone is upbeat, friendly and conveys satisfaction.

THE INSTRUCTIVE REPRIMAND:
An instructive reprimand accomplishes two things at the same time: 1) it informs the dog that the behavior which just occurred does not meet with your approval, and 2) redirects the dog's behavior to what you want him to do. Too many people only reprimand without redirecting, thus, the dog tends to repeat the wrong behavior since he was not shown what he was suppose to be doing.

KEEPING TEMPERAMENT IN BALANCE:
It is important that the dog's temperament remains in balance at all times during training. When correction is given, it is followed by praise when the dog follows the command. Again, praising after the dog accomplishes the redirective command, the dog will keep a good attitude about his acceptance of training. Then the dog will remain upbeat and positive about training.

ESTABLISHING THE LEADERS:
Most dogs will attempt to dominate whomever they can in their pack. Since you, your immediate family or anyone else which lives with you or visits regularly is considered by the dog to be the dog's pack members, he will tend to assert his dominance upon these people. Canine dominance may be seen in the form of biting for attention, grabbing onto clothing with teeth and barking or jumping up. This must be corrected immediately or the dog will feel he is the leader of the pack. This can lead to further problems with behavior because he feels he is alpha. Don't forget to give the redirective command after the correction.

CONSISTENCY IN TRAINING:
Dogs learn through association. Verbal and hand signal commands must be consistent throughout the training by all members of the family. If the dog receives different or mixed signals, he will become confused, anxious and will stop learning. Be sure only members of your family communicate with your dog plus they know what you are teaching and how to reinforce your training. Don't let strangers or occasional guests boss your dog around. One of the major problems we have after training a dog is that when the dog goes home, different members of the household use variations of the command words plus are not consistent about utilizing the same word for the same action required, in addition to this problem, some members of the family will allow the dog to disobey the command by ignoring the request and then the dog learns he does not have to respond when first asked, nevertheless, quickly.

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