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9 Dog Training Tips for Families with Children

Including family members and young children in your dog's training is crucial. While much of the focus might be on teaching your dog, it also helps your kids and family learn how to interact with their pets.

Start with commands like 'sit,' 'stay,' 'back,' and 'lie down' to maintain control and keep things safe around kids. Use treats or good quality dog food to reward good behaviour. Praise them with words when they do something right, encouraging them to do it again. Avoid using fear, aggression, or punishment. Dogs respond best when they're rewarded for doing something positive.

Here are some useful training tips for families with children to make training effective and keep the home peaceful when the dog is around. 

child and dog

Hold Training Sessions with the Whole Family

Organize training sessions where children are encouraged to participate. This teaches all parties involved commands, maintains consistency in direction, and instructs how to engage in behaviour reinforcement. It's also a chance to address specific concerns, questions, or fears. It's not uncommon for a child to be fearful of a dog. If this is the case, be supportive and patient.

Supervise Interactions Between Dog and Child

Do not leave your dog and child unattended to even for a second. All interactions have to be supervised to ensure safety and consistency. If you leave the room or something else has your attention, a dog may jump up, become aggressive, or try to snatch the food away from the child. Even done with innocent intentions, this could result in someone getting hurt. 

Teach Bite Inhibition Early in Their Training

 With children, a major worry with a dog is the child being bitten. Train your dog to control the strength of their bite with bite inhibition training. Redirect biting to toys and chews. Reward your pet with high-quality dog food from a pet store, but should your dog start to bite and make a fuss, stop the rewards and ignore them. A canine will catch on quickly on what is going on. 

Train Your Dog According to Family Dynamics

 In some households, you may want your dog to be more gentle and patient, while others have an active, outdoorsy family. Recall and leash behaviour are more important than ever in a more active household. When you get beyond the basics of dog training, you want to start customizing what your pup is being taught by how you want them to behave. 

Educate Your Children About Dog Psychology

There is a lot to learn about taking care of a dog. Part of dog training for a family should be educating children on dog psychology and understanding why dogs behave a certain way. This can help develop a more empathetic and effective response from children to dogs when there is perceived misbehaviour or a lack of listening.

Set Up Short, Consistent Training Sessions

 A dog training session should not last longer than 10-15 minutes. This ensures a dog's focus can be maintained. Create a routine around their training, with a set time every day you do it. Have the entire family feed the dog a regularly scheduled meal after training. With consistency, you further reinforce what positive behaviour is. 

Turn Dog Training Into Fun With The Family

 There are lots of ways to make fun of dog training. Use games to reinforce training, such as hide-and-seek for recall or obstacle courses for agility training. Fun activities help keep children engaged and turn dog training into a game. This makes learning more fun and will ideally excite your children at the prospect of doing dog training again.

puppy and family

Decide on Consistent Boundaries and Rules

Every house has rules for their dog. Be consistent with how you enforce them. Use cues and rewards to communicate boundaries. If there are rooms they are not supposed to be in, things you don't want them to touch, or behaviours your dog is not allowed to have in the house – such as mounting furniture – use redirection and positive reinforcement to get your pup on the right track.

Track Your Dog's Progress 

Every dog learns at a different pace, and even a dog learning slower will learn. Listen to feedback from your family members. If your dog training has weak areas, concerns, or challenges, address them. Monitor your dog's progress over time. Don't hesitate to use commands outside training hours to see how well your dog follows.

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