You must remember that patience is your biggest virtue when dog training. Fear of punishment will simply make your dog confused. Your dog will get the message soon enough that he has exhibited unwanted behaviour if you simply ignore him. He might still do it again but this is where you patience and consistency comes in, eventually he wont do it. Your dog just wants to please you and this is the key to him learning how to obey you.

Training should be something that you and your dog look forward to, it should never be boring. Bearing this in mind you should limit training periods to no more than about 15 minutes a day. Initially you should use a quiet area of your home or garden and start with basic commands like heel, sit, stay and come. Ignore incorrect behaviour but immediately praise the right behaviour. Follow up the praise with a small treat. I emphasise the word 'small' because you don't want to make your pooch fat in the process. Persevere with these four commands, move on only when your dog obeys every time

As your dog begins to master these commands you should continue to praise him instantly but delay the giving of a treat. As time passes he will execute the command with no treat at all Also go to louder busier places where your dog will have to concentrate more to obey your commands.

Many owners go wrong in interpreting 'instant positive reinforcement'. Instant in this context means within 2 seconds of the action. Any longer and your dog will fail to connect the action with the reinforcement. It is so easy to confuse your dog if you are slow with the encouragement. For example, suppose you are teaching the 'Sit' command. An untrained dog when first learning the 'Sit' command will will sometimes sit and then stand almost immediately afterwards. A slow praise could reinforce the stand rather than the sit in this case. So be careful!

Only when your dog has mastered the four basic commands in all situations should you move on to other commands.

Finally you have to be consistent. If more than one person in the family is training the dog then they should all agree on the commands and the general approach to the training.