You must remember that patience is your biggest virtue when dog training. Reprimanding or punishing your dog for wrong behaviour is completely counter productive. If you must show your displeasure then simply ignore your best friend and that will send him a clear signal not to repeat whatever he did wrong. He might still do it again but this is where you patience and consistency comes in, eventually he wont do it. Your dog lives to please you and it is this that unlocks the secret of successful dog training.

Dog training should be fun for both trainer and dog and should never be boring for either of you. Bearing this in mind you should limit training periods to no more than about 15 minutes a day. Begin in a quiet area of your home or garden with four basic commands, these are heel, sit, stay and come. Always give immediate praise as soon as he does something right and simply ignore incorrect responses. Reinforce the praise with a small treat. I emphasise the word 'small' because you don't want to make your pooch fat in the process. Do not move on from these four basic commands until your dog correctly obeys them every time.

When your dog begins to obey these commands delay the treat but continue to provide instant praise. As time passes he will execute the command with no treat at all You also need to go to more distracting places, louder and busier which are more demanding for your dog to concentrate and obey your instructions.

'Instant positive reinforcement' is very important and is where a lot of owners go wrong. Instant in this context means within 2 seconds of the action. Anything longer and your best friend could make the wrong connection or none at all. It is so easy to confuse your dog if you are slow with the encouragement. As an example, take the case where you are teaching the 'Sit' command. Dogs will often sit and then almost immediately stand again when first learning the command. If you are at all slow with the praise then you could cause your dog to associate the 'Sit' command with a 'stand' action. So beware!

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 members of your family are involved in the training then they must agree on a unified strategy.