Basics of Havanese Training
It's essential for Havanese parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Havanese and can go a long way in training him effectively.
Before you begin training your Havanese, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your Havanese to have complete trust in you.
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How To Bond With Your Havanese
Building a bond with your Havanese is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your Havanese home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.
When Havaneses are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners' training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your Havanese.
Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.
Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your Havanese is almost impossible.
4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Havanese :
- Spend quality time together;
- Take him out in the world and experience life together;
- Establish and promote a level of mutual respect; and
- Develop a way of communicating to understand each other's needs.
Building a bond with your Havanese will not only help you manage him better but will also make your Havanese calm, quiet and an extremely well-adjusted pet.
Love Your Havanese and He Will Love You back
Once you're succesful in building a bond with your Havanese, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.
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How Your Havanese Learns...
Your Havanese's learning period can be divided into five phases:
The Teaching Phase - This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Havanese exactly what you want him to do.
The Practicing Phase - Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your Havanese what you have just taught him.
The Generalizing Phase - Here you must continue practicing with your Havanese in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your Havanese out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you've taught him.
Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better .
The Testing Phase - Once you're sure that your Havanese has achieved almost 90% success....he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.
Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.
The idea is to test your Havanese to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your Havanese.
There are only 2 possibilities:
- Your Havanese succeeds!!! (Trumpets please!)
- In case your Havanese fails, re-examine the situation. Review and/or change your training. Then try testing again.
Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.
Internalizing Phase - Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Havanese does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.
Remember:
- Never scold your Havanese if he fails. It's not his fault. You have failed as a trainer!
- You must be patient and persistent for your efforts to show rewards.
- Appreciate and love your Havanese when he does it right! A little encouragement will work wonders for your Havanese.
- Havanese Training is easy when you do it right.
Learn how to train your Havanese better with this free mini course.
Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com
Training Your Havanese to Listen to You
Why Won't My Havanese Listen To Me?
This is a common question that most first-time Havanese owners ask me. Before I answer your question, let me ask you a few instead:
- Do you use cookies, collars, head halters or clickers to make your Havanese listen to your commands?
- Do you have to raise your voice every time you want your Havanese to listen to you?
- Does your Havanese always come or sit on command - anytime and anywhere you want him to?
If your answers are mostly in the negative, its time you seriously reconsider your role as a sincere Havanese trainer and an ideal pet parent.
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Get Your Havanese To Listen To You
Before you begin any training, you must first establish yourself as the "ALPHA dog" of your family. Your Havanese must know that you’re the leader of the pack and it is YOU who is in charge.
Here is a list of simple DO's and DONT's that you must follow if you want to be the Alpha:
- Always go out or come in through the door first - remember you are the leader;
- Always eat first - give your Havanese something to eat only after you've finished your meal;
- Don’t circle around your Havanese when he is lying on the floor - make your Havanese move out of your way instead;
- Don't let your Havanese set the rules - pay attention to him when you think fit and not whenever he demands;
- Don’t permit your Havanese to sleep with you in your bed - demarcate his sleeping area clearly.
Once you successfully established yourself as the Alpha, training your Havanese and making him listen will be a lot easier than you can imagine. Remember, if your Havanese does not learn to "listen", all your training efforts will be in vain!
Does your Havanese know his name? Does your Havanese look at you whenever you call him by his name? This is the first and the most critical step involved in Havanese Training. If your Havanese doesn't respond to his name, you cannot have his attention for teaching him any other commands.
To make sure that your Havanese recognizes his name, take a treat in your hand and hold it away from your body. Call your Havanese's name. He is most likely to look at the treat in your hand. Continue calling his name untill he turns and looks at your eyes. Give him the treat immediately. Repeat this exercise by holding the treat in the other hand. Once you're sure that your Havanese has learnt to recognize his name, just call his name and reward him for looking at you by petting or with a hug.
You must understand that Havaneses respond far better to positive reinforcement than they do to coercion or force.
Learn how to train your Havanese better with this free mini course.
Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com
