How to train a golden retriever

The Golden Retriever is one of the best canine breeds out there: affectionate, friendly, patient with children, intelligent ... It is a furry that any family will enjoy, because it likes to learn new things, as long as humans do. let's take with a game 😉.

If we want to enjoy life to the fullest, there is nothing like having a partner as nice as he can be. But, Do you know how to train a golden retriever? 

Training technique to get your Golden retriever's attention

Use a certain word when you focus on teaching your dog something and when your dog pays attention to you, walk up to him and award him a reward along with a reinforcing word or phrase like "good, very good or good dog."

When a few minutes have passed, repeat the same action, but now with the reward that you will give in your hand and keeping a distance of 30 cm from your pet. Show him the award while saying the word to get his attention and it will go to you and you alike. Now give him your award for listening.

The third time you do it, you will stay at a greater distance from the dog, so that he has to approach you necessarily and when you give him his award, remember to congratulate him on his obedience.

With these simple steps you will get your pet's attention and now you can teach him other tricks, since They will know that after listening there is a reward that they can receive from you.

Remember that it is important that you keep a single word to get their attention and that this can be "attention" or "attentive", or any other word that you feel comfortable with and that cannot be confused in other commands.

Things to know before training a dog

To train a dog, regardless of the breed (or cross) it is, it is important to take into account the following:

• The same word must always be used for each order. For example, if we want him to sit, we will say "sit" or "sit" each time, but always the same.

• Avoid saying the name first and then the order. His name is a word that we will repeat a lot throughout his life, so it has to have a neutral meaning for him. Therefore, instead of saying “Kira, come”, it will be better to say “Come, Kira”.

• You have to take it as a game. Learning has to be fun for him. For this reason, it is necessary to have a lot of patience with the dog, and give him many rewards every time he does something we want.

• Do not mistreat him, or yell at him, or do anything that could harm him. If we have had a bad day, we will not train it, we will just play with it.

How to train a Golden Retriever?

With patience, perseverance and respect. Dogs are not robots, so they need to repeat the same thing several times to learn it. The sessions have to be short, no more than 5-10 minutes, otherwise it will get bored right away, especially if it is a puppy.

Some of the commands you have to learn are:

• Fri: This is a simple command that you will learn quickly, for sure. You just have to stand a few meters away from him, and say 'Come' while showing him a treat for example.
• Sit or sit: You can start giving your Golden Retriever a treat every time you see that it is going to sit down, and by saying, before it hits the ground, "sit". Thus, as you repeat it more, very soon you will be able to ask him to sit down.
  However, if you prefer to teach him the command in a different way, run a treat over his head and across his back, and with your free hand apply some pressure to his backside. Before he sits down, tell him "sit."
  
• Still:Is it difficult for a golden retriever to stay still? Well not so much. In a moment that is a few steps from you, take advantage and say "Quiet". Hold it there for a few seconds, and then say "Come." As soon as he's by your side, give him a treat.
  Little by little you will be able to get further and further away.
  
• Walk aside: pTo make the dog walk with you you can use any of these command commands: "Fuss, along or side", indicating the instruction that it must comply with.
• Lying down: sIf you want the dog to lie down or remain lying in one place, you have to say "down, platz or tumba", and point out where you should stay.
• Standing: chen you want the dog to get up from where it is, you have to indicate "foot", so that it stands in the standing position.
• Bring: sIf we want the dog to climb a wall or jump a fence, the order it must receive is “hopp, up or jump".
• Forward: pFor the dog to run forward, you just have to indicate "voraus" and with this instruction it will understand.
• Buscar:One of the basic instructions for training is “such or search”, Used for dogs to start tracking and get something.
• Release: sIf the dog has something that you want him to drop, you have to indicate “still, let go or give”, so that the dog can return the object that he has taken, but “leave and let go”, They are also associated with the animal ending an attack.
• Calla: chen the dog is barking and you want it to be quiet, you just have to indicate the instruction “silence or be quiett ".
• Barks: pBut if you want him to bark, the instruction to tell him is "bark."
• No: cAs an order to punish the dog, the trainers use "pfui, no or bad", to indicate that your behavior is inappropriate.
• Good pBut to congratulate him on good behavior, you can use "very well."

Other more advanced dog commands

Once your dog has learned the basic commands of your training, you can go to the next level of training and where you can give remote orders without having the strap attached.

• From distance: pYou will be able to indicate any of the basic commands without being near the dog, such as sit, come or lie down.
• BuscarFrançois Bard's pictorial epiphany e you can ask your dog to look for certain objects and bring them to you.
• Food refusal: isn this point you can teach your dog to reject food in the street that can be found during your walk, thus preventing you from getting sick.

Basically at the advanced level in training your dog will be focused on strengthen the communication that exists between you and him, since all orders will be executed without the need to be by your side or have him held by the strap.

Teaching hygienic habits

Golden retrievers are very intelligent dogs, so learning something for them will not be very difficult. Teaching them hygiene habits, such as relieving themselves, will require you to choose a specific place where the pet will perform them, as well as you will also have to choose outside the home where it will be.

If the site is inside the house, the best option you have to train it in with newspaper in the place you have chosen for it; while if it is away from home, the most recommended areas for them is concrete, earth or grass.

The most effective thing so that they do not make a mess throughout the house, is that it is a single place where you train your Golden, since if you change, you could be sending him the wrong message and you will have to internalize said instruction.

You will need a space that is not so large so that your dog can relieve himself and on the opposite side, place the puppy's bed so that he can sleep peacefully.

Above all, puppies of this breed frequently need to relieve themselves, so if you are taking him out for a walk, you should do it at least every hour and a half. As time passes you can do it less frequently.

It is important that you do a positive reinforcement with your pet when you teach him to go to the bathroom, which you can do through congratulations and treats, so that you make sure that he is understanding that this attitude of his pleases you.

Golden retriever behavior modification

When Golden Retrievers in general do not receive good training in their first few months of life, tend to have behaviors that are not ideal for this type of pets, so they will require that they be modified.

And although this is a job that does not have to be done by a professional. However, you should consider that modifying your dog's behavior is not it will always be possible, especially if they are deeply rooted in it.

The behaviors that must be modified are related to their behavior and are those that do not allow the Golden or its owners to have a normal daily routine.

Some of these behavior problems that need to be modified are:

• Aggressiveness

• Barking

• Stress

• Separation anxiety

• Stereotypes

• Fear

As we have indicated, these behaviors may or may not be modified, especially if the golden retriever has been a victim of violence, as it will be difficult for him to trust other people and even other Golden.

The aggressiveness of a Golden it may be due more to fear than to aggressiveness as such, so it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis of the reason for its behavior, something that can only be determined by a veterinary professional.

For behavior modification, the dog's animal welfare should be a priority, since otherwise, it will not respond correctly to the instructions you give it.

As part of such behavior modification, you will have to use positive reinforcement, since this is an excellent tool that allows you to reward the good behaviors of the dog and thus you will form an affective bond with it and possibly, modifying those that it has been doing wrong with its behavior.

A simple example of this might be the dog chewing on his master's shoes. If we want to change this habit we should reward him whenInstead, have her use her chew toys and not her shoes.

In the same way we could do when it socializes with other dogs, since in this way it will understand that this behavior is good.

To achieve the above, you must use classical conditioning, a type of learning where you have to use a neutral stimulus that can reflect an automatic response in the dog, after you have repeated the conditioned stimulus several times. When you have achieved it, that stimulus will now be the conditioned stimulus.

Thus, you can modify the behavior of your Golden, controlling the stimuli it receives and which is widely used in dog training to solve compartment problems.

With everything mentioned in this article, surely you will be able to properly train your golden retriever and enjoy very much the company of this, as well as surely he will do yours. Remember that you are now with a very smart dog who will not be difficult to give a lot of love and pampering, but you also have to discipline when necessary.