Today’s pet psychology goes beyond training your pet to do tricks and instead digs into what makes your pets tick. Understanding how animals relate to each other and with humans can show you how to persuade your pets to behave better and feel more comfortable in their environment.

Here are some pet training tips and suggestions for how to understand the complex pet psyche.

Train yourself first
Before you start any type of pet training at home, consult a pet trainer from a reputable obedience school. These pet training experts often have advanced skills that include more than teaching your dog to sit and stay. Many pet trainers have experience with pet psychology and understand how the animal mind works. For example, the famous “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan is a pro at understanding dog psychology and knowing how to persuade his clients’ pets to behave properly.

If you want to train your pet yourself, you might hire a pet psychologist to show you some dog training tips, read books on pet psychology and training, or watch pet training videos. Doing your homework and being well prepared for your sessions will make the training process easier for both you and your pet.

Create consistent expectations
As you begin to work with your pet on understanding their behavior and training, one key thing to keep in mind is consistency. Like humans, animals like to know what’s going to happen and don’t always respond well to change and surprises. For example, if you are helping your pet learn that they shouldn’t jump on people, you can’t let them get away with jumping some of the time or on certain people. You need to be consistent with your expectations and tell them “no” every time they jump on a person, including yourself. Whatever skill you are teaching them, make sure your pet clearly understands what is expected of them, and reinforce this with repetition and consistency.

Reward positive behavior
Another way to persuade your pet to learn certain behaviors or quit doing a negative action is to reward them when they behave in a way that you prefer. Rewards can be food, but they can also be a scratch behind the ear or time to play with a favorite toy. The secret here is to reward their positive behavior instead of focusing on negative behavior.

Think about it this way. If your boss yells at you when you are a few minutes late to work, it can make you angry and resentful. On the other hand, if your boss brought you coffee on the days you showed up early, you would quickly see the benefit of getting to the office on time and you’d change your behavior so you could get rewarded more often, maybe even with a latte! As you work with your pets, be on the lookout for positive behavior that you can reinforce with praise. 

Practice, practice, practice!
Persuading your pets to learn new behaviors takes time. (Just ask your mom how long it took her to potty train you!) It’s not always easy, but your efforts will pay off if you are committed and patient. You can take dozens of pet training classes, read every obedience book on the shelf and watch DVDs until the wee hours of the morning, but if you don’t practice these skills with your pet on a regular basis, he will never learn how to behave properly.

Be good to your pet and yourself and commit to a regular training schedule for a few minutes every day, several days a week. Animals enjoy the challenge of learning new skills, so your pet should welcome this opportunity to spend time with you working on a task.

Understanding pet psychology and how to help your pets become the best friends they can be is very rewarding. By investing a little time in the process, owner and pet can create a great relationship together!