Tips for success

Here are a few tricks to help training work

Reward your pet as soon as she responds correctly. Giving her small, consistent rewards every time is the key to a long-term response. If you ask her to sit, as soon as her bottom hits the ground, treat and praise her. Eventually, when she responds every time in a variety of situations, you can wean her off the treats and only use praise.

Don’t ask your pet to do multiple commands before rewarding her, or you will end up with a circus animal.

‘Sit’ means bottom on the ground. ‘Drop’ means lie down. ‘Roll over’ means… well, roll over! If you ask her to do all of these commands straight after each other, and then only reward her at the end, this is what she will begin to do every time you ask her to sit.

Don’t be tempted to reward half-hearted attempts. If you don’t have your pet’s full attention, and she’s only doing things half way, take a break and try again in half an hour.