Dog Training Tips: How to Train a Dog

Training your dog is one of those things you need to get right because a small mistake can end up being serious. It is a good idea to take the time to learn the proper ways of training your dog like dog socialization. Every dog owner out there wants a dog that is well-trained because it makes things easier for them. The good thing is it doesn’t take a lot to start training your dog, but you should be ready to invest time into the process. You will be motivated by the progress. Below are some great tips that will go a long way in helping you train your dog.

Keep in mind that the puppy is not a miniature adult – it is an infant dog

This is important to keep in mind when training your dog. This will help in adjusting your expectations when training your canine friend. You should consider their mental and physical limitations. Don’t worry too much because you are going to see some progress during the process. Know what the limits are. In no time, the dog will be all grown up. When you have the wrong expectations, you end up making the experience unpleasant for both you and the dog.

Dogs aren’t born understanding English

The new puppy you brought home has no idea what the word “no” means. You don’t tell him no the expect him to stop doing what he was doing. You have to show him what he should do instead. This is a good way of communicating with your dog. While your dog cannot talk, he can let you know how he feels. It is important to take your time and learn more about the dog’s body language. When you know that, you can know what he is saying. This makes it easier to communicate with them.

Training with high-value treats

You will be surprised at how harder the dog works when you give them a tiny piece of cheese, breast, or liver compared to the premium treats you bought from the store. These treats can work when they are in a distraction-free environment, but when the job gets harder, you need to give them the good stuff. It is a good idea to use soft treats when training your dog because they can chew them fast. You don’t want them to have a hard time chewing the treat when you are training them. It will take longer and they can easily get tired.

Catch your dog being good

It is easy for most dog owners to scold them when they are in trouble, but it is also a good idea to reward them when they are being good. Good training is about reinforcing good behavior and discouraging bad behavior. Always let the dog know when they are doing the right thing. You need to know the right ways of rewarding them so that they can stick to that behavior. This is going to be an important tool when training your dog.

Be quick with treats and praise

This is something that many people forget about. When you wait a few seconds to give them a treat after they did something you asked, it doesn’t do much to train them. This is because they don’t know what they did to earn the treat or praise. You might be rewarding the wrong behavior without even realizing it. The dog will always be happy to get a treat, but you will have failed in reinforcing the good behavior.

Training your dog is one of those things that can take time, which makes it important to be patient. Understand them and work with them so you can see great progress.

Nick White is the owner of Off Leash K9 Training. He has over 80 dog training franchise locations throughout the United States. He currently hosts the A&E show, America's Top Dog.

Richmond, Principles Of Good Website Design

Ideal website design entails more than an appearance that’s aesthetically pleasing. In fact, many professionals with varying areas of expertise are involved in each major decision- when it’s done right. In this read, we have discussed the basic principles of good website design to address what Richmond web design professionals deem to be the most vital aspects in creating a website that brings high conversions.

Simplicity is Vital- Less Is More

It doesn’t take long to do a search and come across a website that’s over-designed, packed with too many elements that are just distracting. Simplicity is the core of effective web design. It not only provides a clean and fresh design to make it easier for site navigation, but the aesthetics tend to be more appealing and are bound to stand the test of time. It is not only distracting but also unnecessary to load a site with design features that do not serve a purpose. What’s the purpose of your business site? The answer is to direct new business to your company. As such, you will want to keep your design simple so that people can find their way easily and naturally.

Aesthetically Appealing to The Right Audience

You have a certain market segment referred to as the target audience or customers. As such, your web design needs to be created to appeal to this niche. In this regard, you will want to research buyer habits as they can reveal the kind of colors, images, and other features that are appealing to the audience you are targeting. Every person has specific likes and dislikes and so, researching these aspects is vital. A high volume of visitors is not useful if they do not eventually convert and buy.

Innovative & Not Distracting

An ideal design entails natural talent and creativity. Richmond professionals in the web design industry know how to utilize whitespace. Also referred to as negative space, white space is an area in the page that’s empty and found between text, images, and graphic elements. Innovative implementation of whitespace and design elements creates a more appealing and less distracting design that guides visitors to exactly where they want to go. Just take a look at Google and Apple logos. They are unforgettable, partially because they are clean and simple. Low quality and cheap products tend to have noisy, busy, and ad oriented web designs that are distracting to visitors. Taking this route will have people automatically concluding that you are selling sub-par products or services.

Easy to Understand

Your website visitors should be able to easily comprehend every term, headline, or phrase without any confusion whatsoever. Any less commonly used or unused term is likely to drive them off, as they do not understand and might be getting into something they are uncertain of. Industry-specific words that are not used commonly will only hinder your appeal. Dense and complex content will never work, and calls to action that are either hard to find or unclear will most likely be skipped. As such, ensure all your content and visual elements are laid out cleanly and clearly, with all the vital conversion points visible. Any deviation only creates a conversion barrier.

Designed for Functionality & Usability

In web design, functionality and usability need to drive each decision and thus surpass any other consideration in web design. In order to get an easy, clear, and eventually, direct path to conversions, both technical and design aspects come into play. All links need to work fast, and every call to action and button has to be positioned properly, thus calling for as little effort as possible for visitors to move on to the next step.

And there you have it, the basic principles of ideal web design. Incorporate these into your website, and you will appreciate a higher conversion rate.

John Drake is the owner of J Drake Graphic Design and enjoys creating logos and designing visual solutions to graphic and website problems that clients can’t even see or didn’t know existed. Since opening, JDGD has been awarded many awards for projects and campaigns.

How Web Design Can Help Your Business

What is web design? It is the design of websites, blogs, and even sales pages. It focuses on designing web pages for mobile phones, tablets, and desktop browsers. And it helps to improve user experience by improving the appearance and layout of a web page.

Here is how web design can help your business.

Improves Your First Impression

Most people visit your website when they want to learn more about your products and services. They judge your business based on your website. Building a professional website improves your first impression. More people will trust your business based on what they see on your website.

Keep Your Visitors on Your Website for Longer

You have a lot of competitors. Most of your potential customers know this. Therefore, it is hard to keep visitors on your website for a long time. However, creating a more appealing website can keep your visitor on your website for a long time.

Increase Your Sales

How do you improve your conversion rate? Reduce on your bounce rate. Keeping more people on your website means they will spend more time reading your content. Therefore, they will learn more about your products. It is easy to convert these people.

It is Cheaper in the Long Run

Do not be afraid of spending a lot of money on web design, especially if you are committed to your business. Quality work works in your favor in the long run. Because you will avoid hiring a new web designer to re-do your website. So, hire a professional web designer to do quality work once.

You now know how web design can help your business.