How to Train a French Bulldog
Dog training is the responsibility of every fur parent and should be part of any dog’s life no matter the breed. This does not only provide a stronger dog-dog owner relationship, but also allows your fur baby to grow disciplined and well-balanced. When a dog is trained well, it is easier to bring it into trips and vacations with you because you can have assurance that it will behave and won’t pose as a threat to other people.
Dog training differs across dog breeds and the intensity is highly dependent on their temperament. You are lucky if you have a French Bulldog because although they can be stubborn at times, they are extremely smart and are even considered to be the smartest of the bulldog breeds. They can get into the routine of obedience training which would be highly effective especially if you start them young. Like all dog breeds, French Bullies need to be trained as young as possible which includes house breaking them as early as 12 weeks of age.
The key of an effective training among dog breeds is consistency and this is not different among French Bullies. It is also ideal if you’re going to use positive reinforcement training and the right amount of “discipline” for correction of bad behavior. Note that discipline doesn’t equate to shouting, hitting your pet dog, or even cursing it when the training doesn’t go well. This means using firm voice and body language to know that you are not happy with a specific action. Hurting your French Bully won’t teach it a lesson. It would just encourage more bad behaviors in the future.
You can start training your French Bully by teaching it to respond to simple commands such as sit, stand, roll over, fetch, and even stop. Keep the command simple to not confuse your dog. Accompany it with gestures to deliver your point. For instance, if you want to teach it to sit, guide its rear on how to do it together with the command and overtime you’ll find that it would just respond on its own. Provide it with treats, praises, and rewards for good behavior. The gesture doesn’t need to be big given that your dog is a simple creature by nature. High-quality kibble would work as treats while good words accompanied by scratches would be a good reward. When imposing a discipline, you should be equally firm in telling it to stop including the facial impression so your Bully wouldn’t get mixed signals. When playing and it accidentally does something that equates to bad behavior, immediately stop the play to teach it that you are not pleased. By taking away its fun, your Bully would associate that to a punishment, encouraging it to not repeat the same bad behavior in the future. If you want, you could also incorporate clicker training in your pet for maximum results.
French Bulldogs are great house dogs. They are friendly, smart, and affectionate. With the right training, you could help it achieve its maximum potential.
