While potty training is reportedly tough with this breed, training a basset hound with positive reinforcement along with gentle and patient handling can help you obtain desirable dog training result. In positive reinforcement, you use something in the situation in the hopes of motivating the pet to repeat the behavior. Reinforcement could be toys, praise, time to play and not surprisingly, the most widely used, the treats.

Rewarding your furry friend with that tasty small pieces of food whenever he did something correct can certainly help him figure out that he gets good things for following your commands. It will also help him associate the command with the deed.

When training using treats, it is advisable to keep the treat away from your pet’s sight instead of showing it to him. For example the lesson for the day is sit. One method is to hold a treat in front of your pet’s nose and then slowly move your hands upward so that he will follow it. But rather than holding it with your fingers, it is better to keep the treat in your fist so that he can only smell it but not see it. Though it’ll cause him to wonder if there’s really a treat inside, he’ll still be motivated to obey. The process can help him avoid becoming food dependent.

Food treats should  be truly rewarding for your pet – liver, cheese or hotdog are usually favored by dogs of all sizes. Make sure that treats won’t cause  health risks and remember not to use them as replacement for staple food.

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