How To Train Dogs - Obedience Training

Posted by Gerald Njuguna on September 4th, 2007 at 03:56pm

The Basics of Obedience in Dog Training
Training basic obedience skills to your dog can turn out to be challenging as well as exciting. Confused on how to start? Do your homework . A student can only be as good as his trainer, huh?

The first thing you need to learn in dog obedience training is how to get your dog to pay attention to your commands. Start by calling his name then use words like “watch” or “look” afterwards. When you do this, the dog associates the words to a command. Once you’ve accomplished this and gotten his attention, you can now begin the lessons…

You want your dog to be able to pay attention for a short length of time. You can keep his attention by teaching him attention exercises. Try this example;

Hold a dog treat or toy near your mouth and then give him the keyword command. Every time he watches you, appreciate and praise him. The more you do this, the more he pays attention to you.

Try getting him to watch for at least a minute. Show him that he is doing a good job by rewarding him. This the best way that dogs learn.

Dogs get distracted easily because they have short attention spans. When training your dog the best thing you can do is get a place that is free from distractions. Also, the training sessions should only last about 30 minutes. Normally, if you exceed this time limit, the dog becomes restless and is easily distracted.

You might become angry and frustrated if the dog does not learn fast. Please don’t take out your irritation on the dog. A few things that you need to remember include:-

1) DO NOT inflict pain to the animal otherwise this will cause him to become aggressive towards you or he becomes shy.

2) If the dog becomes distracted, do change the tone of your voice (Not raising it)

3) Be consistent!! If you are not consistent the dog becomes confused as what to expect from you.(Just like children)

Teaching your dog basic obedience commands will make for a more obedient and more pleasant dog to be around.

Commands to work with

The first command you might want to start off with would be the SIT command. Use the word “SIT” so that he can relate the command with the action associated with it. When saying the word, push the dog backwards and he will catch on with your idea.

The second command is “DOWN”. You know that dogs do get hyperactive when they become excited :-D. A dog when its excited will usually jump on its owner’s lap. When the dog jumps, say “DOWN”. Don’t cuddle or pet them or get excited to see them when they are on you. Continue to tell them “down,” and even place their legs down if you have to.

The other command is “STAY.” If you have a very hyper dog this command is very good. There are various ways you can teach him to stay. Start by putting a dog treat on the ground. If he starts to move towards the treat, command him to STAY.

You can also put up your hand when saying the word STAY. As he becomes more obedient to your command, you then move further away from him. This will make him to become more daring and he might even take a step forward. If he moves forward, continue to raise your hand out and tell him “stay.” He has to realize that even though you are moving, he needs to obey your commands.

The next command to teach him is the COME COMMAND. As you can see, once the dog learns to sit down and stay put, he will need a way of knowing if its ok to approach you. This might seems confusing to the dog at first, but with a change in the tone of your voice, he will soon understand. Please do put a little excitement when saying “come”. He will pick up on it. You may also want to pat your leg when you say come.

The last command is STAND. Here, you allow the dog to get a little excited a bit but not in the pouncing way. When you teach him how to stand, pat your hands on your chest and, once again, put a little excitement in your voice, so that he knows he’s allowed, under certain circumstances. The dog will now begin to understand the differenc

Dog obedience training should start when you and the dog are ready. Just remember be consistent with the commands and please don’t forget to have fun:-)

To learn more about dog training, I would like to recommend you to Daniel Stevens, someone who knows more than me about dog training. He’s written a very detailed book on this which you can read more about it by clicking here. Customers are giving good testimonials about his training strategies and I’m sure you wont be disappointed. Visit his site here

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