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Tips on Dog Obedience Training
A little overwhelmed with all the info you have about training your dog? Does your pet keep looking at you with adorable eyes without budging an inch when you command him to come to your side?
Don’t worry. Your puppy and you are simply having some teething trouble. Here are some tips to get your started and keep you firmly on the path to canine overachievement.
10 tips for stress-free training
- First assess your dog’s inherent capacities. Issues like breed do determine what your dog is likely to be good at.
- Start with the easiest of commands (such as “sit”), moving on to the harder ones.
- Take baby steps. Don’t expect puppy to sit for 10 minutes. Thirty seconds should be quite enough to earn him a treat or a hug. Gradually keep raising the bar.
- Start out close. When you are introducing your pet to a command, keep him by your side, moving away from him subsequently.
- Get his undivided attention. If you are 15 feet a way and bird perches by his paw, don’t expect him to listen at first.
- Cut through the clutter. Once he gets better, introduce distractions to ensure he will obey in real-life situations as well. Try commanding him to sit while running around, or throwing a ball, for instance. Remember to NEVER frighten your dog.
- Change your location. If you are teaching your dog at home or indoors, take him to the park to test his responses. If he is not responding well, have a few training sessions in different locations.
- Change the context. If you have trained your dog in a very structured way, he may not respond to your command if the situation is different. Try also to change the surface of your session i.e. if you usually train on a lawn, try the cemented sidewalk.
- Mix up the order. Avoid following the same order of commands in your sessions.
- Change your mode of delivery. Tone is very important, so you may want to train your dog to respond to different tones and volumes of delivery. Changing your position will also help. So if you usually stand, try sitting or even lying down. A good way of testing your dog’s understanding is by issuing a command and then leaving the room.
Don’t undo it
A common mistake that owners make is undoing all the hard work of training by sending unclear and inconsistent messages to your animal in day-to-day life. This is likely to confuse your dog about what you really want him to do. Instead, keep reinforcing his skills by continuing your training through his life, and by dishing out the treats and love your pet deserves.
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