A Guide to Successful Obedience Training
By Jon Dunkerley (slaboflab)
www.web-rover.com
Showing off your dog in front of friends and
family is something that I personally love to
do. Having an obedient, happy slab of lab is
like having an obedient happy child. Have you
ever been in a supermarket only to come across
a screaming baby and a blushing parent? I know
I have, and my first reaction is to get as far
away from the disturbing scene as possible. I
have also been in the undesirable situation of
being in public with an unobedient dog and I
can say, I feel the pain of the frantic
parent!
The term, ¡§A happy dog is an obedient dog¡¨
is one that I really believe holds a lot of
merit due to its simplicity. If you have a
relatively well behaved dog, that interacts
well with the family, it is fair to say that
rarely will you or anyone else in that family
be angry or even worse abusive towards your
pet. On the other hand if your dog is not
obedient to a satisfactory level, and does not
interact well with the family, one can say
that members of that family will have a hard
time coping with the pet and this trend can
only escalate only leading to the eventual
departure of the pet from the family.
When teaching your dog basic obedience, it is
wize to make sure that you first have an
understanding of the art yourself. Like
people, dogs have unique personalities none of
which are the same, and it is a good trainer
that will take the time to figure out the dog
before trying to figure out how to best
approach introducing basic obedience.
Furthermore, there are many external resources
out there for you to take advantage of in
order to help you understand the art of
training. Books, articles, Obedience
Instructors, and the internet, are all viable
sources that you should take advantage of when
seeking advice, or just experiences from
others in your situation.
Below I have listed my top ten components to
keep in mind when working with your dog. I did
not rank them, as they are all very important
to keep in mind as they will only aid you in
bonding, understanding, and interacting
positively with your four-legged friend:
- Know what your doing ¡V Before comensing any
type of training, do your research first! To
offen, pet owners try to do all the work their
way, get frustrated and take out their
frustrations on their pet. Having an
understanding of the methodology behind the
many types of training, will benefit you to
know end.
- Consistancy ¡V Being consistent with your
approach is very very important when dealing
with your dog in any aspect of life. When
working with your dog try to use the same
approach each time. Changing training methods
mid session for example will only confuse your
dog even more than he-she already is.
Furthermore, set up training time at least
twice a day, and keep to these times. Training
time is important, the more sessions you set
up the more productivity you can expect in the
long run.
- Keep your sessions short ¡V The attention
span of a dog is frail at the best of times,
thus it is crutial to keep the sessions short.
Remember keep the sessions short but do not
sacrifice content.
Rome was not built in a day.
- Keep training sessions fun ¡V Dogs as do
people, like to have fun, and why shouldn¡¦t
they? Training can be fun for you and your
pet! Be lively, treat good behavior, praise
your dog to no end, make him feel like he is
the best dog in the world, even if he¡¦s not!
- Never punish your pet for what they don¡¦t
know! ¡V To offen, I have seen people talk to
their pet with the understanding that their
beloved dog is a master of the English
language, only to punish them when the desired
response is not carried out. This really
bothers me because it shows me that that
person would rather bully their pet into
submitting than taking the time to research,
develop and implicate an approach to help the
dog learn the desired response to certain
words or phrases. (No Hungmay Kowaisa!( Did
you understan that? Well you would if you
researched the Korean languageļ
- Train to your dog¡¦s strength ¡V As stated
above every dog has its own unique
personality, therefore we must identify
characteristics of our pets in order to take
advantage of them in our training sessions. If
your pet is very lively, take advantage of
that! During training sessions, be lively
yourself! Match your dogs enthusiasm, when
your happy, your pet will be happy and your
pet will be very happy come training time.
If your dog has a laid back shy personality,
take this into account when training. Still be
lively and upbeat as this will spark the
interest of your dog, however keep in mind
that due to his/her personality, displaying
comprehention may take longer due to the shy
nature of your dog. It is really important to
make a shy laid back dog feel super great
during training sessions as this can only
improve your chances of continuing successful
training.
- Incorperate training into your everyday
routine ¡V It can be very beneficial to
perform individual obedience exercises through
out the day. Simply by performing the sit
exercise while you brush him, or having the
dog sit while you attach his leash can help to
imprint the sitting position. Keep little
things like this in mind as they can only aid
you and your pet.
- Be patient ¡V Remember you are trying to
teach your dog! Your dog is a non-english
speaking individual, lacking house manners,
behavioral skills, curticy, do I need to
continue??
Take your time, play to your dog¡¦s strength,
praise, respect, keep sessions short and
compact, and have fun!
- Empithize with your dog ¡V The best example
I can think of for this suggestion, is going
to a foreign country and trying to comprehend
what people are saying. Somebody will come up
to you and start rambling on in a foreign
tongue and you have no clue what they are
saying. Your dog is in the same predicament
with you. When you start training your dog,
he-she has no clue on earth what you are
saying. How is he-she supposed to respond if
he-she doesn¡¦t know what you want? As in the
above example, the more time you spend in the
foreign country, the more familiar you become
with the language. You can apply the same
principle with your dog. More training leads
to more comprehention, leading to the end
result, an obedient dog.
- Reward good bahavior ¡V The best way to
reinforce good behavior is to reward it.
Others may disagree with this statement, but
through my experience with my own dog and
others around me, I have found that rewarding
good behavior can only aid in maintaining that
behavior. In my opinion, the best way of
rewarding good behavior is through offering
toys or treats. Praise is also worthy but
would you rather have an icecream cone, or a
good handshakeļ I personally love icecream
and would pick that over a handshake anyday.
Your dog is driven by his belly in most cases,
and you can achieve astonishing success by
baiting your dog with the occasional russle of
the treat bag
About The Author
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