Obedience Training Dogs

The first and most important part of training your dog is going to be obedience training. This is because doing basic obedience training is the best way to create a relationship with your dog. Basic obedience training means that you’ve got a basic control over your dog. Remember that no matter what size your dog is, you want to be able to have basic control over him. Even small dogs can drive you crazy if they won’t listen, and it can be even more dangerous for a small dog to get loose because they don’t know any commands. Basic obedience training starts slowly, and moves to a place where you can train your dog perfectly.

The first part of basic obedience training is working with a leash. Young puppies will try to chew on a leash, and won’t understand how to walk on it. So, you’ve got to show them. Keep the leash out of their mouth, and guide them to walk on it. They will soon learn that they are able to walk alongside you, so you want to be sure that you are teaching them to "heel" by walking right at your heel. Don’t let them get ahead of you, and gently tug them back if they try to. Keeping a short leash is the best way to keep them at your side. If they try to move ahead of you, stop walking and make them wait. This is a process that might take a long time, but if you are constant with it, you can train your dog to walk right alongside you at all times.

Next, you want to work on the "sit" and "stay" commands. Sitting is something that is easy to do with dogs. You simply hold a treat above their heads, and back the treat up over their heads until they have to stare right at it to see it. Usually this is enough to have them sit down, but if it isn’t you can gently push them into a sitting position, all the while giving the sit command. Once they are sitting, praise them and give them the treat. Sitting is usually the easiest thing for dogs to get, and some of them will learn to do it automatically.

Staying is somewhat more difficult, because you want to be sure that the dog knows what stay means. You will have better success if you can have the dog sitting and keep eye contact with him. You can slowly back away, and use a voice or hand signal to get him to stay put. Start with very small intervals, and praise him when he does stay. Then, you can teach him recall by saying "ok, come!" and inviting him to leave the stay. These can be taught together, and when you are finished, you will have some of the most basic obedience training done. After you have this basic base, you will be able to move on towards more difficult tricks and commands.