Dog Training; What’s Up?
Monday, February 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Most people consider their dog as a family member. You certainly wouldn’t want to have any of your family living under your roof unless they knew the family rules and your pet is no different.
Of course we all know how cute a new puppy can be but picture that puppy at its full adult size and many owner will tell you that you need to start training at a puppy age. Starting at a young age means no un-doing of bad habits this is a huge benefit, plus a new puppy is much more open to learning.
The trick to begin with is to not teach your new puppy any bad lessons. This can happen in such harmless forms such as wanting your pet to jump on a couch to watch tv with you but not wanting him on the couch by themselves.
By not correcting a dog’s behavior to jump on you it is impossible for a dog to understand that he can’t jump up on other people as well. It is important to keep things simple and rules firm so the pet does not become confused.
Dogs are pack animals and they love to be led and usually look at their owner as their leader. It is important that you assert yourself as the leader so the dog is able to understand who is in charge and is paying attention to the commands.
This means repeating commands till your dog understands them such as: no, stop, off, sit, stand, down, heel, come and quiet. If you can teach your dog all of these then it is fun to go beyond to more complicated commands such as fetch, jump…etc.
All dogs need repetition in order to understand commands. This means that you will need to do 30 minute sessions, or more, daily until your pet understands.
Better yet most owners repeat the commands throughout the day such as making a pet sit to eat before getting their food or having a pet learn to stay down while greeting guests at the door….etc.
The joys of having a dog as a family member far outweigh the months of dog training. By making dog training fun both you and your pet will live a happy “obedient” life 
.
