The Importance of Dog Obedience Training

In many ways, dog training offers as much of a learning curve
for the owner as it does for the dog. When you first sit down to
try and teach your new puppy that using the floor is bad and
they should be going outside you may feel completely overwhelmed
by the entire process. However, the first step of any training
is obedience training. Instead of teaching your dog specific
actions, obedience training will teach them that you are in
command and it will also teach you the same thing.

The best time to begin obedience training is when your dog is a
puppy. Some may believe this to be cruel but when you take on
the responsibility of owning a puppy you are taking the mantle
of its mother. When a puppy misbehaves it gets a warning from
mum and when it does well it would normally get rewarded.
Because you are now the mother of the relationship it is
important that you take on this role and you do so as soon as
possible.

The best way to learn the very basics of obedience training is
by using a local training school. This will not only arm you
with the appropriate exercises to use when at home but it will
also begin the important step of socializing your dog with other
dogs and with other people. If you want a happy and friendly dog
then socializing is absolutely essential.

The two important aspects of obedience training a puppy are
reward and reprimand. Note that the reprimand you give should
never be physical. A verbal command or a noise of some sort will
be more than enough but it is also important that you do not use
your dog’s name as a reprimand. It may be difficult to get to
grips with this at first because if he or she misbehaves your
natural instinct is to shout their name. If you do this, the dog
will become confused and when you try to call them back to you
they may believe they are being shouted at.

Some obedience training professionals suggest using a barking
sound like ‘BAAHH’. You may feel silly using this in the street
but it is effective in the long run. If you do not feel
comfortable with this then you need to settle on one word that
you will always use. A word like ‘stop’ should do the trick
perfectly adequately. When you first start training, you may
want to use edible rewards combined with a verbal reward as well
such as ‘good boy’. In the end you will move on to just use the
verbal reward and that will be enough for your dog.