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.