6. Imbibing Obedience

Dogs are social animals and in the absence of proper training, they will behave like animals.

They will tend to soil your house, destroy your belongings, bark excessively, dig holes in your yard, fight other dogs and even bite you – almost all of these perceived ‘behavior problems’ are perfectly normal canine activities that occur only because of the wrong circumstances.

The secret behind preventing or treating behavior problems lies in learning to teach the dog to redirect his natural behavior to outlets that are acceptable in the domestic world.

If your dog is to obey you, it is important that you let your dog know who the leader is. If he is not reminded of this regularly, his natural instinct will prompt him to try and become the leader.

If and when this happens, a dog may be pushy and not follow the rules as laid down by you. By teaching the dog obedience and giving him things to do, he will realize that a human is the leader and he will be subservient, instead of defiant.

Obedience Training

Obedience Training is one of the best things you can do for your dog or puppy as well as your family and yourself. While these exercises may not solve all behavior problems, it is the foundation for solving just about any problem.

Training opens up an effective line of communication between you and your dog. Effective communication is important to be able to instruct your dog about what you want him to do.

You can teach them anything from ‘stay’ (if he tries to run out of the gate the moment it is opened, for instance) to ‘sit’ (refrain from jumping up on visitors) to ‘off’ (get off or stop destroying furniture).

Quality training is the key – it is a good idea to keep training sessions relatively short so that you do not overload your dog with information. So also, make sure that there are as few distractions as possible when commencing training sessions as you want the dog to focus on you.

Bonding with your dog is important and obedience training is a great way of doing this. Another reason why obedience training is a good thing to engage in with your dog is that it’s fun.

You get to take your dog out in public and meet other dogs and make new friends in the process. You get some exercise and also get to learn tricks and other things that are fun to show to your friends.

Patience, Patience and more Patience!

Patience is a virtue that will help you immensely with your endeavor. If your dog’s obedience skills are razor sharp then you greatly decrease your chances of having problems related to dominance.

Teach your dog all of the commands listed below as a bare minimum; these are particularly good for reinforcing your position as the person to be obeyed.

1. Sit and Stay
2. Down and Stay
3. Heel
4. Wait

Once you have taught your dog these commands, ensure that you use them on a regular basis. This is a great way to make sure that your authority is regularly reinforced with each command that you give.

Tackling a Non-responsive Dog

Your dog should obey any command within two or three seconds; if he does not obey you he is either ignoring you, or else he does not understand what the command means and requires further training.

A good way to figure out whether your dog is ignoring you is when he responds at times ad seems not to at other occasions. In order to correct him in case this is the problem, the “Alarm-No-Command” method can be used. Here’s how to go about it:

1. Use something to alarm your dog like a squirt from a water pistol or shaking a pebble filled can. Ensure that you do this while he is in the act of misbehaving or ignoring you.
2. Simultaneously utter a sharp growling sound like “Aaarrgghhh” or say a loud “No!” or “Bad”. Use a stern voice so that the dog recognizes the difference in tone from your normal or happy tone of voice. It is important that the voice correction is sincere and that the delivery is consistent so that the dog associates the harsh word or sound with stopping the behavior.
3. Then proceed to redirect your dog with the command.

Physical Correction

Physical correction should be used sparingly with any dog, and before you use any of these techniques make sure that you have tried everything else more than once!

Grabbing your dog by his scruff and lifting his front feet off the ground along with a verbal stern command or else rolling him onto his back by gently pulling his legs out from underneath him are some of these. It is also a good idea to muzzle your dog before trying these methods.