Teach Your Dog Good Behavior
Do you have an unruly dog? Is he a master of selective hearing while you’re screaming your lungs out for him to “come, sit or stay?” Is he happily chasing a squirrel across the street with cars coming from both ways? It’s time to teach your dog good behavior.
You cannot expect your dog to heed your commands if he is not trained to do so and to do so consistently. You can’t expect him to understand those words unless you teach him what they mean. Dogs are smart, and they want to please their owners. They need your approval. It’s a win-win situation. [amazon_textlink asin=’B004J250K0′ text=’Teach your dog good behavior’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’animalbliss-blog-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’467eaedc-e73c-11e6-8bc6-4de73593da16′]. You’ll be happier, and he’ll be safe.
Obedience training is not rocket science. It just takes a little bit of know-how on your part, consistency, and lots of patience. Ten or fifteen minutes a day training your pooch will make all the difference in the world. It’s also perfect for bonding with your dog, believe me.
If you decide to go it alone at home, there are [amazon_textlink asin=’0316083275′ text=’excellent books’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’animalbliss-blog-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6caf2e4a-e73d-11e6-b357-8d9af3804b9d’] out there to educate you on the basic commands. Or, you might consider is taking your dog to obedience school, which is a very good choice. It’s your chance to learn from professionals and an excellent way to teach your dog socialization skills as well.
Teach Your Dog Good Behavior – A Few Guidelines
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency – Got that?
I can’t emphasize this enough. Do NOT spend precious time each day trying to teach your dog good behavior with the “sit” command, for example, and then let him get away with getting up and running away another time. “Sit” means just that. “Sit!” Expect your dog to make mistakes. Realize that it will take a couple of weeks for him to learn thoroughly. But don’t let him get away with disobeying you on a consistent basis. Otherwise, why should he listen to you? There’s a squirrel over there!
Not only do you need to stay consist, but your family members must learn this too. Your dog needs to obey the command from all of you, not just some of you. Be consistent, also, with the words you use in training. Use the same words for the same tasks each time. Don’t create the confusion in him by using an entirely different command for the same task. This is an important point for the entire household.
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How to Rehabilitate An Abused Dog and Teach Him to Trust You
Praise and Rewards
When you teach your dog good behavior, always praise your pooch for obeying your command correctly. Make it obvious that you are happy with
him. If you want to use treats as a reward, do so carefully. You don’t want your dog to be overweight! You might consider treating your dog now and then, instead of after each and every good job. He’ll soon associate the treat with the good behavior and be more than willing to abide.
If Fido is just not in the mood, there are too many distractions, or whatever, stop your training and try again later. Do NOT hit, scold, kick or yell at your dog when he is not complying. Doing so will only put a negative slant on things and will backfire on you. It is imperative to make this pleasant for both of you.
Timing
There are things to consider about when is the best time to carve out a time slot for obedience training. Try to find a time when there are no distractions for your dog. You want all his attention on you and what you’re saying. Later, after he starts to understand and have some success, then you can start to teach your dog good behavior anywhere, with other people around, other animals, etc.
Don’t try to train your dog when he is tired, sick, or hungry. He won’t want to listen to you, and you’ll just get frustrated. Keep it positive. Dog obedience training requires so much patience, therefore it is best to have you both in the correct frame of mind.
Please, never try to train your dog when you are in a bad mood. It’s not fair to the dog and can only backfire.
Everyone benefits when you teach your dog good behavior benefits. You and your dog will bond nicely, your friends and neighbors will notice and comment on your dog’s perfect manners. And, your dog will be safer and happier.
Stay tuned for more dog training tips in the future. Take care and, most of all, have fun!
(updated from a 2014 post)
Teach Your Dog Good Behavior, Obedience Training Guide Share on X
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Have you taken your dog to obedience training?
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Her own animal experience is vast, having raised and rescued Alpine Goats, Chickens, Turkeys, Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs, Turtles, Raccoons, Cats, Dogs, and even an Opossum and Bearded Dragon.
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Amazing post, Thank sfor sharing this artical. I am truly motivated by you for blogging
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! We are currently not taking our dog to obedience training as I am a dog trainer myself but we visit one-hour play classes two times a week. I believe that the most obedient dog is a happy, trained and well-socialized dog.
You’re right. A happy dog is an obedient dog. So is a happy dog owner. 😉 Thanks for all that you do!
Thank you for the great post. It is very difficult being consistent in a family. Someone uses one command to “drop” something and to get the dog to do the same thing its “put it down” No wonder she gets confused!
We need to make sure we do consistency, consistency, consistency! Very useful information thank you, keep up the great content =)
Hey, Caitlin. You are so right. It is difficult to be consistent when numerous people are using different words for different actions. Or when other members of the family don’t take training as seriously as you do. But it’s sure worth it in the end, to have a well-behaved dog. Thanks so much for your input. I just visited your site. It’s awesome. Do come again. Take care.
Hey Jeanne! I couldn’t agree more, “consistency” is really the key. Training our three dogs had not been easy but rewarding. However, one of our three dogs is really making his own rules 😉 Thanks for sharing, this is very informative.
100% agreed, consistency is the key! Based on my experience, some more “stubborn” and energetic breeds like Beagle or Jack Russell need more than other breeds, but with no consistency, even the most calm dog misbehaves. 🙂
I usually recommend dog owners to have always something to give to their dogs, especially if they are puppies, so they can reward their dog at any time and don’t miss the timing!
Sophia, Oh my goodness, I can’t even imagine trying to train a beagle. They’re so all over the place. lol Thanks for visiting us here at Animal Bliss. I’m heading over to your site now to find out how many teeth dogs have. Awesome topic.
This really wonderful blog. It’ll help me a lot to manage my dog. Nice job..well done!
You’re right, it’s so important that people train their dogs, at least to a basic level. Otherwise you end up frustrated and annoyed at the behaviors you wish you could change, and you’ve just made life harder on yourself and your dog. It’s not fair on either of you not to give them adequate training, awesome post, thanks.
I appreciate your comment, Phil. Often pet owners don’t realize the importance of good dog behavior. Thanks for stopping by!
Good behavior has its own reward. I firmly believe in this. Even in case of dogs, we should always try to teach our dogs good behaviour. Traning them in such ways won’t be easy and we need to be consistent in it. Great article, I learned a lot here. Thanks.
I really thank you for the valuable info on this great subject and look forward to more great posts.
I LOVE this post. So glad to read the great tips that you are sharing! Thanks “Jeanne Melanson”
Thank you, Charles. I’m glad you took the time to visit Animal Bliss. Come back soon!
I’ve been seeing dog posts on the internet that are well-trained and I personally wanted my dog to be trained. This tips you have in teaching your dog or training them is very helpful. I must agree with what you said that we should praise and reward our dogs when they did great on training or simply by making tricks. Giving them praise and giving treats whenever they did great will make them more obedient. And yes! I totally agree that we shouldn’t be hitting them just to make them do what we ask them to do, sometimes it took time for them to understand what we really wanted them to perform or do. Thanks!
Thank you for your comment and taking the time to visit Animal Bliss, Theodore. There’s nothing better than a well-behaved, well-trained dogs. I’ve always enjoyed training my own dogs and taking obedience and agility classes too. There is so much for them to learn! Thanks for all that you do with USA Service Dogs. Peace
Training a dog isnt always complicated when done the right way has dogs are naturally our friend. Thanks so much for sharing this
You’re quite welcome, Juliano. Thanks for taking the time to check out this post on Animal Bliss.
Dogs are definitely easy to train if you know what you are doing. But on one end of the spectrum, you have people who use yelling and scolding to try and “train” their dog, while on the other, you have people who overuse treats as incentive, which isn’t healthy either. You really nail the balance here, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your input, Heather. You’re right about there being extreme ends of the dog-training spectrum. It seems as though some people think that if they yell louder, their dog will understand what they’re supposed to do. It does take patience, and more importantly, the ‘trainer’ needs to be trained as well. That’s where obedience schools come in handy. I love your site, and I’ve followed you on Instagram. Peace
Very Useful Information..
Thanks for visiting Animal Bliss, Avani.
You make good points about patience and keeping it positive. Also, making sure they are not tired and hungry can eliminate unneeded trouble, as you share.
Good point Christina. A dog that’s too tired and hungry will be too distracted to have a productive training session.
However much I don’t want to admit it, it’s true that your dog can’t heed your commands if he is not trained to do so. It’s good to know that good obedience training takes 15 minutes a day and a lot of patience. I will be sure to be very consistent with my 5 month old lab. Thanks!
Yes, it’s true, Abelia. Training dogs requires a lot of patience and persistence. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. Come back soon!
I love this! I have been training my dog for a little while now and I see so much progress and improvement. With him, we had to socialize him and get him ready for being around different animals and make sure he is praised and loved on as otherwise he becomes stubborn and just ignores everyone! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for taking the time to check out our post, Larissa. It’s funny how training dogs can be like talking to a 2-year-old. If you praise, all (usually) goes well. If not, mayhem! I checked out your site and shared it on social media. Thanks so much! Do come again.
That’s amazing. It’ll help me a lot to train my lazy dog. Really thanks for this post.
I’m glad that you said to be careful if you use treats to reward your dog for good behavior. Not only can treats make your dog fat, but they can also lead to your dog refusing to obey if they don’t see a treat. Like you said, rewarding good behavior with a treat only sparingly will still lead your dog to associate good behavior with a reward without the other risks. Thanks for the article.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post, Hazel. I appreciate your comment about giving dog treats sparingly during training. Not only is it possible that the dog will refuse to behave if there are no treats in sight, but giving your dog too many treats can easily lead to an over-weight dog. Thanks a bunch!
In my opinion, obedience is the best thing that you can teach your dog. Like you say, you cannot expect your dog to heed your commands if you don’t train him. I would challenge every dog owner to take the time to train their dog obedience! It’s worth it!
Hey Westly. Thanks for your comment. You’re right – it’s definitely worth it to train your dog. The time it takes will be worth it in then end, when you have a properly behaved, well-bonded dog. I’m glad you stopped by! Cheers.
Obedience training is what makes your dog like you’ve said in this article. It is shocking to see that people are not willing to put in the effort for that and then blame the poor thing for being a bad doggie.
Jeanne,
You make such an important point when you say; “You cannot expect your dog to heed your commands if he is not trained to do so, and to do so consistently. You can’t expect him to understand those words unless you teach him what they mean.”
I find myself repeating this over and over to my clients and new adoptive parents at the shelter I volunteer at. But I still get calls from desperate people complaining that their dog doesn’t listen. I mean, no one would expect their child to just know how to act in social situations, for example. They teach their kids.
I guess it’s a case of training people about dogs. Something your post does perfectly!
It’s true that it’s the people who need to be trained about dogs, Rosemary. This is something that a surprising number of people don’t understand. They don’t teach their dog, the dog doesn’t listen, they think the dog is stupid, then there’s no respect. I find it maddening. Thanks for reading my post, and I appreciate your comment. Have a sweet day! 🙂
I would love to learn more about caring for salt water tanks. 🙂 I’m researching right now, I think it would be a fun graduation present to myself.
Yes! Salt water tanks would be a good thing to know about. High maintenance, I hear. Good luck, but most of all, have fun with it. 🙂 I’ll do some research on it too.
I have never been good at training a dog…But these are some great tips and behaviors to teach your dog.
Great read! I have a dog, and he only knows how to eat. Glad to read your post. I hope I can train him.
Thanks for the wonderful article.
Yes, its becomes so fast life… we need a companion who can be with you when you really needed. I would go for dog, as they truly be with you all time without change in love it have.
There are few points really needs to be taken care, for example giving training to dog when it is really tired/sick/hungry is really sinful act. Thanks for the tips.
If you have a trained one then you no need to worry about your stress and problems.
Thanks
Prasanna LO