Essentials of Basic Obedience Training

Training is easiest with puppies. Older dogs take longer to accept a new person as their leader, but if you show consistent behavior a dog learns to respect you.

Teaching good manners, or to come, sit, stay, or lie down, is surprisingly easy. Most dogs willingly carry out these activities because they want to please their leaders and because it is in their interest to do so.

Never punish your dog for something it has done earlier. Punishment when you return to a mess in the house is interpreted simply as inexplicable punishment.

Your dog will not understand; all it will know is that you are angry with it. Your dog will respond by acting submissively to appease you. We make the mistake of thinking that its signs of appeasement are signs of guilt. They are not.

Punishing after the fact is counterproductive. Keep lessons short. A minute or two is perfect for a puppy. Five minutes is too long, but puppies are capable of concentrating on training several times during the day.

Older dogs can concentrate for longer, but even dogs with the best mental stamina cannot concentrate on training for more than about 15 minutes at a time.

Keep lessons enjoyable. If your dog is not enjoying himself, forget about training. If it needs to release pent-up energy, let it. Once it has had some exercise, your dog will concentrate more on what you are doing with it.

Train when your dog's mind is alert. An ideal time to train is before feeding time. With puppies that means you have three or four ready-prepared training opportunities each

day. As your puppy matures and the number of meals diminishes, train it shortly after it has awakened and after it has emptied its bladder and bowels.
At first always combine food rewards with praise.

Eventually, only give the most powerful reward - food - intermittently. Giving rewards intermittently rather than constantly is the most effective way of reinforcing learning.

Always finish formal training sessions on a high note. Do not save the most powerful reward for the end of the session; if you do. you are unwittingly training your dog to want the session to end so it can get hold of the potent reward.

Avoid distractions by beginning training inside your own home. This applies to simple obedience such as "Come," "Sit," "Stay," and "Lie down," but also to leash training or walking-to-heel training.

A hallway is an excellent place to begin training. Once your dog reliably responds in that location, move on to a more distracting environment, such as the back yard.

Only when your dog behaves well in this area should you advance to more complicated surroundings, such as the street or a park.

Be consistent. Stand upright, use your dog's name to get its attention, and give verbal or hand signals only when you have eye-to-eye contact with it.

Reward the dog as soon as it complies with your command, and do not issue a command unless you can enforce it.

When disciplining your dog, use stern body language, lower your voice, and say "No" sharply. Teach the dog to respond to a combination of verbal and hand signals.

Do not get flustered. Avoid persistently repeating commands, because it will only confuse your dog. If framing is not going well, stop. Think about what you are doing; the problem may be with you, not with your dog.

Do not be shy about asking for help - staff at veterinary clinics arc usually excellent people to ask for advice.

If more than one member of the family helps to do the training, make sure that everyone is using the same words and signals so as not to confuse the dog.

Forget about trying to train several dogs at once - it is virtually impossible. If you have two to train, take turns: keep one out of earshot while you train, reward, or discipline the other.