Dog Obedience Tips

Personally providing your dog with proper obedience training has some very obvious benefits — establishing strong bonds with your dog, you’ll correct bad behaviors, it stimulates your dog’s intellect and desire to learn, it encourages inclusion between your dog and the rest of your household, and, in the long run, it saves you time that otherwise would be dedicated to cleaning up your dog’s messes, smoothing over offended parties, and repairing damaged property.

Here, I’d like to bring to light some of the less obvious, but no less important, benefits of obedience training. Hopefully you’ll be further encouraged to make obedience training an activity you and your dog will embark on immediately, if not sooner.

It’s a fun, enjoyable experience

Don’t look at dog training as a chore. View it as an opportunity for you and your budding best friend to begin forging a deep, mutually beneficial bond and relationship. Approach it as just one of many enjoyable activities you and your dog will share. Follow up your obedience training with trick training and you’ll be sure to have a great deal of fun. While some of the tricks will present a challenge for both of you, just make it a pleasurable experience. Be patient, be kind, and be generous with your praise when your dog achieves those little successes.

You’ll be rewarded with a much happier dog

Obedience training is one of the most important aspects of raising a dog. In fact, a well trained dog is by far a happier dog! Why? Because a trained dog requires fewer restrictions. The more reliable the dog, the more freedom he is given.

For example, many stores and businesses that normally won’t allow dogs on their premises will make an exception for a puppy or a dog that will heel nicely by his owner’s side, or will do a sit-stay or down-stay without hesitation.

And when company arrives in your home, there’s no need to banish a well-behaved dog to another room for fear that he will be a royal nuisance. Moreover, because a well-mannered, obedience-trained dog is both appreciated and welcomed, he receives more attention and interaction from family members, visitors, and passers-by, than does the ill-mannered dog.

Dog training may someday save your dog’s life

Am I being a bit melodramatic here? Not so. Envision this scene. A young lady, we’ll call Sarah is walking Buster her dog on a nice suburban neighborhood sidewalk. Trees line both sides of the street, cars are parallel parked on both sides as well, and the old twin brick homes all have white porches. Its early morning, not much foot traffic or autos on the road, so Sarah is pretty relaxed and her mind is wandering. Well, where there are trees there are squirrels. And one pops out in front of Sarah and her pooch. Startled, the squirrel makes a bee line for a tree across the street. The dog, also a bit startled by the sudden appearance of the squirrel right in front of him, takes off in hot pursuit. Being relaxed as Sarah is, her grip on the leash is also relaxed. Buster’s sudden thrust easily pulls the leash from Sarah’s hand and now both squirrel and dog are heading between the parked cars towards the other side of the street.

And, against the odds, a car is heading down the street on a collision course with Buster’s path. The jerk on Sarah’s hand jostles her back from mind-wandering to the scene unfolding. Fortunately she collects her thoughts quick enough to yell, “BUSTER…HEEL! BUSTER COME!” “Good Lord”, Sarah thinks out loud, “whodda thought the hours Buster and I spent on obedience lessons would end up saving his life?” But that’s just what happened. Sarah’s voice control over her dog was the only impetus Buster needed to drop any thought of catching that squirrel, and simply do what he’s done so many times before – obey his owner’s simple commands.

And that’s just one of many possible scenarios where a simple obedience command could save your dog’s life. He could slip out of his collar or bolt out an unattended open door. Enough said. Point made I hope.

Your training may save someone else’s life

Also not too far fetched, especially if your dog is one of the so-called “at risk” breeds, known for their capability and proclivity to inflict injury or worse on people if provoked or if threatened. Or, more likely, if they perceive their owner is being threatened. Humor me and picture another scene. A man is relaxing at home with his Rottweiler Manfred, watching the weekend football game. He hears a knock on the front door, but before he can even get up, walk towards the door and open it, in walks his lumberjack uncle from Vancouver whom he hasn’t seen in more than twenty five years.

He’s big and burly and one of those touchy-feely boisterous types. He opens his arms, strides towards the man with a bellowing voice to give him a big bear hug. Manfred, who followed his owner to the door, sees his master about to be mauled by this loud, huge, human stranger and he instinctively attacks the uncle. A powerful Rottweiler protecting his master versus a perceived human threat. My money is on the Rottweiler. Unless of course, the dog received proper obedience training by his master, who could then quickly diffuse the life-threatening attack with an authoritative “MANFRED…HEEL!”. Again, I’m sure you can envision dozens of ways a similar scenario could play out that could result in serious injury or worse. Large, poorly behaved, disobedient dogs can be much more than an annoyance; they can be dangerous. Obedience training is imperative. Especially for owners of big dogs. That’s all the stories, I promise.

You’ll lay the foundation for a very happy home

I think it would be safe to say that obedience training benefits everyone. Dog, dog owner, dog owner’s family, neighbors, visitors to the home, strangers and other dogs met on walks and family outings, the dog’s vet and her staff, the folks at the boarding facility and the groomers, the mailman. You get the idea. There’s just no downside to having a well trained dog. Done properly, the process will be enjoyable and the results will be well worth time and effort expended.

A well-behaved, obedient dog is a pleasure to have around. No worries about damage to the home. No need to disrupt daily family living with constant disciplining the dog for behaviors that may be natural to the dog, but very upsetting to the family. No worries about children playing with the dog. No concerns when a visitor stops by the home. Walks are leisurely and a pleasure. No need to take detours should you see another dog approaching. No fretting about a well-meaning child reaching down to pet your dog. Car rides with your dog are uneventful.

Now how could all of this not contribute to a very happy home?

Conclusion

Now that you’ve decided to begin training your dog, your choice becomes a dog trainer, or do you train yourself to train your dog. For anyone who has read other articles of mine, know my choice is to self-train your dog. It’s just a tremendous opportunity for you to build such a fantastic relationship with your companion.

You’ll need a training manual that covers all aspects of obedience and trick training. And provides you the opportunity to get your unanswered questions answered through direct and real time correspondence with professional trainers. The manual I most recommend, and use regularly is available through the link below. Best of luck.

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Tags: Benefits, Obvious, Older, Owners, Training