How to Train Your Dog Obedience

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Introduction

Dog Obedience Training Defined The old but new adage--a dog is a man's best friend--depicts a relationship that is not self-evident. I mean some training and interaction must precede that relationship in which both owner and dog feel secure; it doesn't come overnight. This training covers techniques, positive reinforcements, clicker training, dog whispering, collar and leash training, marker training, reward training, and hand signals to give you a well-rounded dog training guide you'll find beneficial for both you and your dog. Whether you plan to do it yourself, or hire a professional, the main goals remain in achieving a well-trained pet, and this guide accomplishes exactly what you're looking for in training your dog obedience. This dog training guide will help you establish a clear line of communication between yourself and your pet, strengthen your ties with your dog, so that you'll spend more quality time with each other; however, in the absence of a friendly rapport with your dog, problem exists. Most behavioral problems such as digging, chewing, excessive barking, jumping up, and many other dog behavior likewise can be resolved through proper communication training included in this guide. It's a dog obedience training that helps you establish boundaries, rules, signals, movements, tone of voice, all aim to train your dog to become a responsible member of your household and puts you in control of your dog's behavior. Like human beings, dogs should be taught good manners, know how to properly behave in certain situations, at any given place and at any given time. There will be times when you'll take your dog out for a walk, a ride in the car, and it will not help if he/she is unruly. An unruly dog is not a friendly dog; however, this dog training guide will give you the tools to transform an unruly, intransigent dog into your best friend. The Benefits in this Dog Obedience Training Obedience training primarily enables you to enjoy the company of your dog, a companionship that will surely benefits you in the years to come. Here are a couple of 1

advantages that you will definitely be happy about. The training will make life simple for your dog. It means his/her confusion will be eliminated, fostering awareness and good, or acceptable behavior. Dog obedience training comprised of the components of a rewarding experience. During the training, your dog will have fun learning, and the results likewise emerge as your best chance to spend quality time together. A trained dog equals a confident and happy dog, a pleasant creature to have around. A trained dog can be left alone un-supervised because you are confident it will not be a nuisance in your place. A dog that has gone through obedience training promotes safety, for it's unlikely it will threaten other people and animals around it. A certain respect for your dog follows obedience training that enhances dog-owner relationship just like a true family member and companion. The dog obedience training process included in this guide may take time and requires patience at all times; however, always be consistent, copious with your rewards and praises, as well as punishments whenever necessary. Dog Obedience Training: Being the Boss Naturally pack animals, dogs need an alpha to lead them in their everyday lives. On the other hand, you're not a dog, or run in a pack, but you might have just one dog and demand good behavior in its everyday life. The question is how do you do it? How do you, the dog's owner, act as the alpha leader to your pet? In a pack, they depend on a leader, but outside the realm of dogs' socialization experienced in a pack, the dog naturally looks to you for leadership. As a dictatorial presence, although not unfair, you'd lead your dog to consider you as the boss, and that quite simply establishes a hierarchy in which you'd exercise your authority over your dog for its well-being. Your authoritative presence enables the training to follow your commands. As you may already know, individual dogs vary in submissiveness, so it's important to consolidate and maintain your dominance over your dog early. Put an obedience training in place, one well-thought out, in which you'd pull off dog obedience training with a number of exercises. 2

You may already know that happy dogs obey their owners' commands submissively, and that having a happy dog would make your job much easier, but getting your dog to that stage in its life requires skills and execution, something this dog training guide will help you do. Whatever you get your dog to do, show approval for the occasional signs of submission; assert dominance, if it tries to test you. In the event your dog tries to test your position as the boss, focus on the dog training directives below as a counter-measure to solve behavioral problems, i.e., the dog obedience behavior training to correct your pet's defiance. You will soon realize, however, that all dog obedience behavior training doesn't contain the same factor, certainly not the dog obedience training this eBook contains. Are they asking you to be a capable alpha? Misinformed about dog behavior, many people misinterpret adolescent behavior as unruly. Comparing that to a child testing her/his parents shows a different outcome; a child tries to find out what the limits are rather than actually putting her/his parents in the little game called "Challenge Me" for leadership, sometimes viewed as a playful act. On the other hand, young playful dogs and puppies might show similar traits but they're not the same. Furthermore, whenever dogs challenge their owners, the trainer, who might happen to be you, must correct the unacceptable behavior firmly, ruling out an all-out dominating battle with your dog. Dominance might develop the opposite in your pet: fear, when you want love and respect. The alpha only gets that in leadership. You do not want a distrustful dog that would engender rebellion, whose inappropriate behavior would embarrass you among your friends, visitors and family. Returning to the toddler analogy, you'd be crazy to pick a child up, hold him/her against a wall, then scream at him/her, as reprimand for a misdeed. That's violence. Small, young dogs fall into an infant category, until age 2 or 3 years old (in human terms, they are still in the angst, teenage years), so leadership is key in getting obedience from your dog. That would also include the avoidance of confusing physical maturity for mental maturity with respect to your dog's behavior. Should you, or would you, punish your dog? Having such inclination and acting it out might produce the opposite effects, so never equate, or liken, punishment with being alpha. An alpha is fair, according to Cindy Moore, author of Behavior: Modifying and Understanding, who doesn't use fear, punishment or brute force, to achieve and maintain that position. Instead, the alpha unequivocally states, approves and disapproves behavior with action, expects its subordinates to follow its lead and doesn't force them to do arbitrary tasks. Consequently, the alpha, i.e., owner's, or trainer's, dog will perceive a capable, calm, focused 3

and rational leader in control of the dog obedience behavior training. As with any other training, praising your pet boosts its ego, and leads it to accept you as a credible leader, who always shows fairness and approval at his/her submission. Singing the submission praises, or for any other approved behavior, helps strengthen your rank as the ultimate alpha. Praise your dog when it drops its eyes first, or when it licks your chin. According to Cindy, give it an enthusiastic tummy rub, when it rolls over on its back. It might sound corny, but corny because it works. How simple life has emerged for many when good behavior is praised, or approved; you just need a bit of loving infused into your dog training as well to pull off the trick. Being an alpha requires consistency, fairness in your corrections, that would demonstrate to your pet that it can trust your orders without fear of violence. Do not correct your dog after the fact because it appears arbitrary and unfair to the dog, since it has no associative memory the way people memorize events, or any other incident to keep him/her seething with hate. So socializing with your puppy ultimately engenders your dog's trust. This dog training guide will establish you as the alpha owner/leader you've always wanted to be. Want to produce a happy, submissive dog loved by you and others? This training guide goes beyond the basics with hand signals and verbal commands used by the masters to train your dog obedience. Let's get started. . . . 4

Chapter 1 Dog Obedience Training is Easy What if you don't know a molecule about dog obedience training and have a pet dog? Have you thought about getting him into dog obedience behavior training? You're wrong if you think it is a daunting task because, contrary to what most people would say, the training itself doesn't fall into the rocket science category. In fact, dog obedience training has always been easy to administer, but difficult to the uninitiated dog owner. On the contrary; doing the training yourself will heighten your bonding moments with your pet, and the time put in to get the job done benefits both you and the dog; the obedience training process equals the amount of your motivation, i.e., the more efforts you put in, the greater, presumably, the results. With the express aim to make your efforts put in to train your dog obedience easy for you, this eBook provides a quick guide to train your dog obedience and good behavior. The dog training guide concepts in this eBook apply to all breeds of dogs, whether they will be used for fun time, in sporting, leisure, working, or in competitions. Knowing these principles and executing them to work to train your dog ensure that your dog obedience training efforts will pay off. Maintain Consistency with Your Dog Obedience Training Consistency during the entire training amounts to a very important category in your dog training endeavor, especially to correct the unacceptable behaviors your dog exhibited. Repetition in commands given the dog to perform a task all the time reinforces the training. However, avoid creating confusion in your dog by issuing a different command for the same nature of task you require of your dog. What are the boundaries set in your home indicating where you'd tolerate your dog's roaming around inside? Make sure you've established house rules that your dog should follow. Soon you will see that it will do as you say without difficulty. The Need for Proper Timing To establish a routine in your dog, maintain proper timing, a critical component to dog training, which determines whether the training will be successful or not. So when your dog responds to you with an acceptable behavior, always give it praise; whenever your dog has 5

behaved intelligently, extreme dog lovers would always give it praise. But when your dog's behavior crosses the line set up by you, would reprimanding your dog to let it understand a particular behavior that you dislike yield the results you want? That's a question each dog owner faces, and answering it is as important as restraining yourself from responding harshly to an intolerable behavior. Reprimanding your dog might be your temperament, not an option, so when you do reprimand him/her, administer it unequivocally, that is, correct the dog immediately on the spot following the offending behavior. One way to address your dog's offending behavior lies in your ability to ignore him/her, when it approaches you after the act. Your snub lets the dog realize that a certain behavior is unacceptable. Giving Adequate Attention Like humans, dogs also seek attention, and they love it. The only problem is they are somewhat incapable of discerning positive, or negative, attention. They only understand eliciting reaction (whether fear, or bold) and attention from people, so they do the same things repeatedly. You can prove this by throwing a stick out. . . . As the owner, refrain from yielding to your dog exhibiting bad behavior. Don't let it out of the cage, whenever she/he growls, groan, nor should you run after her/him when it picks up your socks and runs. When your dog picks up your sock and runs, it thinks of getting positive attention and would surely repeat the same behavior for your attention. Is that wrong? If you've got it to give him, there's a time and place for that, and you'll know when to give your attention to your dog, or reprimand it for an intolerable behavior. A tug on his/her leash for one reason, or another, most likely directs your attention to it, whenever your dog behaves properly. The opposite is also true: when the dog does the opposite, tug its leash. Give it treats as the prize for good behavior. That's simple. A win-win. What Determines Your Mood? Everybody wants to be in the right mood at play, work, social settings, and so it is with a dog; therefore, you need to set important benchmarks, point of references, with your dog during this task. Within a duration of time, and your dog has obeyed your command to sit, move on from there to the other commands, like stay, or fetch, progressing toward totally training your dog obedience. Because dog obedience behavior training requires much patience, your benefits will require getting into that frame of mind. Having said all the foregoing, let me say this: never, ever, proceed with the training sessions when you're drugged, drunk, or in a bad mood. Drugs cloud your judgement, which confuses the dog, 6

so approach it will sobriety! The Mount Everest Commands of Dog Obedience Training Depending on your mood, you might develop boredom if your dog grasps only three commands, but avoid fretting, expressing worry, annoyance, discontent, my friend! Specific command words are not that difficult, but important nonetheless, and accepted as standard, while others are commonly used. The list of 20 basic commands below will help you accomplish dog obedience training's 'Mount Everest:'

Sit – a mono-syllabic word that requires an authentic tone that requires your dog to get in a sitting position.

Down – just like #1, requires an abrupt tone for the dog to follow your command, typically down when its elbows (front feet) and hocks (rear legs) parallel the ground, or floor.

Heel – The dog's head, or shoulder, is parallel to the handler's leg on the left side of the handler.

Come, or Here – (referred to as the recall) you just really got to call your dog which equates the whole command.

Stay – another command that requires another snap for the dog to remain in the sitting position (sit, down, stand), and location under which command was given until it is released by the handler.

Those are just some of the basic ones, but wait! Here is something for those who are too motivated to actually stop. The advanced commands are the following (which may need more patience and dedication):

Stop – the dog commanded will simply stop all activities, lie down on command, no matter how far from its keeper, and who will emerge a dog that can be taken anywhere. Some handlers use the German word PLATZ (related to place, i.e. stay in position) for this action. A little bit demanding, but who knows when your dog needs it?

Back up – keepers of large dogs, or dogs with unpredictable reputation (a must quote!) for aggressiveness, can make strangers more comfortable by

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teaching the dog to back up on command. This command might probably be very useful for police dogs.

Growl – now this is what you guys should be talking about. In case you are bullied, this is the inverse of backing up. Some owners teach non-aggressive dogs to growl on a subtle command–not the word "growl," usually a small hand gesture – as a way of letting strangers know that you and your dog value being left alone.

Steady – to keep near by. The dog can walk free, but not dash off. This can be very valuable to sport dogs, or during competitions.

Stand – on this command, the dog stands still. Funny how this seems so advanced; it is very valuable for "grooming." Many dogs being groomed frequently require them standing quietly during the process. You can also use this command when you want your dog to wait for you at the park, while lining up for an espresso at Starbucks seven in the morning.

Go to bed, kennel, or get in – these commands direct the dog to go to its bed, and remain there unreleased. This is somehow useful to keep a dog out from underfoot, and safe in a busy or complicated situation.

Drop, or Drop it – to release something they just picked up; very useful when they're about to chew your sandals.

Leave it – an adjunction to Drop, directing the dog NOT to touch an item.

Take it – the dog leaves a desired object untouched until given this command.

Give – a command teaching the dog to be generous, or release an object picked up in its mouth.

Speak – another way of saying "to bark ONLY when I say so".

Roll over – can be one of the basic commands; this is when the dog lies down, or rolls over. Quite a bit of an exercise.

Attack – if partnered with the command "Growl," you (the owner) will be the king of your neighborhood, though mostly used only on Police Dogs.

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"Attack," or "Sick 'em," common commands to include in your dog obedience training task.

Fetch – can also be one of the basic commands where the dog retrieves a thrown object, bringing it back to the one who threw it, a nice strategy for luring guard dogs (especially when they're obsessed with balls).

Off limits – a command that sets boundaries to objects your dog must not cross. For example, chewing your furniture to pieces, shoes, or electrical wires, have crossed the boundaries set for your dog and violated your rules as acceptable behavior.

Contrary to what you may have expected, the basic commands above have their advantages, to wit, dog training obedience that brings results. So use them in your dog training portfolio. . . .

How to Get Access to this eBook To read more of this dog obedience training guide, go here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FHO0GS Go here for a list of eBooks: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058AFHWS

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