BASIC DOG OBEDIENCE

Basic dog obedience. Evey dog owner brings home that cute little puppy dreaming of having that perfect companion that follows them everywhere and always seems o know what you want and listens to everything you want them to do. There own version of Lassie. Then the the puppy grows up and they cant even leave the house without worrying about the dog barging out the door and it taking hours to get him back.
An obedient dog takes time, work, & patience.
So lets get started on our own Lassie
SIT
Sit is a basic command that I really haven’t seen anyone have any real trouble with. Sitting is something that dogs do on their own frequently making it the easiest command to teach. Simply hold one hand on dogs chest and push firmly on their rear end saying sit until they sit down. Do this frequently whenever spending time with puppy. They will pick this up quite easily and will be sitting on command fairly quickly.

STAY
With a leash attatched to the dog put one hand against the dogs chest holding the dog in place and pull on the leash with a slow firm pressure while saying stay. Then move on to doing it without holding the dogs chest. The dog will naturally resist the slow pulling of the leash learning the stay command naturally. After doing this several times a day for 3 to 4 days try telling the dog to sit then stay and walk around him while holding the leash. If he moves say NO and then move dog back to where he was sitting and repeat STAY firmlyand reapeat the process until you are able to walk around the dog 2w times without him moving. DO not stop this exercise until the dog is successful at staying for the 2 trips around him then praise him pat him and go do something fun. Always end a training session on a good positive note. When the dog is successful at completing a command you need to make a decision on whether to stop there or keep going. If you choose to keep going be prepared to do it several times again until dog is successful again. I feel it is very important to stop at a time when the dog is successful and everyone feels good and positive. I do this with all training.

DOWN
To teach down I use a technique that was taught to me by a professional trainer in Belgrade Maine named John Palange. Hold the leash in right hand step on leash with right foot pulling leash snug. Now step on leash with left foot as close to the dogs collar as you can and push down saying down at the same time. Push all the way down until you are standing on the leash. Keep saying down firmly. Stay this way until dog lays down and does not struggle. Then praise dog and let him get up. Repeat this until dog lays down as soon as you start pushing with left foot. At this point start saying down after stepping with right foot but before any pressure with right foot. If dog doesn’t lay down say NO and then use left foot saying down again. You will be surprised how soon the dog will pick this command up using this method. I have never had a dog not get this command quickly using this method. After dog is doing the down command faithfully with no correction move on to down, stay. Do this the same way we did sit, stay. Say down then stay and walk around dog twice. If dog moves say NO and place dog back where they were and try again. Remember to end session on a good successful try.

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TRAINING COLLAR

When I do basic obedience training I use a training collar otherwise known as a "choke chain". Some people feel that they are inhumane. I say it depends on how it is used. I call it a training collar because you dont actually choke the dog. Ive seen people yank so hard on these collars I was surprised the dogs head didnt fall off. The purpose of the collar is to get the dog's attention.You dont need to yank and pull until the dog yelps. The collar should hang loosely around the dogs neck When put on correctly the end the leash is hooked to should go down through a ring in the opposite end of the chain and go around the neck starting on the side closest to you. If you heel on the left the collar should make the letter b when facing the dog. If you heel the dog on the right then it should make the letter d. The collar should not be used to teach what the commands mean, but should be used as a correction for when the dog knows the command but is not attentive and not obeying the command. For example you give the sit command and the dog does not sit. You then give a quick snap on the leash so the chain tightens and loosens quickly not hard enough to hurt just quick so it gets the dogs attention and then repeat the command. If the dog still does not sit you say "no" or "bad" whatever your choice of correction has been at the same time you snap the collar. Then give the command again. If the dog has been trained the command properly to begin with, that should be enough to get the dog to do the command. If it takes more than this then you should go back to step one for that command. I use the training collar for refining all basic obedience commands. sit, stay, down & heel.

HOUSEBREAKING PUPPY

I think most people I talk to use the same method of house breaking puppies. Puppy goes on the floor someone finds it they take puppy put his nose near it say no and take puppy outside. This really doesn’t work that well, puppy does learn over time but it’s usually a very long time. Extra care needs to be taken that someone is watching puppy at all times. This is where the use of crate training helps. By using the crate or kennel you are using the pups own instinct to not go in his bedding area to encourage him to hold it for as long as he is able. Use a crate that is just big enough for him to go in, turn around and lay down comfortably. This means as puppy gets older and grows you will need to get a bigger crate. When nobody can keep an eye on him then put him in the crate. Obviously you don’t want to do this for extended periods as he can only hold it for so long. If the puppy is kept in the crate for too long then he will have an accident in the crate and it wont take too many of these accidents before the puppy will just start going in the crate. If this happens you’ve just made housebreaking 10 times harder. It can also be in your best interest to confine the puppy to a small area of the house during housebreaking to be able to better monitor his activities. Now we have a crate everybody is taking turns watching the puppy and puppy is getting used to the crate. When puppy starts to sniff in an area with intense interest or is starting to circle in one spot then get close to puppy and as soon as he starts to go on the floor scoop puppy up say “NO” firmly and take him outside. Stay outside with puppy until he goes saying repeatedly some form of command like “go pee” , “Go on the grass” or “go now” etc… Someone should be taking puppy out every hour and saying repeatedly “ go pee” and when puppy goes praise him profoundly I feel I need to take a break here to say a little about commands. The words for commands are not written in stone, such as sit. The common command for sit with Springers that are in field trials is “hup”. My point is that you need to be selective on commands and compare them to each other. An example is if your dogs name is Bo then you are not going to use the No command as it is too close to the sound of his name, instead use bad or bad dog. Okay now back to housebreaking. Finding the mess later and taking the puppy back to it does little more than teach the puppy that the mess is bad, not the act of making the mess. A puppy really does not make that association between doing the act and the mess that it makes. I have found that if I find the mess any more than a few seconds after puppy has done the deed, then correction at this point has no positive impact on getting puppy housebroken. You will have people telling you how they trained their dog in 3 days or you may see ads on training systems that will do this. I’m not going to say that this is not possible But I will say do not let this get you down or think you do not have a good dog because it takes longer for you. I have had dogs that have shown that they know what I want them to do and will ask to go out after 7 to 10 days but even those dogs have continued to have accidents until as late as 6 months. I have also had dogs that I thought were totally housebroken after 3 to 4 months that all of a sudden start having accidents at 5 months. I don’t consider a dog fully housebroken until they are at least a year old and haven’t had accidents for 2 to 3 months. I know in my last post I had said not to start any other training until after puppy is house broken. I should clarify that to be until you feel he knows what is expected. If the puppy is going to the door and whining or trying to get your attention when he has to go then you know he is getting the idea. When puppy is asking to go outside most of the time that is the point that I would move on to introduce other commands such as sit. I have found that teaching puppy how to ask to go outside has also helped with housebreaking. Go to a door that has a low glass window or a sliding glass door. Go outside and have someone bring puppy to the door. When puppy comes to the door call to him and kneel down to get to his level. When the puppy puts his paws on the door have the person inside open the door and let puppy come to you. You then praise puppy and you can even give him a treat at this point. After puppy starts showing he knows what to do move to a door that has no window and do the same process. This will help get past that stage where puppy doesn’t want to make a mess inside but isn’t sure exactly how to get outside. Remember patience is the key and don’t expect too much and you will have a wonderful companion for years to come.