Which dog owner won’t feel proud of his disciplined dog? Reversely, who won’t feel ashamed of an unruly dog? Your dog needs to be obedient to the commands of its owner. You can’t expect your dog to be obedient by birth or nature. You have to take pains to make him understand obey your commands.
Obedience training to your dog can be imparted in many ways – two of the more popular methods are typically carrot and stick methods. The first method heavily depends on the stick or punishment approach. The second method deals with the reward system for the dog.
The leash and collar method of dog obedience training has survived for a long time now. It is primitive but still mostly followed. The premises of this training method are based here – leash will be the mode of communication with the dog. A dog must understand the commands, and if not obeyed, the leash should be put to action. Using a leash alone is not sufficient – the dog must be made aware of the good and bad behavior. Once tracked on the path to bad behavior, the dog can be punished with the leash.
The reward system doesn’t believe in punishing the dog. It follows a psychological approach to deal with dog training. The dog is made to know the good parts of behavior and rewarded for the same. Its ugly behavior is neglected in the form of psychological treatment. The trainer or owner walks away from the dog immediately after the show of bad behavior. A dog is an intelligent animal to understand the difference between bad and good behavior.
Whatever technique is used for dog obedience training, it is important to know that the training must be consistent. Dogs get easily confused due to double standards employed. If you expect your dog never to jump on the bed, never let or invite him on the bed. Ensure that your dog never reaches the bed. Obedience training starts on the fundamental issues like sitting, standing, walking, listening to your commands & following those, sitting in the car, etc.
The dog owner can easily impart obedience training. You may find alternates to this by getting your dog enrolled with some obedience classes or dog instructors. Evaluate all the training techniques, methods, equipment, infrastructure, experience, etc. before taking the final decision on outside help. Remember, the most ideal way will be for yourself to be the instructor. Your dog will love it.
