The dog training blog...

The first lesson – get your dog to pay attention to the commands. Start by calling out his name and later use keywords like ‘watch’ or ‘look’ afterwards. By this way, the dog will relate those words to commands. Start the lesson once you have got his attention.

We want to make the dog to be able to concentrate for a short period of time. Keep his attention by doing attention exercise. For example, hold a toy/dog food near your mouth and give him your command. Every time he follows your command, reward him by giving him the treat or food. Repeat this over and over again, the more you repeat, the dog should pay more attention to you. Then, try changing the exercise a little; command him to do something (eg ‘watch’) for a longer period of time (eg: 1 minute).

Dogs have short attention spans, so they can get distracted very easily. Therefore, you must choose a suitable location (quiet, away from children or other pets, etc) to perform the training. Each training sessions should also last not more than 30 minute, because if you go more than that, the dog will become restless and get distracted easily.

If your dog does not learn very well, keep your cool. Don’t get too frustrated and let it out on your pet. Things to remember before starting your obedience training:
1) Never cause pain to your dog (this will cause him to shy away or become aggressive to you - IMPORTANT.)
2) Change the tone of your voice when your dog is distracted (this doesn’t mean raising your voice)
3) You must be consistent (animals are like children, if you’re not consistent, they will become confused as to what is expected)
Teaching your dog basic obedience commands will make for a more obedient and more pleasant dog to be around.
We shall proceed to some basic obedience commands. Firstly, you can start by ‘sit’ command. Use the word ‘sit’ during the training so that he can relate the word with the appropriate action. Gently push his backside down and say the word ‘sit’ at the same time. He will eventually grasp the concept.


Secondly, we can teach the dog ‘down’ command. Dogs can get very excited at times and will jump onto their owners. This will be big problem if you have big dogs. So when they jump, immediately tell them to ‘down’. Don’t pet them or act excited when they jump on you to discourage them. Tell them ‘down’ continuously and place their legs down if you have to.

Then, we can proceed to teach the command ‘stay’. For example, put a treat or food on the ground and as the dog moves towards it, tell him to ‘stay’. By putting your hand up while saying ‘stay’ is also a good way to train the dog. When he begins to become more obedient with this command, try moving further away from him. This will make him more daring and will probably try to move nearer to the treat. When he does this, continue using your hand gestures and command him to ‘stay’.

After all that, you can move on to the ‘come’ command. Your dog needs a command to know when it’s ok to come and approach you. They might be confused initially, so try changing your tone of voice and he’ll understand eventually. Put a little excitement in your tone when saying the word ‘come’. It might be helpful to pat your leg when you say that.

The command ‘stand’ is the last one to achieve. This is the command to allow your dog to get a bit excited but not too much. When teaching your dog to ‘stand’, pat your hands on your chest and put a little excitement in your tone of voice, so that he knows he’s allowed to do something. In this way, he can know the difference.

Training your dog should be taught as soon as you and your dog are ready. Do remember to be consistent with the commands (especially if your whole family will be training with you). And most importantly, have fun!

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