5 easy and useful things to teach your dog
Why dog training is important?
Dog training is a must on Dog Routine. It helps you and the dog to create a great bond with each other, it helps you to understand better your dog and to make a better form of communication, it helps the dog to avoid stress, depression, boringness, and many other reasons why you should train your dog pretty usually.
#1 Speak
So sometimes a dog’s barking can be really annoying especially when it’s too loud and it’s repeated over and over.
So to train the dog “The quiet command” we need to teach them “The speak command” first. In this way, you have better control over your dog and his barking.
So go ahead, grab your fluffy friend and some treats for reward, it’s much easier than your think.
Now get the treat or something that will eventually motivate your dog to bark and hold in front of the dog for a couple of moments. He will eventually start to bark out of frustration, and this is the moment that you need to wait for.
When he barks, give him the treat and say “Speak” or whatever command you would like to use for your dog to bark. Repeat this process over and over until your dog starts barking when you say the command.
From the personal experience I don't think this process should take long. It took me about 15 minutes to teach my dog to speak on command.
#2 Quiet
Once your dog learns the “Speak” Command now it’s time to teach him the “Quiet”
I think the “Quiet” is much easier to learn than “Speak”, at least by my Personal Experience.
In this stage, your dog will think that a bark means one treat, and they will continuously bark if you hold a treat near them. We don’t want this, don't we?
So in the same way that we waited for the dog to start barking, we wait for the dog to stop barking now, and when he stops, give him the treat immediately and say “Quiet”.
In this way, the dog will know how to differentiate “Speak” and “Quiet”
#3 Not to pull on the leash
This is a commonly spread problem, especially for big energetic dog owners. Dogs like to explore things and they get super excited when they sniff or see something like a squirrel, another dog, or something else and then they start pulling like crazy.
In most cases, we are on the wrong side here, including me in the past, because I did the same mistake.
When the dog starts to pull on the leash, we follow them, and this is exactly the mistake that most of us do.
That is translated to dog as “If I pull on the leash, we get whenever I want”.
To stop this is easy, when the dog starts to pull, just act like a tree. Stop wherever you are and refuse to move until the dog gets back to you. In this way, he knows that if he pulls on the leash, the walk will stop, and this is the last thing that a dog wants.
Also, don’t forget when he gets backs to you, give him a reward.
#4 Leave it
To teach your dog the “Leave it” command is a must. Mostly for your dog's safety.
Imagine if you accidentally drop your pills on the ground, and the dog comes and eats them. That for sure will cause a lot of trouble.
“Leave it” will also teach the dog to stop chewing on a power cord, or your favorite pair of shoes.
Start by grabbing a treat, let the dog see it, and drop it on the floor while covering it with your hand and say “Leave it”. Your dog will get to your hand, sniffing and licking and trying to get that treat. Then he will eventually stop trying, and as soon as he stops trying, give him a reward from the other hand.
Make sure that the treat that you are holding on your hand is better than one on the floor because this will translate to the dog as “If I leave it, I get a better treat.”
Easy, isn’t it?
#5 Come
Active recall is a dog training technique that needs to be repeated over and over, every day.
I think “Come” is the most important command that you need to teach your dog. It will help you to have more control over your dog and also will help you in emergency cases such as when the dog is running away on a busy road, or something else.
How to teach your dog to come?
To make this as easy as possible, let’s start by giving them a reason to come back to you.
- Don’t act upset even if they come back to you after numerous trying times, this will only make them less likely to come back when you call them the next time.
- Act excited and start playing as soon as your dog comes to you. This will give your friend an exciting reason to come to you.
- Don’t call them only when you need them. This is a common mistake that we make as dog owners. We call them only when it’s time to go home from the park or something else. Basically, why would he come to you, if he knows that “Come” means the end of the fun?
- Give him a great reason to come to you and make sure that is better than what is he doing at the moment. So for example when you say “Come” remember to always reward him with something like his favorite toy, or his favorite treat, so this translates to dog as “If I go when I hear “Come” it means I am getting something better than I have right now”
