Dog Obedience Training – It’s Necessary!

Anyone that has a dog, should know that dog obedience training is pretty necessary!  I can tell when I meet a dog if they’ve had any training at all, or if they’d just been allowed to do whatever they want.  Allowing a dog to have free run of everywhere can cause not only stress on the dog, but the owner as well.

Basic obedience can mean a world of difference when people meet your dog for the first time.  A dog that is calm is much more approachable, and invites people to want to be around them.  Dogs that are jumping all over the place, barking, pulling on a leash or just running around the house when people come over, tends to make people nervous.

Seriously, what’s better in these two scenarios coming up?

First scenario is an untrained dog.  Let’s cover what this could mean.

A Non-Trained Dog

Scenario One: You’re visiting a friends house, and they have a dog.  You ring the doorbell, and all of a sudden you hear loud, viscious barking, then you hear banging on the door, followed up by claws scraping.  Your friend attempts to open the door, but this big dog is right there and pushing its way past to you.  You back up, naturally, because the dog is huge and barking at you like crazy!

As you attempt to step back where you were, this big dog is coming closer, still barking at you.  Your friend simply tries to pull the dog back a little, barely, by the collar, and says instead, “Oh, don’t mind him, he just gets excited.”  So, you attempt to enter the house, but this dog is now standing guard at the door and won’t let you pass.  He then proceeds to jump up on you, and now you’re stuck with a dog, taller than you on your shoulders.  What do you do?

Before I move to the other scenario, let’s talk about basic dog obedience training first.

Basic Dog Obedience Training.

People that haven’t done any sort of obedience training, might be asking what this is exactly.  Basic obedience in dogs means, that when you give the dog a command, they do what you say.  It can be anything so simple as, Come, or Off.  In the scenario above, clearly, the dog doesn’t know that he’s not supposed to jump on people.

Some people are afraid of dogs, and a dog that’s taller than the person is pretty intimidating.  This doesn’t instill confidence for the person that’s visiting your home.

Training a dog is easy, it’s just very repetitive.  The same command given over and over.  It takes a dog 175 times to hear a command, to understand what it means and do it every time.  So, if the dog above was trained, the person could say, “No Speak” to the barking.  “Off” to the dog jumping on the person.  And, finally “Sit” in order to be less excited.

The Dog Obeys.

Scenario Two:  You’re visiting your friends house for the first time.  You ring the doorbell, and you hear a deep barking in the background.  It lasts only a moment, and then it stops.  Your friend answers the door, the dog is simply sitting behind your friend on the floor.

Your friend welcomes you and asks you to come in.  You do, and the dog is just sitting there watching you.  He lifts his nose into the air, and sniffs your scent. but doesn’t get up from his seated position.

Your friend invites you to the kitchen for a glass of wine, and you accept.  The dog follows you to the kitchen.  Your friend sees her dog up from the seated position, and simply says, “Sit”.  The dog sits.

Out of the two scenarios, one, the dog isn’t trained and clearly runs the house.  Scenario two, the dog listens and sits when she says.  Wouldn’t you enjoy visiting more so, knowing that you’re not going to get jumped on, or barked at?  I know I sure like the trained scenario much more.

Finding a Professional Trainer if Needed.

A lot of dog owners get very confused when it comes to training their dogs.  I know for my family, I had to find a professional trainer, so that they understood why I’m so strict with my dogs.  When my friends visit, I hate when my dogs jump up on them.  It does take a lot of time and patience to train them out of that mode.  But, it can be done if you simply follow through every time.  My family didn’t understand this.  Professional dog training not only trains the dogs, but the humans as well.

However, finding a professional trainer can help alleviate the guesswork out of training.  What commands do you use?  How do you train?  What steps should be taken first?

Now, not all trainers are good trainers.  I will admit that.  There are a lot out there that don’t know the first thing to training a reactive dog.  These are the dogs that will jump, lunge, bark, or pull on a leash.  Especially when they see other dogs, or humans.  You don’t want this.  This has to be trained out of the dog, to learn to be more confident with their training.

It can be done though, and once your dog is trained, the rest comes easy.  I will say, it doesn’t stop, ever.  Training will continue forever with your dog.  But, if you know what you’re doing, it’s easy.

Final Words on Dog Obedience Training.

Basic obedience is necessary for all dogs.  It doesn’t matter if you have a 2 lb Chihuahua.  In fact, they’re the most reactive dogs out there, and tend to try to bite people.  All dogs, no matter their breed, need basic training.  It means, you can walk them and they don’t pull.

You can bring them around people and dogs, and they focus on you, not the other people and dogs.  It means you can bring people over to your home, and your dog doesn’t go crazy every time.

Wouldn’t life be more simple if your dog actually listened to what you say for them to do?  Like sit, or go into a Down position, or not bark all the time?  When my dogs don’t know the basics, then it’s stressful.  Good thing my dogs know the basics.

Muse is on her way to being trained, but it does take time.  Over the course of the next year, I’ll be training her daily so she gets the commands down.  She needs to focus her attention on me, and not the other activities around me.  Less stress means happy dog, happy life.

If you live in Anchorage, Alaska – 907 Hell Hound Crew is our trainer.  One of the best I’ve ever booked with, she actually knows her stuff.  You can visit her here for information.

What are your thoughts on training a dog?  Tell us your experiences in the past!