About 78 million dogs are owned by households across the United States. This works out to almost half of the households in the country owning at least one dog. While many dogs are purchased or adopted fully grown, many more are brought home as young puppies, which means that they will need to be trained to be obedient both to you and everyone who lives in the house with you. Dog obedience training isn’t easy, but thankfully there are some tips for you you can make it easier on yourself and your pet. This article will take a look at a few of those tips.
- Invest in Dog Training Classes: One tip for teaching your dog obedience is to invest in dog training classes. It’s relatively easy to find places that offer short term obedience courses, and they’re worth the cost since you’ll be taking your dog to a professional that knows how to work with dogs. While it’s not impossible to train your dog by yourself at home, it can often be far easier to use a dog training class because not only are you working with a professional, but you’re also acclimating your dog to being around other dogs.
- Be Consistent With How You Reward and Punish Behavior: Another tip for teaching your dog obedience is to be consistent with how you reward and punish behavior, both good and bad. While there are many ways to provide positive and negative reinforcement when teaching obedience, the key is to pick one method and stick with it. If you jump back and forth between different punishment or reward methods, then you will be inadvertently confusing your dog and they won’t know how they’re supposed to respond to you, which will make training far more difficult.
- Remember Dog Obedience Training Will Take Time: And finally, a third tip for teaching your dog obedience is to remember that obedience training will take time. Young puppies spend between 15 and 20 hours per day sleeping, much like a human baby that sleeps for up to 16 hours. As a result, they won’t always feel up to paying attention when you want to reinforce a lesson. No matter how long it seems to be taking, remember that every lesson creates progress, and before you know it your dog will be trained and obedient to you, as long as you are patient with them.
In conclusion, there are several tips for teaching your dog obedience. These tips include investing in dog training classes, being consistent with how you reward and punish behavior, and remembering that obedience training will take time. These are just a few of the tips that can help with training your dog to be obedient.