Obedience Training Dogs

Here are four simple tips to get started right away. These will will be imprinted as 'good habits' so make these things a priority with your new dog.

My dog's name is Charley so I will use that as an example name here (remember to insert your dog's name where it says Charley or there will be more confusion than anyone can handle!).

1. Teach your new dog or puppy its name.

OK this seems really obvious but notice I didn't say name your new dog....but teach him his name! Use the name regularly and all the time when you are addressing him. Repetition, you will discover, is one of the great secrets of obedience training dogs and this is a fine example. Your dog will start to respond to his name very quickly, providing you repeat it to him often enough. For this reason, think carefully about a name befor just jumping in. You will have to repeat it a lot and also not sound stupid when you call him in public. Most dog names end in an 'ee' sound (like, coincidentally, my Charley) so if you have a dog you want to take on shoots, choose a more unpopular vowel ending ,such as an 'oh' sound, so your dog will identify his name above the all others calling theirs. Sheep dogs often have short easily repeated names like Skip or Shep which are quick & easy to shout over and over in commands.

2. Start to teach your puppy really simple commands to start with."Charley, shake hands, say 'sausages' and then play dead" will be a bit much for the little mite in his first lessons!

The obvious place to start is with the "Sit!" command. Always address your dog with his name first so you get his attention and he knows you are talking to him. So it would be "Charley, sit!" rather than just "sit!". You can also use a hand signal together with the command. A good one to use is the raised hand, palm out . To visualise this, maybe you have seen footage of nazis saluting Hitler? They all exteded their arm so high & straight whereas old Adolf would just give a casual flick of the wrist in acknowledgement. That's what you are aiming for here (Hitlers response, not the full salute, obviously). Over time your dog may well obey the visual command without you having to say sit. Over-enthusiastic dogs may well go on to invade Poland.

3. Feeding time. Avoid a frenzy.

This is a time for just you and your dog or puppy as puppies, especially can be easily distracted from their food. Small children should not be around for two reasons. Firstly, the dogs food is not so good for them to eat and secondly, dogs sometimes find it very hard to fully grasp the concept of sharing. Show him who is the 'big-boss-alpha-pack-leader-first class' by making him sit before you put his bowl down in front of him. Basically, you are saying "I am James T. Kirk and you are the midshipman we have never seen before who gets fried while on the away team to the planet's surface". You have to be Kirk in your chain of command and feeding time is a good place to remind your dog of this. Hey, you could call your dog Spock - does he have pointy ears?

4. Teach the 'Gentle Command'

Whenever you give your dog a treat or a reward, alway make him sit, just like at mealtimes. The other thing I find works is to insist that he does not snatch the treat from your hand. This command would be "Charley, gentle" as you are giving the treat. If he snatches it, open his mouth and take it back and try again. Over time you will only need to use the command occasionally to remind him, but this is an important one as a nip from a little pup is quite diifferent to a nip from a fully grown doberman. Teach this early.

So where do you learn how to go on from here? Well, one thing is to you can look in the local phone book and find a dog training school nearby

But wait!! They tend to be expensive .....but thats not the main drawback.

The main disadvantage is that folks think they are only training their dog for 2 hours on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. In fact you are training your dog the whole time so wouldn't it be be better to save a whole bunch of money and get a professional training course instead?

Then you can learn to train. Makes sense, dosn't it? You will never lose those skills and you can apply it to your next puppy who will come along way in the future, after Spock has 'beamed up'.

The nice people at Poochdogs.com offer some great training products about obedience training, housetraining puppies, a dogs health guide and a dog nutrition course (including a free nutrition e-book on the blog) They also offer a course called 'The Secrets of Dog Training' which has been used now by over 200,000 satisfied people and their obedient, happy hounds. It is highly recommended. But more about that later.

The nice person who told me how to make tis Squidoo thingy said to keep it to three modules and put this link here to that page and that link there to this page etc. etc.

I got most of it but this was not in the plan. I decided, just because if we met I would most probably like you - based on the fact you are still reading after my Hitler jokes, I would give you something for free - something which I am not supposed to do according to my Squidoo Guroo. But what the heck. Normal service continues with the module below this one (please do continue to read it or I will get so told off!)

Click the book image to get it 100% for free. No catch.

Also, by registering for free to get the free book, there will be some more freebies, information and tips we can keep you up to date on.

This guide utilises some of the advice and techniques found in the best selling 'Secrets to Dog Training'

Well with over 200,000 happy dog owners and happy obedient dogs as a result of this course, I think they should re-name it as its not much of a secret anymore!

It really is the ultimate companion to dog ownership, covering all aspects of behaviour training comprehensively in an easy-to-follow format. Here is the author, Daniel Stevens, on how 'Secrets to Dog Training' is different to any other dog training course out there:

"This is NOT just about housetraining and teaching your dog to perform basic commands: Obviously we cover that too and teach it as well as anyone else... but that's not the main benefit.....

* The vast majority of our Secrets to Dog Training members have been using it to solve the specific behavioral problems that they are having with their dogs.

* We cover over 25 behavioral problems in step by step detail including photos. These problems include aggression towards people and other dogs, digging, barking, whining, jumping, chewing, bolting out the front door, separation anxiety, coprophagia, housetraining, and much more.

* And it comes with UNLIMITED online based consultations with me and my dog training team. That way you get to make absolutely certain that YOUR specific dog problem gets solved. I've never seen anyone else offer this level of service."

There are hundreds of testimonials too. You can read them at the website i will tell you about in a bit. here are a couple I (probably illegally) lifted off the site to show you here:

"I love Secrets to Dog Training. I rescued two German Shepherds and I did not know anything about dog obedience. One of my dogs was quite aggressive with other dogs, and crazy about chasing cats and squirrels. What I like about your book is that you give insights into what the dog is thinking, why they behave the way they do, and tips on what to do to correct the problem.I have learned so much from your instructions, and my dogs are now following my commands and I am able to control them. Thanks for the great book."
-- Carla J. Johnson (Long Beach, California, USA)

And this funny one:

"I purchased the Secrets to Dog Training after I acquired a second puppy that was seven weeks old. My first puppy a male then 14 months old was a little bit aggressive with her. Now my puppies eat, sunbake and play together very happily. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about their animals." -- Lyn Spain (Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia

Sunbaking?? Makes me think of tomatoes. Well that's Australians for you.

You can have the course as a physical product or download it instantly from the site. The choice is yours although downloading is a bit cheaper because no shipping :-) To find out more about this superb course which all dog owners should have just click on the book image.........