Basic Dog Obedience Training – Dog Training Essentials

Dogs never come trained with social etiquette. They don’t understand the formalities and basic manners that need to be maintained to adapt to our human society. Therefore, basic dog obedience training is crucial for them to learn the key behavioral factors that must be maintained.

While obedience training for dogs is essential to teach your pet behavioral etiquette, it also helps him understand your body language and the basic obedience commands you want him to follow.

The primary intention for such a basic training method is to keep your dog compliant, prevent unwanted behaviors, and act as positive reinforcement while forming a healthy bond between you two.

While there are multiple techniques of obedience training for aggressive dogs out there, few are as effective as the following,

E-Collar or Shock Collar Training

While many people despise the use of shock collars as it has a name for harming the pets. However, it’s also true that this training technique offers some utilities.

E-collars are not always the worst training process if you know how to use the equipment right. Expert trainers suggest this training for the dogs that are not the most obedient dog breeds. Although it’s not like they are allowing to harm the pets, it’s only to make those dogs alert.

Modern e-collars basically possess a vibrating stimulation that stimulates a slight vibration on your pet’s neck. It isn’t intended to punish the dogs in a harmful way; instead makes them slightly frightened so they stay restrained from the negative behaviors.

This training technique also helps your pet understand basic dog training commands, as every time he makes a mistake, the vibrating stimulation alerts him of that. Therefore, he can easily adapt the positive behaviors.

You should also be focusing on reward-based training. Allowing your dog to have rewards every time he accomplishes a task encourages him to be more active. Then the e-collar effects don’t bother him much, and he learns to establish a strong bond with you.

Prong Collar Training

There is another myth about prong collars being harmful to pets. While these collars look from the outside. One can simply fit this collar on his pet’s neck perfectly, and then there will be no risk of harm.

Prong collar training is another technique of basic obedience training. Just like a professional trainer uses an e-collar to fix dogs’ behavioral issues, he also supports the use of a prong collar as an alternative.

With prong collars, the pressure gets distributed evenly around the dog’s neck, not directly on the throat. It delivers an uncomfortable prick when jolted (as when your dog pulls), not by choking the animal into submission. Therefore, when your pet tries to pull away to show disobedience, the collar alerts him not to do so.

Proper handling of such a collar can prevent the dog’s trachea injury. So, it’s recommended not to use these collars if you are new in training.

Even with e-collars, these terms should be applied the same. None of these collars are recommended for puppies and should only be conducted by professionals.

Crate Training

You should also consider crate training as an option in basic obedience dog training, particularly puppy training. It’s vitally an essential training step recommended by the professional trainer to help your puppy develop a sense of security and safety.

Essentially, if used inadequately, crate training can ruin your dog’s behavior and build a sense of fear towards you. For instance, if you lock your dog in a crate when there are guests in your house or when he has done some mishap, it will badly affect your dog’s mental health.

So, you must go slowly and be careful about how you are treating your pet during such a training process.

The crate is one of the most useful tools any dog owner can have. It’s portable, free-standing, and light enough to move from room to room or take along on trips. It’s a dog’s sanctuary and a safe place when they can’t be supervised.

If your dog is nervous in new situations or anxious about being left alone, he can feel more relaxed and comfortable in his crate, reducing the amount of stress he feels.

Other than that, a crate can also restrain the destructive behaviors of your dogs. For example, if your pup repeatedly disobeys your orders, you can keep him locked in his crate for a while. It will help him understand his faults and not repeat the same mischievous again and again.

Get the best crate for your pup to allow your dog to have the best possible experience, but be aware of locking your pup in the crate too much. This is effective obedience training for puppies, so be sure to utilize it in the right way.

Clicker Training

The clicker training is a revolutionary way to teach your pet natural, non-violent, and humane ways. It is a system of using reinforcement and shaping to teach new behaviors.

It’s based on the principles of operant conditioning, which uses positive and negative reinforcement to train an animal to perform the desired behavior.

Clicker training marks the desired behavior of your pet through a distinct and consistent signal. Later on, it follows the signal with treats or rewards.

You can start training your dog through this training method only when he gets at least six months of age. Also, be sure not to extend the training session once your puppy has learned the desired behavior.

With clicker training, you can capture behavior as it’s happening and teach your dog the dog obedience hand signals and commands more effectively. By clicking at the exact moment your pet performs the desired action, you’re rewarding that action with a positive association.

As a bonus, clicker training allows for a more precise timing over treats. Instead of rewarding every single time your dog sits down, you can reward only when they sit perfectly on command.

Basic Obedience Training Fundamentals

While you maintain a specific training method to teach your dogs the obedience rules, paying close attention to the fundamentals is essential. There are some fundamentals of basic dog obedience training that a trainer should follow to make the training experience better for his pet.

Here is what you need to know more about the fundamentals,

1. Do Not Be Mean to Your Dog

You are the trainer, and you are training your dog to be obedient. But that doesn’t allow you to be mean or harmful to your dog in any way. Be sure only to punish your pet when required, but that shouldn’t be harmful to their health.

Try to play, be cheerful, and offer treats to your pet. Do not bind him to the training session for a long time. Avoid pressurizing him with too many obedience commands teaching in one day.

2. Be Consistent

You should be consistent as a trainer and outline a routine covering regular training sessions. If you do not stay constant, the training will not affect your pet’s behavior. It will also lead your dog to be too lazy to attend the other basic obedience training classes.

3. Start with the Basics

Try teaching your dog the basic commands first. Let him understand your hand signals and short marker words such as good, bad, yes, no, sit, stay, etc.

It will allow your dog to be familiarized with your body language. Later on, you can gradually advance your verbal commands from short to long marker works.

As you allow your dog to adjust to your behavioral nature, he gets comfortable around you, and thus, learns the verbal commands or hand signals sooner than you can expect.

There are seven commands every dog should know in the initial stage of obedience training, which are Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Heel, Off, and No.

Choosing an Obedience Training Instructor

It’s important to attend training classes that fit your dog’s needs and make sure they can provide the right kind of training. There are two kinds of dog training schools: those that use positive reinforcement and those that use other methods.

If you aren’t sure which one is right, bring your pup along to observe a class — you’ll be able to tell if the instructor cares about their students’ pups and, more importantly, their safety.

Summary

A majority of dog owners simply want a well-trained dog. They want the dog to listen to them, be well-behaved, and enjoy a happy relationship with the family.

That being said, Basic dog obedience training classes ensure that your pet is well trained to listen to your basic commands and stay within your control.

Start by teaching her the basic skills like “sit,” “down,” “stay,” and “come.” As your pup practices these basic commands, you can make him more advanced with things like “touch,” “formal heeling,” and “roll over.”

This article has simplified the most effective ways of training that can bring advancement to your dog’s exercise and give him the best possible experience. It has also elaborated on different tools and techniques that you can use in such a training program.

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