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"Dog Obedience Training – How To Eliminate Frustration By Training Your Pet Right From the Beginning!"
Beginning dog obedience training sessions should focus on the most basic dog obedience commands. The "heel" command is one of the most basic, and one of the easiest to teach. Start by putting the dog or puppy in a properly fitted training collar. Be sure to follow the instructions for fitting and sizing the color to ensure that it works as intended.
Begin to walk and allow your dog to walk beside you. If the dog begins to pull, gently pull on the leash. This in turn will tighten the training collar and correct the dog. If the gentle pressure is ineffective, it may be necessary to slowly increase the pressure. Always be careful to not over-correct the dog. Using too much pressure could frighten the dog and cause it to strain more. I the opposite problem occurs and the dog lags behind, the owner should gently encourage it until it is walking beside the owner.
Most dogs figure out the heeling concept fairly rapidly, and quickly figure out that they should walk beside their owners, neither lagging behind nor pulling ahead. Once the dog has mastered heeling at a moderate pace, the owner should slow his or her pace and allow the dog to adjust along with it. The owner should also speed up the pace and allow the dog to speed up as well. Finally, walking along and changing pace often will reinforce the lesson that the dog should always walk at the heel of the handler.
From heeling, the next step should be to train your dog or puppy to "halt" on command. This halt command works well as an adjunct to heel. As you are walking, stop and watch you dog. Many dogs immediately realize that they are expected to stop when their handler does. Others may need the reminder of the leash and the training collar.
After the halt on command has been mastered, the handler should encourage the dog to "sit" on command as well. Once the dog has stopped, the handler gently pushes on the dog’s hindquarters to encourage the sit. Usually, after this walk, halt, sit procedure has been done a few times, the dog will begin to sit on his own each time he stops. Of course, it is important to provide great praise, and perhaps even a treat, every time the dog does as he is expected.
Many dog trainers make the mistake of training the dog inside the house or back yard, and only when the handler is there. In order to become a reliably trained companion, the dog must be taken outside the confines of its safety zone and introduced to novel situations.
Teaching the dog to pay attention to the handler at all times is imperative. Having the attention of the dog means having control of the dog. Having control is the cornerstone of a well trained dog that listens to you amongst distractions is proof that your dog obedience training has been effective and that your dog will function well in public.
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