Teaching the dog some basic obedience is essential, because it not only produces a canine good citizen, but basic obedience is essential when solving some problems.
Here I am talking about basic sits, downs, stays, heeling, and informal recalls. If you intend training your dog for obedience trial work then, whilst I shall give you the basics here, you may wish to enroll in formal training lessons at a dog obedience training club.
THE SIT
This is an easy exercise to teach, as is the drop. I use the click and reward system and at this time you need to zip the lips and do not utter a sound. Hold a treat in one hand and the clicker in the other. With the dog standing next to you, you lift the treat over the dog's nose in an arc back over its head.
Move slowly and let the dogs nose follow the food. As the head lifts and goes back the hind quarters start to fall and the dog will sit down. It is important to be consistent with the hand movement. The slow and smooth arc must be repeated every time.
Some dogs are very obstinate and if you absolutely fail to get the dog to sit, keep the food moving over its head but apply a little pressure to the rump. The dog will eventually get the idea.
You need the click to be accurate here. You want to mark the dog's rear touching, or just before touching, the ground. Rather early than late with the click. You may need to repeat this exercise over and over before the dog actually offers a sit without the food treat. Several short sessions are better than one long one.
THE DROP
The drop is taught with the dog in a sit position and the treat is taken from the dog's nose straight to the ground, between the dog's feet, and brought forward in an "L" shape. Click as the front elbows touch the ground or just before. The hand movement must be done at a medium speed and must be consistently the same letter "L" shape
As the drop position is a submissive position, you may find some dogs will not drop straight away. Patience, and if necessary, light pressure on the top of the shoulders will eventually get through to the dog, and he should drop.
You can start adding a cue word with the sit or drop when you can bet $50 the dog will follow your visual hand signals. You say the word, then give the signal and do not forget the click when the dog does the requested action.
Do not repeat the command immediately if the dog does not respond to the voice cue. If you get into the habit of repeating your commands, the dog gets to a stage where it knows it can safely ignore the first 3 or 10 or 20 commands and act as and when it wants to. If the dog ignores the first command you have progressed too quickly.
Before you give the command, make sure the dog is ready for your command. Is it looking at you and focused, or is it watching Mitzy, that cute little poodle over yonder. Call the dogs name, wait a second or two and then give the cue, followed by the signal. If you fail to get any movement, go back to the start and rebuild the exercise.
Nev Allen has been training dogs for 30 years and wants to help you to make your puppy a good canine citizen. If you want to understand all that is involved with dog obedience training, clicker training and dog ownership then you can read articles and watch videos about these fascinating topics at http://dogobediencetrainingblogs.com.
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