Do you have a new dog or puppy? If so you might be interested in getting some elementary dog training. Now, before you get the wrong idea this is training for your dog, not you!
Dog training is taught by an obedience instructor and you will be in a class with other dogs and owners. However there is a fee for this and many people prefer to train their dog themselves. If you decide to do so yourself you will need to know a bit about dog training. There are three basic commands which your dog will need to learn before anything else. They are ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and ‘come’.
“Sit”
To teach your dog to sit gather some treats and holding the treat above their head tell them to “it” repeatedly. If they do not do so gently push their rear down until they are sitting, then give the treat and plenty of praise. Do this a number of times and soon your dog will learn to sit down when you instruct them to.
“Stay”
Next you should teach your dog to stay. This can often take time and you will need to be patient. Sit your dog down and slowly back away from them repeating the command “stay”. If your dog gets up (they will at first) tell them sternly “No!” and start again. Keeping eye contact with your dog can help and sometimes it might be necessary to enlist a second person to help. This person will stay with the dog whilst you are backing away, once your dog has got used to staying with a second person you can move onto teaching your dog to stay when it is just the two of you.
“Come”
The third elementary command is “come” and obviously this can only be taught after your dog has mastered “stay”. In comparison to “stay”, “come” is very easy. Simply pat your knee and in a happy voice say “come” and your dog should immediately bound over to you. You can now reward your dog with a favorite treat.
