Dog obedience training

We have already seen how important it is to train our dog in basic obedience. Even if we teach our dog only the most basic commands, we can rest assure that we will successfully greatly improve not only our life but our dogs life too!

Teaching the stay command means
having the chance to take great
pictures  of your dogs :-)

Let’s see the basic commands that we have to teach to our dog during obedience training and which is the best age to start obedience training.

When to start obedience training

We can start teaching our dog basic obedience commands from day one. This is what we call puppy training.  When the dog is still a puppy not only it is easier to teach new things but also the dog will carry this knowledge for ever. Older dogs can also learn – it is never to late to teach an old dog new tricks – but not only it takes more time but we also have to repeat the lessons more often for the dog to maintain the newly acquired knowledge.

So don’t wait! Start training your dog from day one!

Basic dog obedience commands:

1)      COME: 

Teaching our dog to come on command is the most important obedience command. Not only it can make our life a lot easier, but it also means that our dog can enjoy more freedom and also in some cases this command could actually save our dog’s life.

2)      NO and WELL DONE: 

Ok, well done is not actually a command, but in combination with the NO command we can teach our dog or puppy the right behaviors. Our feedback is the only way for the puppy to know what is right and what is wrong. 

3)      HEEL: 

It is very important to properly walk our dog. We have to teach our dog even from the first day not to pull the leash and to follow our lead. Otherwise pretty soon we will find out that walking our dog is exhausting, not entertaining and very stressful. This means that our dog will have less walks which is very bad because not only we won’t be able to enjoy a walk with the dog that we love but also our dog will enjoy less freedom, less walks and this could lead to a lot of behavior problems. We should teach our dog not to pull the leash from day one (even in our house) , to actually Heel takes a lot longer and we should not expect from a puppy to obey this command from day one, but this does not mean that we should not start the training as soon as possible.

4)      SIT: 

We use this order when we want our dog to sit down on the back legs. As simple as it may sound, this is one of the most useful commands and can save us from a lot of trouble. For example we don’t want our dog to jumb all over us when we are trying to feed him, we can simply give the sit command and then give him the food.

5)      LAY DOWN: 

First we have to teach the SIT command. Then it is very easy to teach our tog to lay down and this order can prove useful in some occasions, for example when we take our dog to the vet for examination.

6)      OK: 

We give this command to release our dog from a previous order. For example when we say sit, we wait for our dog to sit and then we praise the dog and say ok to release him from the order which means that he/she may stand up. This order might sound useless but you will never be able to teach your dog to stay if you have not teach the OK command first.

7)      STAY: 

We use this command when we want our dog to stay exactly where he is until we give him the ok command. The STAY command and the COME command are the two most important obedience commands. The stay command is extremely useful and is also so handy that it can also save your dogs life one day.

These are the 7 basic dog training commands regarding obedience but many people say that even if you only teach your dog to COME, SIT, NO and not pull the leash, it will still be paradise compared to a dog that has received no training at all.

Remember to always make training look like a game, the dog should always look forward for the training sessions. Also don’t rush from one command to the other, first make sure that the dog has really understand one command and only then proceed with the next one.