Dog Obedience Guide

By James Callahan

There's an age-old adage (you've probably heard it) that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, if you're dog is wildly disobedient and no longer a puppy, don't worry because old sayings aren't always true, no matter how catchy they sound. Ideally, you should have started training your dog from six weeks of age but, again, this isn't an absolute necessity. There are plenty of great guides out there that canvass behavioral problems with adult dogs, so I'll leave the details to the pros, but I will cover a few basics here.

Positive reinforcement is a technique that vastly improves learning in children and humans in general. Well, it works on dogs as well. Basically, positive reinforcement entails rewarding positive behavior and ignoring negative behavior. There's another phrase that states that "any attention is good attention", which is why negative reinforcement (i.e. punishing bad behavior) simply does not work. For example, there's a significant body of evidence to suggest that many serial killers only kill for the attention (many have admitted as such). Furthermore, negative reinforcement can (and in many cases has) lead to behavioral problems further down the line. So just don't do it. So what exactly constitutes negative reinforcement? This is where you have to exercise a bit of common sense. For instance, obviously, you shouldn't hit your dog, even if it makes a mistake. Ideally, you shouldn't shout at it but it isn't exactly terrible if you do, just a bit counter-intuitive because, as I already mentioned, any attention (to a dog) is good attention.

Now to the crux of the issue: how to positively reinforce good behavior? It's simple: when your dog does something you approve of, reward it by giving it a doggy treat. This is how you get your dog to obey your commands, when you say 'sit' and your dog obeys (here some gentle - and I mean GENTLE (!) - prodding might be necessary), reward your dog accordingly. In no time at all, your dog will get the message and obey your commands effortlessly. You should keep giving your dog treats even after it consistently obeys your commands, lest if fall back into old habits.

Remember, your dog isn't a commodity and it isn't an item, so don't treat it like one. It's your friend so you should build your relationship with it on mutual respect. Respect is a two-way street and it IS better to be respected than feared. If you treat your dog with respect and kindness, over time it will learn to work for that respect and kindness.

If you're interested in learning more about dog obedience training, pay a visit to my blog: http://dogobedienceguide.blogspot.com/