Is Your Dog Obedient?

Having your dog do everything you tell him may not be enough to answer this question. And we affirm this because, at times, the dog can obey orders only in the presence of his master, and then do what he wants as soon as he is alone at home.

These orders can be not to get on the bed or sofa, not to carry the remains of the garbage around the house, or not to bite your shoes. It is evident that if, upon your return, he realizes that your dog has made one of these pranks, then he is not an obedient animal.

The question is why your dog is only obedient when you are present. The answer is obvious: because you taught him that certain behaviors involve punishment. Do you also chastise him when you find out that he has done another of his while you weren’t at home?

Teach him to be obedient 

Author: Barcelona · Three Looks

There are a number of basic orders and you cannot let your dog ignore them. Here’s what they are:

• Here
• Spring
• No!
• Up
• Below

Teaching your dog to be obedient and to respect the following orders takes time and patience, always helping you with your hands, to show your pet what you want him to do.

For example, if you want him to let go, you can bring your hand closer as you say “Release” so that the dog can connect the action to the command. If you want him to get on something, tap your hand on the place where you want the dog to go, while saying “Up”, if you want him to go down, point to the floor while saying “Down”.

When the dog has learned to associate all these words with the relative actions to be performed, use small “baits” to test the obedience of your furry friend, and to continue training him. If, for example, he bites your shoes, leave them in plain sight to see how he behaves when you are not looking at him. Obviously, be careful not to lose sight of it if you don’t want to say goodbye to your shoes forever.

At this point it is very likely that your dog will throw himself on them, but if you are constant in this type of exercise and you say “No!” every time he tries to bite your shoes, he will learn to associate this action with your command and understand that it is best to stop. After a certain period, when the dog has learned not to devour your shoes, try to leave them out while you are away, to see, on his return, what his reaction was, this time.

Upon your return, if you see that your four-legged friend has not touched your shoes, congratulations: yours is truly an obedient dog! If, in return, you find yourself with a pair of shoes to throw away, don’t lose heart and keep trying. Obviously using the already broken pair of shoes.

Give a prize, but also a lesson

It is absolutely proven that the best way to educate a dog is to reward him when he behaves correctly and chastise him when he behaves badly. Obviously when we talk about punishment, we never mean the physical one and we don’t even refer to actions that can scare the dog or that could cause him a trauma.

During training sessions with your furry friend, reward him every time he is obedient, even if he only has to obey your orders once. Always show him his “reward”, but if he doesn’t obey, don’t give it to him. As you do this, you can speak to him softly and affectionately as you try to teach him to be obedient and tell him what he must do if he is to get his reward.

Here are some simple tips for teaching your dog to be obedient:

• Plan your training session after doing some physical activity. House animals accumulate large amounts of energy and it can be very tiring for the animal to concentrate during training if he has not had the opportunity to let off steam. If you give him a chance to exercise before training, without over-tiring him, it will be much easier to teach him to be more obedient.

• Don’t put too much meat on the fire. Make a plan and decide what to teach your friend from time to time : if you try to teach him everything at once, you run the risk of saturating your dog with too much information and the poor animal will go into confusion, without understanding anything.
• Don’t let him do what he wants. Sometimes dogs do funny things that make us laugh, even when they’re not obeying. Try to correct and repress this impulse, because you are in charge and the animal must understand it. You have to be consistent with what you ask him and what you allow him to do.