Obedience Training for Dogs – Curbing an Unruly Spirit

Dogs make wonderful pets and can truly be considered man’s best friend. I mean think about it – who is the first to rush to the door barking its head off when a stranger comes calling?  Your dog of course! As wonderful as they are as pets they do need obedience training for dogs whether it is housetraining, simple commands that need to be obeyed or training for competitions. Each type of training differs in the essentials used to train the dog.

There is another aspect to obedience training for dogs which is aggression training to curb excessively unruly behavior.

Before you begin the obedience training for dogs, you need to first find the answer to why the dog behaves the way it does.  This will give you a better handle on the aggression training method to be used.  To find the answer you need to monitor the dog’s behavior and identify the triggers to the aggression.

To a large extent, aggressive behavior can be attributed to two common factors: fear and dominance.  Both can be minimized through effective training. Aggression may be caused by less common factors like very strong maternal instincts or medical related problems. One can be managed by changes in human behavior the other by a veterinarian.

How to reduce fear aggression

In any kind of obedience training for dogs, it is important to use small steps to reach the solution. A dog’s first instinct is to flee when it is afraid; if a dog cannot run, it turns around and fights. You need to slowly but consistently introduce the dog to the thing that triggers the fear response. Distract the dog with a treat and command it to stay. You may not have much success initially but persistence will pay off eventually. Make sure to heap praises on the dog each time it obeys your command to stay.

How to reduce dominance aggression

This is quite a different ball game altogether and will need another type of obedience training for dogs  approach. When a dog considers the owner as part of the pack and wants to establish itself in the dominant position, the owner will need to use deference training to control this behavioral trait. This method involves training the dog to look to the owner for permission to do something.

Ideally establishing the fact that you are in control not the dog should be part of the early obedience training for dogs program. If, for whatever reason this has not been sufficiently emphasized you need to get started right away. Make the dog sit first before you give him the food bowl; make him stay, with the bowl in front of him until you give the command to eat.  These commands need to be given in a firm yet gentle voice and accompany the command to eat with a little pat on the head to show approval for good behavior.

Be firm in your resolve not to give the dog what he wants be it food, toys, or the treat you are holding until he obeys you. At this time, do not pet the dog no matter how cutely he jumps at you trying to get your attention. You can get the dogs attention by using a rattle or clicker to show you mean business.  Do not engage in games of tug of war that allows the dog exhibit dominance.

Whatever it is you are training the dog for, there will be an increase in bad behavior at the outset of the training. Your dog’s IQ is the same as that of a two year old and will take time to understand, so be patient during this phase.