A basic guide to training your dog

Training a dog should begin at an early age as dogs learn quickly when they are puppies, but they can still learn when they are older, it may take longer and you will need to have more patience.

Some of the most simple commands for a dog to learn are also the most useful for real world situations.

  • Sit
    Useful to get your dog to stop what it is doing and focus it’s attention. Get your dog to sit whilst waiting to cross the road gets it to notice traffic. Teaching it to sit when someone comes in the door prevents your dog from over excitement and jumping up at new people.
  • Stay
    A command that will take more training than the sit command but a useful one if you stick at it. This teaches a dog self control and can be very useful when you need to do important things like putting on it’s leash or letting it out of your car when it could be dangerous if it runs off.
  • Leave it
    Another command for self control, but again it could be vital. “It” could be something dropped on the floor that could be dangerous for your dog to eat, something it finds on a walk, another dog or even a child.
  • Come
    A vital command if you ever want to be able to take your dog off its leash in the park or introduce it to other animals. Dogs are naturally curious and will investigate most things, some of which could be dangerous for either the dog itself or what it is investigating.

Always train your dog using positive reinforcement, giving it treats on good behaviour, no matter how little that behaviour may be and never smack or shout if it doesn’t do exactly the right thing. Be patient and only train your dog when you have the time and inclination to do it properly.

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