What Does Dog Obedience Training Teach?

Teaching obedience commands is a great way to improve your relationship with your dog.

Obedience will teach your dog focus and self-restraint while making him better behaved.  Obedience is also a great way to stimulate your dog mentally.

The command gives your dog something to think about rather than a previously typical knee-jerk reaction.  They understand that sit means to sit quietly, and heel means be attentive to their handler.  Using commands as tools can help a dog focus in situations that were previously tough for him.  Through distraction training, dogs learned self-control and confidence.  “Self-control,” meaning he can control his actions on his own.  Confidence is the result, and then he feels less of a need to bark or act out.  A lack of confidence and self-control in dogs tends to develop into a variety of unwanted behaviors.  So it is important to make obedience a way of life.

With practice and consistency at home, you should be able to help your dog become a much better member of society.

The use of standard cue words is a basic tool used to get desired behavior from a dog.  The following are the standard cue words used at Acme Canine; in addition, we use to suggest an owner’s release word, crate word, and elimination command:

1. Off – the dog needs 4 feet on the ground.
2. Leave it – the dog needs to get away from item or dog (litter, poop, urine, etc.)
3. Wait – the dog is to stop moving forward
4. Quiet – dog is to stop barking
5. Back – the dog is to back up so another dog can go through the door
6. No – the dog is to stop what it is doing and focus on us

Keeping Cues Strong

• To avoid teaching the dog to ignore us, it is most successful to use each cue word only once and enforce the cue given.
• Use verbal praise and brief pats to reward dogs for proper responses to cues.
• Praise the dog when they respond to your cue.  Remain patient and be consistent.

Have you and your dog already had obedience lessons? 

Try taking him off-leash!  Teaching off-leash obedience is a very challenging yet rewarding way to spend time with your dog.  Interested, but not sure how to do this?  Acme Canine can help you out!