Basic Obedience Commands

So if we start teaching them basic obedience commands, what’s okay, what’s not okay, guiding them out of trouble by using a leash in the house to keep them with us, using baby gates and crates to keep them confined when we can’t watch them, also to keep them out of trouble, and really important teaching them right away that we control the resources that are important to them, because if you think about it what’s most important to puppies and dogs it’s in no particular order, attention and affection, food, treats, toys, going out to play, going out for walks. If we give them those things for free it’s pretty natural for them to say humans are my servants. But if we teach them actually that they have to work for the things they value meaning we teach them to sit and them require them to sit before we give them their meals, before we give them treats, before we give them some petting and attention then it’s kind of like teaching a little kid to say please and it really does work. And so not only does it teach them obedience commands but it teaches them how to use those commands to get the things they want from us in a way that we find enjoyable rather than jumping on us and barking at us and biting us to get attention.

Plus it also retains that pack order.

The humans are the leaders and the dogs are the followers. Now I think I’ve had a follower dog and a leader dog and my current dog who is a German Shepard and she is so smart, she seems to be a little more submissive and we’ve–I think we’ve done a much better job of training her than we did the previous Golden Retriever who was more of a leader. He liked to do things his own way I think. But that personality trait of being a leader or a follower does that stay with them throughout their lives if you if you do train them to you know follow you?

As long as we’re consistent setting up rules that are reasonable, teaching them how to obey the rules and how to get the rules to get the things they want from us they really–again it gets back to what we had said earlier about them being creatures of habit and routine. Once the routines are set unless we change them they’re not going to change them because they’re pretty much okay with them. It’s kind of one of the little secrets that dogs don’t want us to know. They don’t care how they get what they want–if they actually get what they want; so if we teach them that the best way to get what they want is to sit and stay and look adorable, like my little dog Mickey is doing right now, then they’re cool with that. On the other hand, if they think they can get what they want by being annoying and it’s our word not theirs they just know if it works or not, and if barking gets them attention there is no reason for them to stop barking. So kind one of the truths of dog training is if you’re not happy with the way your dog behaves and you want to change that you have to change the way you interact with your dog and once you change your interactions they kind of pick on it and they go oh, okay; that’s the new rule huh? And they’re really fine with it either way but we naturally want them to do the things that we want them to do and not the things they cook up on their own.