Beginning Obedience Class

When teaching dog obedience the most important factor is consistency. The dog needs to get praised for the proper behavior, at the right time. If you tell your dog to heel, but don’t enforce the proper position or the automatic sit, the dog won’t know when you really mean it. It is all about proper commands and timing. We will work with this during class, the more you train, the better you will become, and the greater success your dog will have. We will be training you to train your dog! This week you will only have three things to learn and practice.

Heeling: Practice heeling 10-15 minutes a day. The command is “Fred Heel”, then start walking with your left foot first. If the dog lags behind give a little tug, not a long pull! When the dog reaches the proper heel position give lots of praise and or a treat. If the dog lunges ahead again quick tugs to bring him back and again praise. Try to keep some slack in the leash, the idea is to let the dog make a mistake, if you just lead the dog around with a tight leash, he will never learn where he is supposed to be. For the first few weeks it is ok to repeat the heel command as you bring him to the proper position. What you don’t want to do is nag, heel, heel, heel, constantly. Just like when your parents nag you, your dog will just shut down and ignore you. Use a pleasant happy voice when you start. This should be fun for your dog, lots of praise!

The automatic sit: Dogs learn this from repetition. Every time you stop, with your leash in the right hand reach over with your left and place your dog in a sit, while saying sit. Praise him when he sits, trying to keep him in that position at least for a few seconds. I will show you how to get your dog into a sitting position in class. It may be a little different depending on your size, your dog’s size and how he responds. It your dog already knows how to sit, then he gets one command and then immediately place him in the sit. Once again no saying sit over and over again! Eventually he will figure out he is going to have to sit when you stop, and will sit before you even say it. If by chance you have one of those super intelligent dogs and he sits when you stop before you say so on the first week, immediately give him praise!!! Even if he gets out of the heel position let him know that is what you want! If you make it a big deal the first few times it will click that that sitting got him a whole bunch of love! He will want to sit as fast as he can to get that love.

The down: Again getting your dog to lie down on command may vary depending on the size of the dog. We will work in class on the best way for your dog. The most important thing is to not repeat more than necessary. The idea is to get your dog to do what is asked with one command. In competing in Obedience that is all you get!

Two training sessions a day, about 15 minutes each is ideal. I know

everyone has a busy schedule, generally when training adults to train their dogs this doesn’t happen. I will tell you now the people that don’t put the time in are the once that never finish the course and call say their dogs were too dumb and were drop outs! Since you are in 4H we don’t accept drops outs! Some dogs are smarter than others, and some will excel and learn faster. But, every dog can learn, they may not learn as fast, they may work slower, but they all can finish this class and compete in just a few months. If you will promise to work them a minimum of 3 times a week, you will see progress.

I would also like to say that the harder you work at obedience, the better you will do in all the other things we do. When you start agility you need control over your dog. The dog needs to listen to you and watch you for direction.

Please call if you are having trouble with the lessons this week, or have any other questions. 625-2999 or 304-4230.