Dog obedience training- An obedience trainer needs lots of patience. Dog obedience training tip work because He or She needs to be able to teach the dog in an unhurried, unflustered manner. The dog must never be given cause to fear training. The handler must be able to correct the dog, when necessary, without using threats. Each dog is different so the trainer needs to be able to adjust his/her methods to suit the dog under his/her training at the time.
- The handler needs to be able to bond with the dog and create in the dog a willingness to please. This is done from the time the dog is a pup right through to his old age. Talk to the dog in a pleasing way and use rewards appropriately. The relationships between dog and handler must be based on trust and respect. The dog must play with the handler before he will work for the handler. The dog must be taught to play away from home as well as at home. Play training remains important right through the training and trialling stages. Use a handy toy for play, one that fits into the pocket easily and one that is durable and turns the dog on.
- The dog must consider the handler to be the leader. Obedience trialling is not a democratic process. To be successful in obedience trialling the dog must follow the handler's commands - period! However, the dog must follow the leader because he wants to - not because he has to. It is a little like ballroom dancing where one partner takes the lead and the other partner voluntarily follows the lead. The partners are still working as a team and willingly but only one is calling the moves.
The Do's and Don'ts of Obedience Training - Do Select the Right Dog for the Task. Horses for Courses. Some dogs are more suited to a particular task than others, example: don't ask a Basset Hound to participate in agility. See Puppy Selection.
- Do understand exactly what you intend doing before taking the dog training. Be clear in your own mind exactly what it is you intend teaching the dog in a session and how it is to be done before putting the dog on lead.
- Do Start with Simple Exercises and Build on Them. Break each exercise down into stages, then work on each stage. Then sequence the stages, this is called chaining. Teach the pup the simple commands first and then build the more difficult commands and exercise sequences on them, ie teach the prerequisites of a particular exercise first.
- Do start as you mean to go on. Teaching the dog to do an exercise correctly in the first instance is important whether you are starting out with a pup or an older dog. The trainer must be consistent, dependable and predictable. The pup must be taught from the very first day he arrives home, an older dog's bad habits must be corrected immediately the new handler starts to train him. It is far easier to teach an exercise correctly in the first place than to break bad habits later.
- Do know the obedience rules for each exercise before you begin to train. You must have a clear idea of what the principle features of the exercise are, what the judge's commands will be, what will be penalized and what you can and can't do in the exercise, BEFORE you start training for it.
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