Wants Some Puppy Obedience?
23 Oct 2008
There are just about as many ways to raise a puppy as there are to raise a child. When trying to get some puppy obedience from your puppy, each family or owner will do it differently! It is generally agreed however that there are some things that are universal and without question when it comes to raising children. In light of that, following are three things that a lot of people overlook that are important to consider when raising a dog. How many times have you heard, “My dog won’t listen to me”, or “They just misbehave all the time!”
1. Dogs don’t understand English; we have to teach them!
One of the most wonderful things about puppies is that their lives revolve around us, their owners. We are their whole focus. From when they are just small they study us to learn what is meant through our body language, tones and even facial expressions. Until we teach them English, this is all they can rely on. If we were to say to them, “Want to go for a walk?” on one day and then “Do you need to go potty?” the next and then, “Do you want to play ball” the next day, the only way they might know what you are trying to say is if you pick up their leash and head towards the door with it! If you want to communicate better with your puppy and speed up his learning process by three times, you need to teach him YOUR LANGUAGE. The best idea is to pick a command for each individual behavior or instruction and then make sure you use it each time. Also make sure others in the house use that same command. You’ll be surprised by how quickly your puppy will learn.
2. A small puppy has a much faster metabolism that you might think.
The younger a puppy is, the faster they are growing, the harder it is to see that puppy obedience . This means that they’ll need food and water more frequently to fuel their metabolism and of course this will mean they’ll need to go to the potty more. It’s important not to punish your puppy if he makes a house-breaking mistake; you need to let him outside enough. Your puppy’s age in weeks as well as his breed size will be a guideline for how often they need to take a trip outside the house. Especially in the summer, it’s not too much for a puppy, say a large 6-week old, to need to go outside once an hour. Your puppy will love the fresh, exciting smells of the outdoors so there’s no need to keep them inside too much and they should be house-broken by 7 - 8 weeks of age. Some key times that its great for your puppy to be outside are just after a nap, after grooming and after they eat and generally these are times that your puppy will try to tell you they want to be outside! If your puppy is happily chewing away on a toy and then gets up all of a sudden and puts his nose to the floor, this is a sign he needs to go potty, so move fast! Make sure you give your puppy praise every time he goes potty outside. Your puppy will love your happy face as you tell him “Good boy” or something similar. They will do anything to see that happy face again.
3. Your puppy lives to see positive facial expressions and body language from you.
The worst punishment you can give your dog is a sour face, along with turning your back on him. If you’ve ever done this, you’ll have seen your puppy’s tail drop and a sad little face peering back at you. Whatever lesson you are teaching him, he’ll learn it fast this way. But also remember that your puppy’s attention span is only 3-5 minutes so don’t drag out your negative attention to your dog, he won’t remember what it was about after a while and won’t understand why you are not giving him positive attention. Your puppy will learn your facial expression and body language in no time and become a master of them. They are all you need to control your dog; physical punishment is never needed.
Like we said earlier, there are many ways and aspects of training a dog but one of the most important things to remember is that a happy, loving owner leads to a happy, loving puppy. Use the three tips above consistently and with love and confidence and you’ll be sure to see a happy, well adjusted dog as a result. Puppy obedience won’t be an issue at all…