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 mentally stimulate your dog.
The command gives your dog something to think about rather than a previously typical knee jerk reaction. They understand that sit means sit quietly and heel means be attentive to their handler. Using commands as tools can help a dog focus in situations which 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.
Have an obedient dog? Below is a list of common commands taught in obedience. Can your dog do all of these? If not, contact Acme Canine to find out how to start lessons.
- Sit • Heel • Down
- Come • Sit-from-Down • Up/Off
- Leave It • Place • Sit-in-Motion
- Down-in-Motion • Sit-from-Front • Down-from-Front
- Drop • Take • Stand
- Square Off 90 • Finish
The use of standard cue words is a basic tool used to get desired behavior from a dog. Following are the standard cue words used at Acme Canine; in addition we use the owner’s release word, crate word and elimination command:
- Off – dog needs 4 feet on ground
- Leave it – dog needs get away from item or dog (litter, poop, urine, etc)
- Wait – dog is to stop moving forward
- Quiet – dog is to stop barking
- Back – dog is to back up so another dog can go through the door
- No – dog is to stop what it is doing and focus on us
Keeping Cues Strong
- In order to avoid teaching the dog to ignore us it is most successful to use each cue word only one time and to 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!