Obedience training is a great way to engage with your dog, it can also get you outside in the fresh air! Lots of dogs really enjoy training and so it is a great thing to do together. When training, you might like to use treats. You can visit the food page for a list of treats that can be used for training. We like to use cheese as it is a tasty reward for dogs.
Please read the techniques article first, this will help you a lot whilst training your dog.
Read more about Training!
Timing
Timing is an essential part of training a dog – especially in specific methods such as positive reinforcement. Using positive reinforcement, once your dog has completed a command, you give her a treat immediately for doing the right thing. This teaches the dog that the behaviour they have done is good and they should do it more often because they may be rewarded.
If you asked your dog to ‘sit’ and she sat, you would reward her. Make sure you reward your dog straight away to encourage wanted behaviour. If your dog sat and then you took a while to get a treat ready whilst she started doing other things, this could confuse her as to what you are rewarding. When dog training, if your timing is not quick enough, you may be rewarding unwanted behaviour. To make your timing quick, make sure you always have rewards ready and so you can encourage the right behaviours.
Marker training
This is a method you could use when you are training your dog. When your dog does something right, you can make a quick reaction that will tell your dog that they have done something good. This quick reaction could be a word such as good, or it could be a click from a clicker.
If you use a clicker for your marker, make sure you do not use that for any other reactions or commands.
To add on to this, you can click a clicker when your dog has done something right and then reward with a treat. This could also teach your dog that they have done something good and that a reward may be coming.
Positive Reinforcement
Similar to marker training, positive reinforcement is a really effective way to train dogs. This is also one of the most popular training methods. When giving a command, if your dog does the right thing then you reward he/she with something that they want. For example, if your dog really likes toys then you can give them a quick game with a toy if they do the right action. Positive reinforcement rewards could be: treats, toys and games.
Jumping
Lots of dogs jump up on people, they might have never met the person or they may just be excited. One of the simple solutions to this is to not give your attention. Dogs really love to get your attention and praise, though people give praise to a dog when they do something good. So if a dog is jumping up on you then turn around, that dog will eventually figure out that you do not like them jumping on you.
Another solution could be to ask your dog to sit, though this may be quite hard for most dogs when they are really excited so they cannot focus.
Please click on any of the commands below to learn how to teach them to your dog…
Techniques:
Look at the ‘agility’ page for different commands used in dog agility!