Dog Obedience Training - is your Dog Getting Out of Hand?

by Shamir Ahmed

With dog obedience training, you are essentially instructing your dog to carry out specific activities and commands. Some of these commands are the time-honored ones like sit, stay and heel. The importance of dog obedience training is placed on quick, accurate execution. While there may be quite a few general advantages to dog obedience training, it is usually not always the “end all” for controlling dog behavior.

Obedience trained dogs will conduct specific instructions because their master is commanding them to do it. The reason why some people think that dog obedience training is not “all that,” is because while your dog may learn some of the obedient behaviors, that does not mean he always acts appropriately. Case in point: some dogs are predisposed to being rescue or herding dogs. You can teach them to sit and stay, but at times their instincts will override those obedient behaviors. That is why you sometimes see dogs trying to “rescue” their masters when they are swimming, or a dog “herding” children who are running all over the place (like sheep).

With behavior training, you are essentially becoming the “Miss Manners” for the canine set. Some of the behavior training that is included is house training, crate training and good conduct while on a leash. Many people start on potty training when they get a puppy. They start with spread newspapers like house training and graduate up to leaving by doggie door to eliminate outside. Or you might leash your dog and teach it not to pull you around. Barking is also another behavior that is often tamed in behavior training.

Even though dog obedience training might be the most widely used method to train your pooch, be advised that there is no one way which will work every time on any dog. In fact, many people combine the different types of training to accomplish their goals with their dog. You might even say that certain behaviors a dog exhibits could be solved with a combined training effort. If you plan to be a do-it-yourself trainer, review each aspect of training and pick and choose what you want to concentrate on.