Basic puppy obedience training teaches your puppy good manners and makes him or her a better pet. With any kind of obedience training, the key things to remember are patience (yes, again), consistency and positive reinforcement (ie. lots of treats and praise).
Dogs are very intelligent and there’s a huge range of commands (and even tricks) that you can teach your new puppy. For now we’ll focus on what basic puppy training he needs to learn in order to become an enjoyable companion and family member.
Basic Puppy Training Commands
- Learn his name
If you want to be able to get Fido’s attention you first need to teach him his name. First do this by using his name whenever you talk to him, play with him, feed him etc. For example, tell him “Good boy Fido” when you’re stroking him, or say “Here you are, Fido” when you give him his food. This will help him to realize that when you say the word ‘Fido’ it usually has something to do with him. - Recall or ‘Come’
‘Come’ is one of the most important commands Fido will ever learn! For you it means you won’t need to run all over the yard trying to catch him (a game which you’ll never actually win by the way), but more importantly, it could quite possibly save your puppy’s life some day. If Fido happens to escape through the front door while you’re talking to a neighbor for example, “COME” could mean the difference between him slinking back inside or running out into oncoming traffic. - Sit
Teaching Fido to ‘sit’ on command is one of your easiest puppy training tasks. Most puppies take to this like ducks to water. First, get yourself a handful of treats then get Fido’s attention. With him standing facing you, hold a treat in front of his nose (not close enough for him to grab it though) and then say “Sit” in a firm voice while slowly raising the treat up and away from you, as if to go over his head.Fido’s puppy dog nose will attempt to follow the treat up and in response his rear will go down. As soon as his rump hits the floor, give him the treat and say “good sit”. Let him get up and then try it again. When you’re practicing any puppy training exercises, 3 or 4 repeats per session is usually enough for his short attention span,and 3 or 4 sessions per day is ideal.
Find our more about puppy obedience training methods and techniques that will turn your puppy into a model student!
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