Training your dog can be useful in many ways. There might be a scenario in the future where your dog would blast off from your house and never return or it may get into a fight with an aggressive animal and you won’t be able to do anything at that time if your dog isn’t trained. Also, trained dogs can be controlled and managed easily at the arrival of other people and in other situations too.
Below we have listed out a few tricks which you can teach your dog(s). If you need help with training your dog by a professional dog trainer and you are located within California, we would highly recommend contacting 360 Dog Walker. Their team is professionally trained to handle all dogs in San Francisco, CA.
Sit
Beginning with one of the oldest tricks in the book and the most loved as well as easy to teach, sit is the most famous command. Sit acts as a bridge to teach other hard commands such as rollout or something else. Dogs who learn to sit tend to be much calmer than those who don’t learn.
Steps:
- Show the dog its treat.
- If he starts to try to push him away gently and grab him from his back part of the body and force a bit, which will make him sit and then give a piece of a treat to him and repeat the word “sit” a few times during this practice.
- Continue this for at least 10-20 minutes and he’ll learn it pretty easily.
After he has learned this trick, repeat this exercise daily so that every time he hears it, he performs it immediately.
Come
This command will be a lifesaver for you in the needed times. It can be helpful whenever you lose grip on your dog or your dog is on a leash. Apart from this, this command is the base of other commands such as fetch, etc.
Steps:
- Put a leash and color on your dog.
- Pull him forward gently and repeat the word “come” and stop at any other family member. Also, remember to give him a treat when he reaches his destination
- Repeat this a few times and when he starts to learn it, try it without the collar and leash which is the last part of this exercise.
Do remember to perform this exercise in a closed environment and usage of another family member is important as this will teach him that he has to reach to a family member when called.
Stay
You cannot teach this command if your dog is not able to learn to sit. Also, only learning to sit won’t be enough, the dog should master it and perform each time when called. Most people confuse between stay and sit. The main difference is that in sit you command your dog to just sit and in stay, you command him to just stay and not move. This is useful when you want to do chores and your dog is filled with energy and is disturbing you frequently, or it can be used to control him while guests arrive.
Steps:
- First, tell him to “sit”.
- Then get a few steps back and until he stands up, stay wherever you are and as soon as he gets up, tell him “stay” as it’s similar to sit, he’ll perform the command. Give him a treat and repeat the exercise.
- If he stands up too soon, then try to grab him and with just a bit of force command him to sit again.
You can teach your dog many more commands, but these are the ones you should start with. Also, remember to perform these exercises frequently so he never forgets what to do when you command him.
