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Showing posts with the label Basic Obedience

Eight commands that will make your life easier

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Novice is the first non-optional level of the American Kennel Club's obedience trials. Three different judges must at least qualify a team with a score of 170 or higher in order for the participants to move onto the next levels, if they would like to. You can move onto open and utility trials after that. When people see these dogs in the ring, they think it's all about "pretty walking". It's actually about a lot more than that. Here are some exercises from the Novice trials, and their real life HEEL ON LEAD: Heel is a moving command and an exact position. The dog turns with the handler , and exhibits that their job is to move with and pay attention to the handler. Uses for this include, but are not limited to walking safely down city streets (teaches your dog to not be concerned with distractions), bringing groceries and dog from car to house, walking through unexpected distractions, taking a dog out of a situation that is about to become volatile, and just the ...

Four Levels to Complete the Training Process in Teaching Commands

I don't know if most of the dog owning public is aware of the levels that we pass through when teaching a dog a certain command. Here are the four levels that I usually think of: 1) Demonstrate to the dog what you want him to do .You can do this by positioning or luring your dog into position. Dogs need to be shown what to do, because they don’t naturally know the things we take for granted that older dogs have already been taught. Obviously they don't understand our verbal cues, and need to be shown what they will correspond to in the future. In the Demonstration phase, the command is verbalized in conjunction with the luring or placing the dog into correct position. 2) Teach your dog what you want him/her to do (consistency and repetition). Let them know this is not a one-time command performance. There are rewards for the correct completion of a task Be consistent. Don’t tell your dog to “sit” unless you are ready to help him/her into a sit if they don’t quite understand i...

Why Training Your Dog is Important

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So many people do not train their dogs.   Some humans don't want to.   Some humans feel their dog is already well mannered as it is.   Some people have gone to training classes but not left with a trained dog (trained to a standard, and I will discuss that in another article).  However, living with a trained dog makes life so much easier.   I only wish people knew that once the work was put in, living with your dog is a delight NOT a chore. Here are some reasons to train your dog that benefit both members of the team: · Your dog is happier because he/she understands what you want. What are people thinking when they ask an untrained dog to sit? I know the dog is thinking “Whattttt??????” Dogs are not born with an innate ability to understand English, even if to us those words are the most common commands used. If your dog isn’t trained, he/she has no idea what you want of him/her. They will try to figure it out, and try out a few options...

Six Week Schedule for Basic Dog 1 (Dogs over six months old)

WEEK 1:    Sit on the Dog Exercise, Long Line Exercise, WEEK 2:   (Review) Long Line, (New) Molded Sits, (New) Heel, (New) Release Command WEEK 3:   (Review) Heel, (Review) Molded Sits, (Updated) Sit with Correction, (New) Stand, (New) Place, (New) Stay, WEEK 4:   (Review) Heel with sits,  (Review) Sit goal of four in a row without correction (Review) Stand,  (Review) Place,  (Review) Stay,  (New) Down, (New) Recall, WEEK 5:   Mixing up commands to be used in new ways, and in distracting settings. WEEK 6:   Graduation day. Dog owners who are able to complete this exam to the trainer's satisfaction will receive a certificate of completion for the 6 week Basic Dog course at Mannerly Mutts. Also we will give additional information and answer any lingering questions based on the clients' individual needs. Also we will discuss any future training goals, timing, and whether the needs of the Basic Dog 1 class have met ...