6 Reasons Basic Obedience Helps Your Dog And You

Basic Obedience Helps Your Dog

As I mentioned before, it’s National Train Your Dog Month.  So, naturally, the subject of training comes up 😉  Now, training can come in several different forms. The most popular are: obedience training, tricks, and what I’ll call extracurriculars (agility, rally, dock-diving, etc.). If you don’t believe that at least the basic obedience helps your dog, keep on reading…

For us at Dog Training in Your Home, we cover behavior modification/problem solving at the same time we teach obedience.  Tricks are a lot of fun that people like to add on to our programs, and we love to teach them; and extracurriculars are great ways to give your dog another outlet for their energy (and they’re fun!).  

But this post will focus on what we consider to be the necessities: basic obedience commands.  But why is basic obedience so important?  Here are 6 reasons basic obedience helps your dog (and you!).

6 Reasons Basic Obedience Helps Your Dog

• Dogs are pack animals.  I know you’ve heard this before, and you may be tired of it.  Whether you believe it or not, you cannot deny the fact that dogs are descended from wolves, and wolves are pack animals.  Therefore, they need a pack leader.  By teaching basic obedience you are teaching them that you are the pack leader (by being in control).  You are teaching them to respect you as a pack leader because you are telling them to do something and then following through with that command.  No matter what the command, whether you use treats or not, the concept is the same: I expect you (as the dog) to do something and I will follow through to get you to do it.
• They cannot speak English.  I don’t care how much you think they understand your words – there is no “dog-to-human” translator.  They are forming habits when you teach them commands: they associate hearing “this” word, with the action you teach them. So, you can use basic obedience to have them “sit” or “go to place” (one of our personal favorites) when visitors come instead of jumping all over them.   Why? Because they don’t understand you saying “please get down, people don’t like when you jump on them”.
  

• The basic commands build on each other, building their respect for you.  That is the way we teach them at Dog Training In Your Home.  We generally start with sit/stay.  Why? Because if you can get the dog to respect you enough to sit (the first time you tell them!), and then stay until you release them (not when they want to get up), then you can build on that respect by teaching down, come, etc.  If the dog doesn’t respect you at step 1, then how can you expect them to respect you to do steps 2-10?
• When you involve your entire family with teaching, they learn their place in the pack.  Think about it – in a natural environment, dogs will figure out who the pack leader is, and the rankings of all the other members of the pack.  Don’t believe me? Visit a breeder who’s had a litter and you will see this dynamic in place. The puppies respect their mom (their pack leader), but you will also see the “runt” who is the bottom of their totem pole.  Or, go watch dogs playing in a park or at doggie daycare – they will do the same thing.  So why would it be different in your home? The only difference: there are people involved. To your dog, you are just a funny-looking dog with no fur that walks on two legs instead of four ;-P  At Dog Training In Your Home, we involve the whole family in training as much as possible (yes, that means kids too!) so that your dog learns they are the not the pack leader, and the kids are above them in the hierarchy.

• When they respect and listen to you, you enjoy them more.  We’ve seen it so many times…your dog doesn’t listen when you tell them “no” or “stop”, so you get frustrated (I’m not judging! It’s human nature – we’ve all been there!) and you either put the dog away, outside, etc.  Or, you are so fed up with cleaning up messes – housebreaking or otherwise – that you don’t even want to look at your dog.  Well, once you’ve done obedience and they understand the “rules”, you start to see a relationship change.  You start to enjoy your pup more because they aren’t jumping all over you ruining your good clothes, or you keep them around the family more because you’re not worried they will create a mess.  It’s a domino effect, so to speak.  Wouldn’t you have your dog around you more if you could fix some behavioral issues?
• Socializing your dog will make for less anxiety on all of you.  This month also focuses on the importance of socialization.  Basic obedience helps your listen to you better in public settings.  An added benefit is that they will draw their security from their trust in you (built from your training them), so they will be less anxious in new environments.  When they are behaving, listening, and less anxious, so are you and your family 😉  Win-win!

Related: Training Programs

Of course, the more obedience work you do with your dog, the bigger bond you will build with them.  But, that is a personal preference for each owner – and we recommend doing at least the basics with your dog to start building that relationship 🙂

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As you can see, basic obedience helps your dog in many ways. Want to get started in your basic obedience training?  We would love to help!

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