Training A Dog to Heel - Protecting Your Dog and Protecting Your Guests From Doggie Slobber
After you've got your dog (or puppy) potty trained, and perhaps leash trained as well, it's time to move on to teaching your dog to heel.
Training a dog to heel is super important for several reasons, the first being that it protects your dog from dangers that they can't comprehend and secondly a well-behaved dog is very conducive to...
ahem...
having guests over to the house.
Sure, there are a lot of dog people that don't mind a face full of slobber, we're some of them, guilty as charged, however, there is a time and a place, and we don't want our guests getting attacked by our dog every time they walk through the door, that's just annoying.
So, we need to teach or dog to heel, or sit and stay in laymen's terms.
In addition to protecting our house guests, teaching our dog to heel will protect them from serious danger, most commonly cars.
So many dogs are killed chasing after cars or running out into the street, you are protecting your dog by teaching them to heel, it's important to their safety.
If you do not teach your dog to heel, the dog becomes the master and not the other way around; dogs pay very close attention to pecking order, as it where, so you need to show them that you are the alpha dog, not them.
Remember it's not your dog's fault that he wants to jump up on your guests and slobber; it's your job as a responsible dog owner to train them with a good, solid program.
Teaching your dog to come, to sit, and to stay (or heel) will take a few months, but it's a fun task once you get the hang of it.
A good piece of advice is to be very consistent with the training everyday or twice per day is great if you have the time, if not, as much as possible.
Train in short bursts of about 10-15 minutes as dogs have a short attention span and anything beyond this time frame is like trying to put your average teenager through a 50 minute Geometry lecture, they will be staring out the window in no time flat.
When training a dog you should use a reward system with lots of doggie treats, when they do what you want then they get a treat, if they don't, they get nothing.
Do not give in to pressure and give them a treat when they don't do what you want them to do that will absolutely ruin the training program, don't be a softie.
Be very clear that doing the right thing gets a treat and doing the wrong thing will get the dog nothing or even perhaps a gentle rap on the snout; this is how dogs learn, it is not cruel.
Be consistent in training your dog to heel in all situations and in a few short months you'll have a well trained, safe dog, and happy slobber-free house guests.
Nice work.
Training a dog to heel is super important for several reasons, the first being that it protects your dog from dangers that they can't comprehend and secondly a well-behaved dog is very conducive to...
ahem...
having guests over to the house.
Sure, there are a lot of dog people that don't mind a face full of slobber, we're some of them, guilty as charged, however, there is a time and a place, and we don't want our guests getting attacked by our dog every time they walk through the door, that's just annoying.
So, we need to teach or dog to heel, or sit and stay in laymen's terms.
In addition to protecting our house guests, teaching our dog to heel will protect them from serious danger, most commonly cars.
So many dogs are killed chasing after cars or running out into the street, you are protecting your dog by teaching them to heel, it's important to their safety.
If you do not teach your dog to heel, the dog becomes the master and not the other way around; dogs pay very close attention to pecking order, as it where, so you need to show them that you are the alpha dog, not them.
Remember it's not your dog's fault that he wants to jump up on your guests and slobber; it's your job as a responsible dog owner to train them with a good, solid program.
Teaching your dog to come, to sit, and to stay (or heel) will take a few months, but it's a fun task once you get the hang of it.
A good piece of advice is to be very consistent with the training everyday or twice per day is great if you have the time, if not, as much as possible.
Train in short bursts of about 10-15 minutes as dogs have a short attention span and anything beyond this time frame is like trying to put your average teenager through a 50 minute Geometry lecture, they will be staring out the window in no time flat.
When training a dog you should use a reward system with lots of doggie treats, when they do what you want then they get a treat, if they don't, they get nothing.
Do not give in to pressure and give them a treat when they don't do what you want them to do that will absolutely ruin the training program, don't be a softie.
Be very clear that doing the right thing gets a treat and doing the wrong thing will get the dog nothing or even perhaps a gentle rap on the snout; this is how dogs learn, it is not cruel.
Be consistent in training your dog to heel in all situations and in a few short months you'll have a well trained, safe dog, and happy slobber-free house guests.
Nice work.
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