Dog Training Is Easy

You may think that training your dog to do tricks such as retrieving a toy or shaking hands may be a waste of time and a bother, but it would do you good to take a second look at training your dog beyond the basics of come, stay, and sit. Training offers far more than mere entertainment. Three benefits of continuing your dog’s education are socialization, safety, and bonding. Consider these closely when you think about training your dog.

Socializing your dog is simply the act of making him a pleasure to be around for people and other dogs alike. Who wants to be around a dog – especially a large one – who jumps on everyone with whom he comes in contact? If you have a dog that jumps, you may feel forced to resign him to the backyard when company visits, which may in turn make an annoying barker out of him as he feels left out of social gatherings. But if you treat the problem by training him not to jump, you will enable him to enjoy the company of others when they come for a visit. You will be able to do things with him like go to the park and walk in areas where there are other people and dogs.

A trained dog is a safer dog. One of a pet owner’s biggest fears is that their beloved animal will one day get away from during a walk and be hit by a car. Some very basic training can give you a safety net in just such a situation. For instance, imagine that your dog runs out the front door one morning and you lose track of him. When you find him, he is on the other side of a busy street, and his first impulse may be to bound happily toward you at first sight. But if he is well-trained, you can signal for him to sit and wait for you to come and leash him. Disaster averted.

Aside from those two very practical reasons to train your dog, however, there is a third benefit that busy people sometimes overlook. Time spent training your dog is time the two of you will spend together. If you’ve ever built a model with your kid or fixed a computer or baked a cake with a friend, you know that accomplishing a goal with a loved one can be a valuable bonding experience. Dogs are not immune to this. If you spend just a few minutes each day training your dog, it will give both of you a sense of accomplishment and bring you closer together.

Certainly, a few nifty party tricks aren’t out of the question. Go ahead – see how far you can take the training once you have the basics covered. Let your dog show you and everyone else exactly how smart he is. Remember to use plenty of praise and reward, as well as having lots of patience.