Why Train Your Dog? (Chapter 1)

A well-trained dog is easy to live with and often welcome in other places. If you want to travel with your dog, even if it’s just to a relative’s house, he will need to have manners so he doesn’t embarrass you or cause problems.

Dogs Bring Unconditional Love  and Responsibilities

There are responsibilities to having a dog as a family member. You need to ensure that he gets proper health care. You need to make sure that you feed him quality nutrition. You also need to help him understand how to live with humans and, specifically, how to live with your family as a good companion.

As much of an affinity as most dogs have for humans, they are not born knowing how to live with us. Dogs are a different species than humans, and they come with their own species-specific behaviors. These behaviors can often clash with our human expectations of proper behavior.

As you were growing up, you were taught life skills by adults. Some of those adults may have been better teachers than others, but you grew up learning how to behave in the home and out in public. What was acceptable in your environment may have differed slightly from what was acceptable in your neighbor’s environment, but, in general, you learned basic good-citizen skills. Now, you need to teach similar skills to your dog.

Your dog doesn’t inherently know that he’s not supposed to pee on your carpet or jump on you and knock you over. He doesn’t have a manual explaining that he can’t chew on your favorite shoes or the bed skirt. He has no clue what an “indoor voice” is. He also doesn’t realize that he can’t just run up and get in another dog’s face or dig in your neighbor’s prized rose garden. You need to teach him all of these things, and you can!

Part of being a responsible pet parent is teaching your dog good family manners, cleaning up after him when you’re out in public, and ensuring he that isn’t a public nuisance. By training your dog using reward-based, positive methods, you are fulfilling these responsibilities.

You need to help your dog understand how to live with your family as a good companion.

Did You Know? Training Is Mutually Beneficial

A well-trained dog is easy to live with and often welcome in other places. If you want to travel with your dog, even if it’s just to a relative’s house, he will need to have manners so he doesn’t embarrass you or cause problems. Training your dog will build your relationship as you learn to better understand each other. And the nice compliments you get on your dog’s behavior are a bonus!

Establishing Goals

There’s nothing wrong with setting goals for your dog. You may have dreams of raising an agility champion or sharing your dog with others as a therapy dog. Learn what’s required to achieve those goals and start training your dog to reach them. You will work on getting there together.

Another responsibility that you have is to accept your dog for what he is. Realize that not every dog is suited for every task. Every dog is different. He can never compare to any past dogs you’ve had, and you will never have another dog like him again.

Dogs are lifetime companions. Your dog is special in his own way, even if he never does turn out to be that agility champion or therapy dog. You may find that you need to adjust your goals as you start your training program and learn more about your dog’s strengths and challenges. While changing your expectations can be very disappointing initially, you will always have something wonderful in your favor—your dog. Your dog will love you no matter what you achieve, and that is truly something to be treasured.

Making Time to Train

There is no set, defined time when training is best. What works for you? What works for your dog? Are you a morning person? Then train your dog when you first get up. Are you a night owl? Then train your dog in the evenings. Your training program can be just as flexible as you need it to be. The most important thing is to just get started and then keep it up every day.

Most people are very busy. Many don’t realize how much work a dog, especially a young puppy, is to train. When you use positive methods, you don’t need a lot of time to train your dog—just fifteen minutes a day will do the trick, and not even fifteen minutes in a row. Each training session should be only a few minutes long, so it’s easy to squeeze in fifteen minutes throughout the day, especially because you can train during your everyday routine.

For example, you have to take your dog outside on leash each morning as part of your house-training program. You can train the Wait cue at the same time you do this. The Wait cue means that your dog has to wait in place until you tell him to do something else, and it’s a very handy behavior to help prevent your dog from bolting out the door. If you train Wait as you go inside and outside for all of your dog’s potty breaks, you’ll get in many repetitions, in short bursts, throughout the day. Before long, waiting at the door for you to tell him he can go through will become a habit for your dog.

Following House Rules

It’s best to determine house rules before you bring your dog home because it can be very confusing for your dog if you teach him one set of actions and then decide later that they are unacceptable. What are your house rules? Do you want your dog on the furniture? In the bedroom at night? Is it OK if he jumps on you? Is it OK if he kisses your face? Where do you want him to eliminate? If you have other dogs in your home, how do you want him to interact with them? For example, if you have a senior dog and are bringing home a puppy, what will you consider acceptable behavior with your older dog?

Your training program can be as flexible as you need it to be.

Set some boundaries and train your dog to follow them. Be consistent. Make sure your family or roommates are on the same page, or it will be very difficult to train your dog. He won’t understand if you don’t let him up on the bed but your roommate does when you’re out of town.