Yes, it is vital to loving your dog the same way you love your other family members.
Most animal lovers understand this statement properly, but you cannot expect the same from a non-animal lover.
If you get a dog at home, there will be several people out there who might just stop visiting you because of your furry friend.
Moreover, even some of your family members can have issues with the dog.
What do owners usually do?
To begin with, when you get a dog, neither you nor the dog knows how to react or behave around each other’s company.
You start to notice that your dog doesn’t listen to you, unlike dogs on TV. You try to get its attention, but it might be too nervous.
To make things worse, your guests could make the situation even worse. When out of options, you decide to call a dog whisperer, or you might just simply abandon the poor soul.
However, to help in such situations, you need to spend some time with the dog and teach it a thing or two. You can make the dog more civilized or mannered enough to be around human beings.
It is not a very difficult task, and in fact, it is a lot of fun. You get to teach your new buddy some tricks; you spend much-needed time with each other.
By doing so, you are not only helping your friends and family, but you will be doing your dog a favor too. It will get more comfortable around the people, and I would love it if people have started accepting it.
What commands should you teach your dog?
To make your dog a little obedient and mannered, there are some easy commands that any dog would be able to learn.
Seven basic dog commands are mentioned below, have a look:
1. ‘Sit’ Command
This is one of the easiest commands that you could teach your dog. This is great in controlling the dog’s behavior, and it will stay in your observation for a longer duration.
At first, you might find it tricky to make you understand what you mean by the word sit. You obviously cannot explain it in words to them.
Instead, try sitting and showing them what you want them to do. After this, with gentle hands and a lot of patience, make your dog take the position of sitting.
They already know how to sit; you just have to make them familiar with the command ‘sit’ to know exactly what to do the moment you ask them to sit.
One way to make them understand what you want is by patting their back or moving your hand in the direction over their back.
This will take some time, days. However, once they get the hang of it, this will become your favorite exercise for the coming time. Repeating the activity numerous times a day will help your dog improve.
2. ‘Down’ Command
This might not be as easy as the last one. In this case, again, start by laying down yourself to give a gist of what you are asking of them.
The best way to teach your dog to lie down is by keeping some treats handy. You have to wait for it to lay down for a good belly rub and give it a treat once it does that.
This will give your canine an idea that you want it to lay down more. However, make sure you don’t treat the dogs a lot, as this will make them lazy and fatty.
You can follow the same trick for teaching them to lie on their stomach. It is easier than making them lay on their back.
This is the best way to control the temper of your dogs and calm them down if they get a little hyper for some reason.
Asking them to lie down will give them an idea that you don’t want them to act anymore, and they should not show any sounds of anger or start to bark.
If you want to take this trick to another level, you can ask the dog to roll over or play dead. These tricks are fun, but make sure to teach them properly.
3. ‘Stay’ Command
Teaching your dog to stay can be a bit difficult. If your dog is very hyper and energetic, it might make things even worse for you.
Stay is a command that should be taught to dogs in the earlier stages so that you can calm them down and control their behavior and movements more effectively.
Commands such as Sit and Lay on the back don’t work as efficiently as the command Stay.
Stay can be taught to your dogs by making them familiar with the clicking of your fingers. You click your fingers should signal the dog of the command you want it to follow.
To Make your dog learn this command, start by asking to sit. Once it is done properly, take out your index finger, look your dog in its eyes, and say ‘Stay’ in a very steady voice.
Make sure the finger is pointed upwards, and your hand faces the dog. The steadiness in your eyes and voice should make the dog steady and understand what you want from it.
Once it does for a second or two, treat it. To break the spell, you could just click, and the dog would understand that it is free now. You can increase the time gradually.
4. ‘Dog Name’ Command
Your dog could be very distracted, running from one place to another. It could be chasing other animals or even human beings.
This often increases the risk of your dog getting lost, and finding a dog is very difficult, especially when it isn’t very familiar with the neighborhood. Therefore, it is important to watch your fluff ball and call it whenever you feel it might get lost.
Your dog should recognize your voice and the command you give, which will help him find you and come to you.
Come Up with away, and you would take your dog’s name. Speak it in front of the dog a couple of times so that it remembers it at least for the initial days.
If you want to register that command permanently in its brain, start calling it out even on usual days, when you bring it food, when you want to play with it, when you want it to stop fighting with other dogs, etc.
5. ‘Heel’ or ‘Walk’ Command
Dogs are very active and want to run and jump as soon as they get out of the house. Walking such hyperactive dogs takes a lot of energy and is not very good for your arm socket.
If you reside in an urban space where you don’t get a lot of room for walking your dog, even on the sidewalks, walking could get even harder of a task.
To help this situation, you could teach your dog to walk on heels or walk more calmly. When you teach your dog this command, they wouldn’t pull the leash and try to run here and there.
6. ‘Stop’ Command
It is very important to teach your dog how to accept a refusal. Some dogs never learn this and make their trainers suffer big time.
A simple of teaching your dog what ‘Stop’ means would be by showing it some anger when you say the word.
This would signal that it is doing something which you do not like. You start by keeping things around your dog, which would attract it. Once it goes towards them, speak up an angry Stop to the dog.
Some sessions would teach the dog exactly what it should or will not do in this case.
7. ‘Off’ Command
Most dogs may jump on guests or climb on couches and mess out your house. The best way to prevent this is to teach them the ‘off’ command so that they when to take a step back.
You can do so by discouraging its jumping habits. When your dog jumps on you, turn your back. You could also make noises when holding its front paws. You can do so by shaking a bottle full of coins so that the dog gets away.
If you keep repeating the process, your dog will learn quickly. All welcome a well-mannered and friendly dog. You need to make sure that your dog doesn’t make people around it uncomfortable.
It should listen to at least one of its family members. By teaching it some commands, keeping it under control would become easy.
Therefore, teaching your puppy the seven basic dog commands mentioned above is important.
