Every dog can be trained, no matter how small. These pack animals actually enjoy training because it provides them with mental stimulation and gives them connection with their owners. These 5 commands are essential for every dog walker. You should also learn these essential commands to walk dogs on a leash.
Your dog should know how to Sit
There’s a science to teaching dogs to sit. One of the easiest ways to get them to understand what you want is to use treats such as Wag’s Chicken Flavor treats to motivate them. Then do this:
- Take the treat and hold it level with the dog’s nose.
- Now raise the treat over the animal’s head and move it behind its head.
- The dog will sit on the floor as it tries to follow the treat.
- The moment the dog sits down, say the word “Sit” and give the dog the treat.
- Keep practising this until the dog responds to the command to sit without a treat.
This command is essential, it helps keep your dog in order when things get hectic. It may save its life if you happen to see your animal stray dangerously close to moving traffic.
How to teach a dog to Stay
Dog’s want to be with you do Stay is a difficult command for some – but it’s an essential tool to protect your dog.
The easiest way to teach them to stay is to use it as a continuation of the Sit command. So, once you’ve got the dog sitting on command, take a step back and say “Stay”. If the dog stays still reward the dog. Once the dog is happy to stay while you take one step, run through the same process but take two. Keep doing this until you are comfortable moving a little further. You’ll need to reward two different sets of behaviors here – making sure your dog stays, and also rewarding it for staying for a length of time. It’s usually best to train these two different actions at different times.
You need to teach recall to your dog
With the dog on a lead take a step away and put on a high pitched excited voice to tell your dog to ‘Come here’. When your dog does so, shower it with praise. Keeping the dog on the lead keep running through the procedure, with praise and a training treat. You should also try calling without stepping away and reinforce this training by saying ‘Come here’ when the dog is already coming toward you. This will help the dog understand the order better.
You need to teach your dog to leave
Leave is a really useful command, particularly if you have a permanently greedy dog, but can be quite challenging to train. One way to achieve this is to control the interaction, so grab a bag of treats and your dog’s favorite toy, and try this approach:
- Scatter a handful of treats on the floor.
- When the dog eats them, say “Leave” in a happy, cheerful voice.
- Repeat the process a couple of times.
- Now change things a little, say “Leave” and then scatter treats to the ground.
- The dog may have made a connection between the word and the treats at this point, so may already have its nose to the ground near where it thinks you’ll drop the treats.
- Keep doing this until the dog looks at the ground when you say “Leave” before you actually throw the treats.
- Now give your dog its toy to hold.
- With the toy in its mouth, say “Leave” and scatter the treats.
- The idea is that the dog drops the toy and goes for the treats.
- Now comes the clever part. Once you’ve got the dog doing what you want it to, you switch the command again. This time just say “Leave” but don’t scatter any treats., Instead, once the dog drops its toy in preparation for the treat and noses the ground, give him lots of praise and a treat.
- Keep doing number 10 until the dog sees this as the command. In future the dog should make a connection between dropping what it is holding or sniffing at in expectation of a treat.
- This is a complex set of steps, and you may not make it all the way at first but stay consistent and keep practising your dog until it becomes a natural.
Touch is also useful
It may be useful to teach your dog to touch an object gently with their nose on command. To do this, rub a treat on your hand, offer the hand to your dog and when it sniffs your hand say the word “Touch”, praise your beast and give the dog a treat.
Repeat this step until the dog touches your hand on command.
Now for the powerful bit. When the dog’s nose touchers your hand, move your hand a little and only praise the dog when it keeps its nose in contact and follows your hand.
This command is powerful and a great tool to distract them in a dangerous situation, such as if you meet a reactive dog or other challenges. If nothing else, it should give you a few moments to grab your pet and put it on the leash.
