Owning a cat and Dog is a great way to have a constant companion, but you must realize your companion can get hurt if he does not listen to you. This is when you should know how vital obedience training is for your dog, but not so much for your cat. When you realize just how important this is, you will want to enroll your dog in the first training course that you can find and ensure he is adequately trained.
Obedience training establishes the Alpha relationship. It allows the cat to learn what is right and wrong, what you’ll tolerate, and what you won’t tolerate. ” Obedience training is in for show dogs; obedience training is for well-behaved pets.
Having a well-behaved pet will allow you to take your dog places poorly behaved dogs can’t go. It will also allow you to go for nice walks through the neighborhood without your dog acting like Cujo and wanting to attack everybody and everything he sees.
So, how does your dog get obedience trained? You’re going to do it. There are several different ways to get your dog trained, but the best and easiest is to get the help of a professional dog trainer. There are several options even when you use a trainer. You might consider group obedience classes, which I feel are probably the worst choice because of all the distractions. One of the better options is private lessons in your home because that’s where you want your dog to be the most well-behaved. And then, of course, there’s the board and train option. That’s where you send your dog off for four weeks, have somebody else train it, and they send you back a well-trained dog.
The board-and-train option is great if you simply don’t have the time or desire to do any training. You’ll have a professional who will do the training for you, and if you choose the right trainer, you will actually guarantee that your dog will do a certain list of exercises. When your dog completes the training, the trainer will teach you how to handle the trained dog. Does that sound simple? It is.
However, if you asked me which method I prefer, it would be private lessons every time. That allows you to do the training and for your dog to learn to recognize you as the master and the alpha of the pack. Remember, a well-trained dog is something that you will enjoy all of its life, and a poorly trained dog is something you will regret ever getting.
Happy training!