Most dogs enjoy listening and are proud of the knowledge and skills they acquire. Untrained dogs are seldom as happy as trained ones, and lead much less interesting lives. Many dogs also get a sense of security from obedience and discipline, especially the more intelligent ones.
Every observant dog owner can see for himself that his dog gets greater satisfaction from the praise rewarding a well- executed command or good behavior than he does from the momentary excitement of disobeying, which is usually followed by the evident guilt feelings, (ears back and avoiding eye contact), even when he has not been punished.
Owners vary in their training talents just as dogs vary in their trainability. Some people are born animal trainers and accomplish remarkable results with little effort. But even the best trainers are seldom equally successful with every breed of dog. The training procedures that are highly successful with one type of dog may be totally ineffective with another.
A basic mental affinity, even a certain type of personality seems to be necessary when training a dog. All good trainers possess authority, patience, and self-control. Brilliant ones possess an additional indefinable “x” quality that is probably a combination of love and respect.
Dog training techniques have been so well systematized in recent years that the least gifted owner can achieve reasonably good results with effort, persistence, patience, and understanding. Dogs have a much higher understanding of intelligence than most people give them credit for. They can and do learn, but we have to give them our time and patience.
All pet dogs should be given basic obedience training as a matter of course, and not only when they develop bad behavior. Today s dogs live in a much faster-paced world, just as we do. Even though we may be with them when they are out in public, they can still “stray” or disobey. While training cannot completely compensate for poor breeding, a bad environment, or poor upbringing, it can surely help. They world will teach them how to misbehave, but it’s up to us as pet parents to teach them how to behave.
Specialized training isn’t necessary unless the dog is to perform or be seen, such as the purebred show dogs. This level of training and behavior requires much more time and labor and usually requires a higher aptitude on the part of the dog, and much more skill and patience on the part of the trainer. Training of so-called “champion” show dogs usually begins when they are puppies and continues through most of their lives.
Training your dog is the basics of behavior and communication with you can be very rewarding. What you may lack in experience, equipment, facilities, etc. is usually compensated for by your dogs’ desire to please the person he loves and lives with, which is his strongest motivation.
