Dog Obedience Training and Puppy Obedience Training

This is an introduction to some of the main aspects of dog obedience training. You will find more detailed information on specific aspects in other articles. >>If you're looking for a dog obedience training guide, the best one is: the Secrets To Dog Training guide. Any responsible dog owner should engage in dog obedience training, preferably starting as early in the puppy's life as you can. Basic obedience training can begin as early as six to eight weeks old. Prevention is better than cure and many possible problems can be avoided by putting consistent and persistent effort into training your dog.

For a dog to be properly trained, he must obey your commands under all circumstances - not just when he is not being distracted by other more interesting things.

Essential Dog Training Equipment

These are the basics you need to get started:

• a six foot long lead, preferably leather but can be nylon
• a well-fitting fixed collar or a half-check collar. If you use a half-check collar you should set it so that at its tightest you can still easily get a couple of fingers between it and the dog's neck
• a long line about 25 to 50 feet long
• a short line 6 to 8 feet long.

Establishing Yourself As Pack Leader

One of the first steps is to understand the nature of the dog pack which is very much like that of a wild wolf pack. Dominance is a very important factor in pack relations and all other dogs will submit to the pack leaders (also known as the alpha pair). If you do not position yourself as the pack leader, you can be quite sure that your dog will take that position and this will make any training difficult.

So, the first step in any training is to establish yourself as the pack leader. Read the article on alpha dog training.

Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) Dog Training

Nothing In Life Is Free or NILIF is a well-accepted training technique which will help you to establish yourself as pack leader. It can be used in conjunction with other training techniques.

The technique means that your dog will no longer be allowed to demand your attention. This is mimicking pack behavior where the alpha dog demands attention from the other members and not vice versa. When your dog demands attention, you ignore him. Since he is used to getting your attention on demand, he may at first try even harder to demand your attention. It's vital that you do not give in at this stage.

Nothing In Life Is Free means that from now on your dog must earn your attention. If he wants something, you demand that he obeys some command first. For example, before you feed him, you insist that he sits calmly and waits before you put his bowl down on the floor.

Since your dog cannot now demand your attention, you must make sure that you give quality time when you play with him and give him attention and affection. But now, you summon him and have him sit before you give him affection.

This is page 1 of 2 of Dog Obedience Training. In the next page you can read about more techniques such as Clicker Training: Obedience for Dogs (page 2).

Is your puppy or dog misbehaving? If your answer to the above question is yes, then I strongly recommend that you check out the Secrets To Dog Training Guide. It's very in depth and great value for money. There's the downloadable manual, and audio version of the same and some great bonuses. The whole package covers everything you need to know about selecting a puppy or dog, caring for your dog, training your dog, dealing with any behavioral problems such as barking and biting and much more. Click here to check out the Secrets To Dog Training website .