Training Your Puppy The Right Way

Ginger is the sweetest, smartest, most wonderful dog in the whole world – well of course you are going to think that, she’s yours! If you hope the rest of the world will someday notice how clever and wonderful she is, you will need to train her. Nothing will get on potential adoring fans’ nerves more than a poorly behaved dog. Before starting the Ginger Fan Club, and get a fan base, you will have to teach her ways to show on the outside how fabulous you know her to be on the inside.



Training Your Pup

The decision to train your dog is a big one, but is most certainly a necessary one. The basic commands – sit, stay and lie down, are completely essential in communicating with your Ginger (regardless of breed or size). Anything beyond that is just a bonus, or is it? Above and beyond commands ensuring you and your dog find a genuine understanding between yourselves, you two may actually find yourselves surfing the same wavelength and speaking the same language – in a manner of speaking.



Basic Commands

One important thing to bear in mind is that dogs are not nearly as complicated creatures as we are. We over complicate things in fact, sometimes to the point of confusion for your dog. That is why the expression, "KISS" is so poignant when it comes to training your dog. Keep It Simple, Sweetie!



We are all familiar with the basic commands a dog should learn in order for them to be introduced to their perspective fans.



Sit

This is a fun one. It will have you pushing down on Ginger’s butt for hours begging, coaxing and tearing your hair out for her to sit. When she finally does, bust out the champagne, because this is one of the most important steps to having a trained pooch.



(Lie) Down

Down and lie down are different. The command "Down" is used when a dog is jumping up or onto a person and you want him or her to cease and desist. Lie down tells a dog who is already sitting (because remember, you have mastered this one) to now go down into a lying down position.



Stay

Stay is a simple command that tells your Ginger to stay where she is and continue what she’s doing regardless of where you go. This is an especially important one, second only to sit because the moment you tell Ginger to stay and you leave the room, she will want to follow you.





Come, Heel, Roll Over, Good Outside

"Come" instructs, or sometimes permits, Ginger to move from where she is to come to you. "Heel" tells her to keep pace with you during a walk or to go from her seated position to an upright one. "Roll over" tells her to roll around in her lying down position. Potty or house training is an entirely separate article, but once you have that one down, it is always encouraging for Ginger to hear, "Good Outside."



More Advanced

The greatest barrier in training dogs seems obvious. Dogs don’t speak English, German, Hebrew, French or any other language. Each word is just a sound, with no context, no familiarity, and no relation. Your job, as Ginger’s trainer, is to help her make an association between the sound and what it is you want her to do. This will require practice, repetition, and, you guessed it, patience. With this aspect of training, it is important to note that if Ginger isn’t getting it, it is not due to her lack of intelligence. It is due to your inability to create the association between the sound and your wishes.



Nouns

Amazingly, dogs are capable of learning vast quantities of nouns. Not just the basics, like, "ball," "frisbee" or "bone," but sophisticated, complex things like, "newspaper," and "purple duck." One boarder collie purportedly knows over 1,000 words, and learned them over the course of just a few years. Ginger can learn any noun you can distinguish from the rest of the noise that comes out of your mouth, if she can tie the sound to the object in her mind.



Verbs

In dog training lingo, "verbs" is pretty much synonymous with "tricks." Beyond the basics, verbs include things like fetching, dancing or shaking. You could make Ginger do a little "rear" motion with her front paws and call it, "Silver." You can teach her to play dead, or play speed bump where she lies flat with her paws tucked under her. Ginger could learn to scoot backwards thru your legs in response to the word "reverse" if you can get the association between the motion and the action through your head. The sky is the limit for you and Ginger.



Cons

Training Ginger will be a commitment. It will take time and effort and great patience. Also, someone else’s ignorance, possibly rewarding her for the wrong thing or something similar, can do unintentional damage that will set you back days in your training.



You have to remember that you and your dog are in this together. You and Ginger are a team, helping build tools to communicate with each other. The key to training is association. Since you and Ginger don’t speak the same language, you must help her associate a sound with an object or an action, and chances are, with right work ethic, will power, and determination, she can learn it. And once she does, you can officially introduce her to her new fans who will adore her as much as you do.



Puppy City has been around for over 50 years, we pride ourselves in being the home for quality puppies for sale in Brooklyn, New York. We also have all of the supplies you will ever need, from dog food, to wee wee pads, to all the treats you will ever need in a lifetime. Visit us at http://www.PuppyCityNY.com