The canine obedience basically consists of educating a dog so that it responds positively to our commands and instructions, thus achieving a basic level of education for the dog Contrary to what many believe, canine obedience is not a synonym of canine training, but rather obedience is only part of everything involved in training and educating a dog.
Below we explain what are the keys of canine obedience to achieve good communication between owner and dog. We'll also share tips for linking good obedience to basic or advanced training.
Keep reading this article on our site and discover why it is so important to dedicate time and effort to canine obedience. Let's go there:
Dog Obedience Levels
There are different requirements for obedience training depending on the objective pursued. In other words, canine obedience training will be different if a service dog is trained (as is the case with guide dogs), sports competition dogs (for example in agility) or companion dogs without any special function that not be that of being tremendously loved.
Although there may be dogs that are more intelligent than others, the truth is that good obedience will never be complete if the person who trains the dog does not have basic knowledge.
Old Obedience: Dominance
Probably, you have ever seen an episode of the dog whisperer. César Millán's techniques left half the world impressed, but this is no longer the case. In fact, in Austria the retransmission on public television of his program is prohibited. Why? The reason is simple, he works with ancient obedience, dominance-based
In dominance it is stipulated that we must be a "leader" for our dog and techniques are used that remind us of the natural communication of canids such as marking. However, this technique arises from a study carried out with wolves from the last century and it is estimated that any disobedient dog wants to be the dominant of the pack formed by us and him.
However, and although using some dog-specific systems is positive, it should be understood that some techniques can cause discomfort in our pet, worsening a behavioral problem that it may have. Especially if we are not specialists, using dominance is a serious mistake. In addition, it is an obsolete system that has proven not to be as effective as other techniques.
Recently professional ethologists who have studied packs of wolves in the wild have confirmed that there are no aggressions between wolves and that they live in total harmony. They depend on each other to survive, it makes no sense that they continually hurt each other. Of course, there is a very important gestural language (more accentuated than in dogs) aimed at preventing conflicts.
Why then had completely different behaviors been seen before? Well, simply because until now the necessary technology to study wolves in the wild has not existed, all the observations had been made on artificial packs kept in captivity. These packs lived in a continuous stress, which led to a high degree of aggressiveness among their members.
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Current Obedience: Positive Reinforcement
As happens with human relationships, maintaining a positive and trusting attitude helps the receiver to understand us and be more predisposed to follow our instructions. The same thing happens with dogs, which is why obedience based on positive reinforcement appears.
Positive reinforcement has no more secret than rewarding a dogimmediately after it properly complies with a command or behaves like a dog. We wish. A reward should not always be used in the form of a snack, words of encouragement or caresses are also useful. This type of technique completely rejects punishment (since it causes stress in the dog) and invites us to use other modes of action that do not cause discomfort in your relationship. Remember that removing punishment from a dog's training does not mean letting him do what he wants. You must guide your dog and teach him how to do it.
On the other hand, it will also be interesting to note that non-verbal communication is basic to obedience. We should not only use a "sit" but it will be very useful to also relate it to a gesture. Dogs better understand a specific physical signal.
Using the clicker is an improved version of positive reinforcement but requires a little more perseverance and dedication. It basically consists of "capturing" those behaviors that we like of the animal. To use a clicker correctly, we must first of all charge the sound that the object emits for 3 or 4 days: Click and reward the animal with a treat. Later, already in the street or at home, he will be educated following the same procedure: "sit" - click - treat.
The clicker can be used on any occasion, including those that occur spontaneously. The dog understands that you liked it and associates the "click" with your approval and increases the chances that it will repeat it.
Allowing the animal to make mistakes and correcting its behavior by learning by itself is essential. These techniques that we have proposed help him feel comfortable during his education and training, always complying with animal welfare. They encourage them to learn by themselves (something that improves their mental stimulation) makes them feel useful, avoids behavioral problems and prevents them from being afraid or feeling excessive pressure.
Behavior problems or deviation from obedience
When adopting a dog we should be aware that our animal may, at some point in its life, need supervision of its behaviorby a specialist. Going to a canine educator or ethologist if you suffer from behavioral problems can help us considerably, especially if we begin to notice that our dog does not pay attention to us.
Reviewing the 5 freedoms of animal welfare in detail can help us understand that we are doing something wrong. It may also happen that we do not properly interpret some of their physical and verbal signals, and worse, that we do not respond correctly to these signals.
For example, scolding a dog when he growls is totally counterproductive since the animal can start attacking directly without warning. Growling is a way for dogs to say "leave me alone" or "I don't like that".
How and when to work obedience
- Practicing basic obedience commands for about 5 or 10 minutes a day will be enough for our dog to start working on it. Abusing education time is counterproductive for the animal.
- On the other hand, the ideal would be to work orders one at a time, devoting between 1 and 10 days to their complete understanding and app. As soon as the dog understands one command perfectly, we can move on to another.
- It is very positive to dedicate one day a week to remember all the commands learned.
- Ideally, start working on an order in a quiet place and without distractions, progressively it should be carried out in more and busiest so that the dog can respond to us effectively even with constant distractions.
- Practicing every day and Being constant in obedience ensures a good result.
