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When The Light Comes On, or Does My Dog Need Obedience Training?

© Pat Williams

Picture yourself in an alien place. You have no idea where you are, where to go or how to ask directions. Everyone around you seems to be twice your size and they don't always seem friendly. One minute they are treating you like a King or Queen, the next they are yelling and waving their arms at you. Scary, huh?

Well, just imagine how your puppy or newly adopted dog must feel, with all these huge creatures doing weird things around you. One minute they are offering you food and water, and then next they are screaming at you for God knows what. Then you get dragged outside to wander around in the cold. Fear begins to creep in and you have a hard time making heads or tails out of the whole thing. Then suddenly everything begins to change. No one is screaming anymore and it seems they are all using the same language. Little by little, you pick up a word or two and when you do what you think they want and get it right, you get a treat.

'WOW! This is pretty cool. The female leader says "sit" and when I put my butt on the ground she gives me a treat. I wonder if that works with the others,' you think to yourself. Days go by and more words become clear until one day you find yourself very happy, wagging your tail and getting praise and treats every time you do something right. They call you Spot which you don't mind because every time you come to your name they seem so happy to greet you.

That is when the light comes on.

Not just for your dog but for you as well. That is when everyone is speaking the same language. Since dogs are pack animals they love nothing more then to be active in the pack, your pack. Now that everyone is speaking the same language it seems the whole pack is happy.

In a recent discussion with Deborah Kompare from the Mixed-Breeds Dogs topic, we talked about using training all the time. In other words speaking your pack language every time you speak to your dog and remembering to always praise him when he does well.

Since we humans rarely offer praise to each other it is easy to see why dog training tends to get sidelined or even fail.

Deb tried it and very soon informed me that her dog truly enjoyed it as did the rest of the family, including her four year old.

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