Why Train Your Dog?

One reason for doing obedience training is to establish a foundation from which you and your dog can learn to effectively relate to one another. The first thing obedience training does is to create a common language for you and your dog. This, in turn, lets your dog know the proper response (behavior) that you expect in place of socially unacceptable behavior.

The obedience trained dog can respond properly to your commands, instead of neurotically trying to please and becoming ever more anxious with your displeasure. This dog acknowledges the people in the family as the leaders and becomes more secure and calm in this bond of love and authority.

Obedience training can be used to help fulfill some of your dog's basic needs, such as exercise and constructive social interaction. Obedience training will give your pet a job to do and can be useful in redirecting some of the mental energy of an animal that was meant for work.

The obedience instructors at the Sheboygan Dog Training Club will assist you in training your dog to be the best family member possible. Most of the instructors have years of experience handling and competing with dogs.

Obedience Class Overview

The Sheboygan Dog Training Club offers Beginners, Pre-Novice and Novice Obedience classes year round. Occasionally there are advanced classes available, such as Open.

Classes are held on the same night of the week, with the same instructors and assistants. Each class runs for one hour, one day a week for seven weeks at a cost of $70.00. There are discounts available for continuing your training. For dates and times of our Obedience classes, see our class schedule page.

Obedience instructors, assistants, and apprentices are there to help you with any questions or problems you may be having with your dog, even those not directly related to a specific class.

Training Tips

A good dog's greatest desire is to please you, its master. When you teach your dog good manners through obedience training you increase its pleasure in living since you give it a greater opportunity to be with you and to serve you. You give it a feeling of confidence in itself and in its master, and you are making it a better member of the community in which it lives. Every minute you spend training your dog is going to be repaid to you in hours of enjoyment in a well-behaved companion who knows and understands what is expected and who is happy to give back to you its unswerving loyalty and trust.

The secret of training dogs, as well as humans, is to see that they know and understand what it is you want them to do. Then make sure that they do it every time you give the command. It is most important in training to know what a dog can understand and how you can make it understand it. Here are a few principles of training:

Your Dog Learns By Association Of Ideas
Words, as such, do not mean anything to your dog. It can only associate certain sounds with certain actions. When you tell it to "sit" you must show it by placing it into a sitting position. When the same word and action is repeated over and over, Your dog learns to associate that action with the word. Soon it will naturally sit when you ask it to do so. Select short words for your commands and always use those same words in the same tone of voice.

Utilize The Dog's Senses
Your dog's senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are much keener than your own. It will learn quickly if you utilize as many of your dog's senses during the training process, If you only tell your dog to it only uses its sense of sound to learn. If you tell your dog to "sit" and physically assist it into a sitting position, your dog then uses the senses of sound and touch to learn. If you tell your dog to "sit", physically assist it with one hand into a sitting position, and lure it into a sitting position with a treat which it will receive upon sitting, then your dog has learned to sit using the senses of sound, touch, sight, smell, and taste to learn.

Catch Your Dog Being Good
You need to teach your dog to learn right from wrong, Let your dog associate pleasure with obedience. Praise and reward it when it does the right thing. Pats, strokes, smiles, and soothing voice tone will soon teach your dog that you approve of its behavior. To minimize confusion, a dog must also learn that a stiff "No!, Ack!, or Leave it!" means that its behavior at the moment is not desirable. Let your dog associate disapproval with failure and disobedience. This is the basis for all training methods. The clearer you are in sending messages of approval and disapproval, the faster your dog will learn. Most dogs will strive to please you and obey your commands, so catch them being good both at training and at home.

Be Consistent In Your Training
Dogs are natural born schemers and actors. They will make a game of out-guessing and disobeying you unless they know they will win instant disapproval and correction every time they disobey, as well as approval every time they are obedient. Confusion arises on the dog's part if you let it get away with a wrong-doing one time and then correct it for another, Your consistent behavior wins repeated obedience from your dog, whereas inconsistency slows or stops the learning process.

Be Patient And Kind As Well As Persevering
Angry scolding or punishment when your dog is slow to understand or obey only confuses it and makes it hesitant about trying new acts for fear of doing them wrong and incurring your displeasure. A few firm words of displeasure are usually punishment enough. By being kind, you can heighten your dog's natural desire to please you, Sometimes a power struggle can occur between a dog and its owner. If this happens, you must be very patient and very firm when working with your dog. Making your dog understand that you are going to win every time it chooses to be dominant requires much perseverance and energy on your part. If you let a mistake go uncorrected one time, you are undoing hours of work, as the dog will constantly be tempted to repeat the undesirable behavior again.

Only One Person Trains The Dog Initially
It is humanly impossible for two people to think, talk, and act alike. Decide which member of the family is going to do the training and leave that part of your dog's education entirely up to that individual. After the dog has thoroughly learned its commands and what is expected of it, then other members of the household may begin working with the dog. They, too, must ensure that the dog quickly obeys commands every time.

Keep Your Dog's Attention During Training
Take your dog, on leash, to a quiet place at home when you begin your homework. That place should be free from distractions by other people and dogs at first. Talk to it in a cheerful manner en route, telling it that it is time for "doggie school". Play with your dog a bit to arouse its interest and to get it to center its attention on you. Work the actual training procedure right in with your play. Give a command, make the dog execute it correctly and then make a great fuss over it. Complete all the exercises and then end the lesson on a cheerful note with a command that your dog can do. Try to end the training session before your dog loses interest. Short, daily sessions are far superior to long sessions with no work in between. Practice does make perfect.