Basic Manners & Obedience

Even if you only manage to teach your puppy/dog to sit on cue, you will have solved countless behavior problems. Sitting promptly and reliably whenever asked prevents your dog from performing a limitless list of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviors, because sitting and most problem behaviors are mutually exclusive, i.e., your dog cannot sit and misbehave at the same time. So, at least teach your dog to sit when requested.

However, since off-leash, lure/reward training techniques are so amazingly simple and effective, you’ll no doubt want to expand your dog’s vocabulary and teach your dog to come when called, lie down, stand, stay, and to follow and heel as well.

Using food and toy lures and rewards is by far the easiest, quickest and most enjoyable means to train your dog — dog-friendly dog training techniques that all family members, especially children can master. Indeed, by using lure/reward techniques, dog training is truly child’s play.

Ironically though, and unbelievably, some people come up with an astounding list of pretty silly excuses for not using food lures and rewards and having fun in training. Despite the unbelievable ease and proven speed and effectiveness of lure/reward techniques, these misguided souls opt for much more difficult and time-consuming physical means of correction and punishment, that so often make training adversarial, punitive and downright unpleasant. Why on earth would we want to treat our best friend like our worst enemy? Consequently, I have included a list of excuses with explanations of why we would want pet dog training to be quick and easy and most certainly, enjoyable for both dogs and their owners.

In Chapter Three: Basic Manners & Obedience
Basic Manners
Basic Lure/Reward Training
Food Critics

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Articles in this Chapter:

Basic Manners

Give every guest a bag of training treats so that your puppy will be inclined to like them from the outset. Show your guests how you use your puppy's dinner kibble to lure/reward train him to come, sit, lie down, and roll over. Ask your puppy to come. Praise him profusely as he approaches and give him a piece of kibble when he arrives. Back up and do it again. Repeat the sequence several times.

Each time the puppy approaches, have him sit. Say, "Puppy, Sit," and slowly move a piece of kibble upwards, from in front of his nose to between his eyes. As the puppy raises his nose to sniff the kibble, he will lower his rear end and sit. If the puppy jumps up, you are holding the food lure too high.

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Basic Lure/Reward Training

All you need to train your puppy is the inclination, a few sparks in your brain, a couple of pieces of kibble in your hand, and...the puppy. So, enough said — let's get going. Ask your pup whether it is ready to proceed by moving a food lure up and down in front of his nose. If your puppy nods in agreement, you're off and running.

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Food Critics

Nearly every trained animal you see in films and on television has been taught using food lures and rewards. Killer whales are trained using fish. Grizzly bears are trained using marshmallows and soda pop. Obviously, trainers dealing with such large, potentially dangerous animals do not want killer whales and grizzly bears forming negative associations with training, or with the trainer! Let's not discriminate against the canine species. Isn't it long overdue for our best friends to have equal opportunity with the rest of the trained-animal kingdom?