Ch 3: 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.