Have you ever asked a trainer how to fix a problem with your dog? Chances are they tell you to obedience train him. Do you wonder how that will help teach him not to do things you don’t like? Obedience is just teaching your dog to do a specific behavior when you tell him to.  By telling him what you want him to do, you can prevent him for doing what you don’t want. When you train him, you will also be able to have more fun with your dog, take him more places and have a better relationship with him. Here at my business, Aunt Faye’s Dog Training, when I teach the owners how to teach their dog a specific command, I come up with suggestions of different locations to practice it and different circumstances. If they are working on the “sit” command, we want the dog to understand that when he hears that particular word, his butt needs to hit the ground no matter where he is and no matter what else is going on.  I teach the dogs that sit means sit, they are to remain seated until told to do otherwise, so the stay is implied. So he can sit at the door before going out, sit before he gets his dinner, sit at the corner on a walk, sit at the mailbox while you get out the mail. He can sit before getting into the car, he can sit before you throw his ball. He can sit at the bottom of the stairs. Practicing all of that gives you the tools for controlling his behavior. If he sits at the door, he can’t run out. If he sits at the bottom of the stairs, he can’t knock you down as he tries to beat you to the top.  The more times you tell your dog to sit and get him to do it, the faster he will understand. As he catches on, you have to make it a little more challenging. He can sit at the door as you open it for guests and remain sitting as you let them in.  He can sit as you throw the ball and wait for you to relase him before running to it. He can sit on the scale to be weighed at the vets office.  Above is picture of a sitting dog. Not that you don’t know what one looks like, I just have lots of dog pictures. This happens to be my dog, Cap, at his birthday party earlier this year. The whole group class celebrated with him. I’ll post those photos tomorrow.