Taking care of a dog is a passion that many people, especially dog owners, can relate to. It cultivates mutual pleasure and fondness as your dog advances to higher levels of obedience and skills. Both dog and dog owner can achieve a re-assuring sense of accomplishment from a successful obedience training program.

Dog training is never easy. It requires patience to overcome the many and varied difficulties that you will encounter during the training. In order for your dog to be successful in its overall training program of learning different activities and developing good habits, you must first train them to socialize. This makes dog obedience training essential, as it allows you to instill obedient behavior that you can expect to remain with your dog into the future. You cannot force your dog to obey you instantly. You will need to accept that training a dog for obedience is a process that has important steps to be followed. Teaching your dog basic techniques, such as walking them around leashed without the need to continually pull on it and to sit or lay down when commanded, is a good starting point for dog obedience training.

The following tips and reminders are particularly important when training your dog for obedience:

1. Ensure you equip yourself with the necessary materials and learn the essential pointers before starting the training. This can be a challenging project so you need to prepare a plan on how to best approach your dog. Dogs have defensive instincts so scaring and forcing them to do something can be risky and dangerous. Do the training slowly but surely. Dogs have innate qualities and natural habits that cannot be changed but can be cultivated.

2.Do not be over strict, instead, be understanding with your dog. It is not good practice to appear extra-commanding. Dogs are naturally trainable but can be equally radical when treated harshly. So handle them gently and execute your commands in a polite manner as you would normally do when addressing a person. Observe how they react to particular things. This will allow you to note which actions cause them to respond positively.

3. Motivate your dog. Like human beings, dogs can be motivated by the anticipated promise of rewards. Give them a reason to learn. Always show them the reaction they deserve. Smile and show them that you are proud of what they are doing. Praise them and give their favorite toys or food as a reward every time that they respond correctly. This is another very effective approach to use in obedience training. It will make your dog eager to learn and to respond properly to instructions. It will also help develop a harmonious relationship between you and your dog.

4. Do not punish your dog. Punishments do not help in obedience training. They will only trigger violent responses in your dog and cause them never to obey you. Punishing your dog when they commit mistakes does nothing but create a negative emotion from them. That is why patience and understanding is highly important. Recognize the mistakes as part of the training and just focus on the positive behavior that your dog shows.

The above four tips are just the basic things that you need to learn and apply in dog obedience training. The rewards for using the proper approach will come naturally as you develop a mutual bond with your dog. Eventually, they will guide you both forward to a more advanced level of skills training.