Advanced Dog Exercises

If you are not really interested in training your dog for obedience competitions, it is still recommended for you to train your dog further beyond the basics as there are many methods that are helpful not only for competition reasons but that are also fun for your dog.

Hand signals, whistles, and snap commands: When wanting to teach your dog commands, it's important that these be consistent, understandable, and to the point. Verbal instruction is not the only way to teach your dog commands. A snap continued by a point on the floor can mean to "get down" or "lay down" which can be very nice especially if you are trying to do something like eat a piece of chocolate cake and you want your dog to stop bothering you. Another thing that is common and very used in whistling. There are perfect in far areas or in fields because the sound can travel quite far. Make sure though that when you are first teaching this to your dog that he starts off learning this close to you so that he will be able to associate and understand the behavior he is to have when you whistle at him. Usually one whistle means to "Sit" or "Stay", while several whistles may mean other things.

Hand signals are probably the easiest. Make sure that when teaching this technique you use the same hand signal so that your dog clearly understands and picks up on that movement. The movement of your hand must be controlled and accurate. Make sure to start by teaching your dog hand signals for beginning the basic commands. In obedience trial competitions, trainers are allowed to use their arm and hand in a single movement, but any other body movement or motion is penalized. Whatever your preference of training is, remember to always use the same teaching process: Cue, click, reward, and of course, praise him when he does what has been asked of him.

Rapid dog commands