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Susie has a great suggestion for a New Year’s resolution for you and your best friend. Observe January as National Train Your Dog Month. Make it into a fun activity for both you and your pet.
Life is much better when your best friend(s) is properly trained. Usually a dog’s lack of training is the fault of the human and not the canine. Dogs want to please us – we just need to provide the direction and opportunity.
Susie says that she couldn’t put up with her little brother Beau if he wasn’t trained. Even so he is still a varmint from time to time, but at least he is smart and quick to please. One good example is with the back and forth weather, puddles, mud and snow, having a dog or dogs come bounding into the house can be a cleaning disaster. Beau and Susie are trained to come into the breezeway and wait for daddy towel them off with the famous Mr.Towel before they set foot in the kitchen. Even two year old Beau who is all boy, patiently waits for his paws to be wiped.
Every dog and human should take an organized formal training class or classes, in order to master at least the basic commands such as sit, stay, down, leave it, come, etc. After the basics you can have fun with commands like sit pretty, roll over, speak, shake and high five.
Agility training is another fun area for both dog and human. Beau is full of energy and he loves to play ball with his daddy. Just watch some of the dog activities on cable and you will see the fun people and their dogs have running through an agility course, retrieving from water, and more.
You might even want to consider going to a dog camp during 2016, where you can spend from a weekend to a week with your dog learning many new things. You can see the fun that Susie has at Camp Gone to the Dogs in 2013. She even got to herd sheep twice!
Take the opportunity this year to find a good trainer and realize that training is a lifelong practice for you and your best friend.
Also check out the web site: http://www.trainyourdogmonth.com/
January 16, 2023
