Get closer to your dog.

See how much time they’ve spent running, walking, playing, pottering or resting with a PitPat dog activity monitor.
Training your dog may seem a bit daunting at first, but it is an extremely valuable and rewarding experience that will be beneficial for both of you. It will help you increase the bond you have with your dog and means that when you are out and about you will have the confidence to give them the freedom they need.
You might wish to enrol your dog in obedience classes, but if you aren’t able to get to them, don’t worry. You can easily train your dog from the comfort of your own home. All you will need are some items to reward your dog such as treats, their favourite toy or lots of praise.
Training will be hard work for you and for them. After all, training will count towards your dog’s daily exercise, so it is a good idea to use a dog activity monitor like PitPat, to track all their activity to make sure they’re not getting too much.
As with all training it is important to make sure the foundations are in place first, so here are five basic commands to get you started.
See how much time they’ve spent running, walking, playing, pottering or resting with a PitPat dog activity monitor.
This is a great place to start as it’s one of the easiest commands. It’s also very valuable as it will be one of the ones you will use most frequently in your daily life.
This command teaches your dog how to walk next to you and is extremely useful for when you are walking them on a lead. Although this can sometimes be easier outside where there is a bit more space, you can easily do this in your living room too. This technique works best if you use a squeaky toy as their reward.
This can be a tricky one for some dogs to learn, but it can be very helpful as many dogs find holding the ‘sit’ position for a long period of time difficult. The down position can also keep your dog calm as it is a more submissive state than sitting.
This is probably the hardest one to teach your pup as lots of dogs are not big fans of being still. So take things slowly over several short sessions, and once you have mastered it you will be able to use it in all kinds of situations, such as opening your front door or getting out of your car.
Dogs are very curious and sometimes they like to investigate things they shouldn’t. So it’s important that you know how to get your dog to drop or leave something that could be harmful to them.
At the end of every training session make sure that you finish on a command your dog knows really well. This will end things on a positive note and make sure that your dog will be excited to train with you again.
To see just how much energy they are putting into your training sessions together, use PitPat to track their exercise and help you to manage their fitness, so you can keep training together for many years to come.
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