How to Teach a Dog Obedience

What you need to understand about training a dog is this: All training comes down to applying a consequence for a behavior. There are only two types of consequences: positive and negative.

Both types of consequences are very powerful. The confusion for most people starts with when to use the consequences. Dog trainers are always telling dog owners that they need to use a certain kind of collar. A new dog owner might hear that she needs to use a choke collar, a prong collar or an electronic collar. Another trainer will tell her to never use those types of collars; she should use a halti (gentle leader) or that she should use a clicker and treats.

This is where the confusion starts. Let me add to it by telling you that all of the collars and tools that I talk about will get you results--ALL OF THEM!


You can get results using positive or negative reinforcement, so let me clear this up for you. You should use positive methods to teach your dog to do something for you: e.g. sit, come, stay, down. You should use negatives when you want your dog to stop doing a certain behavior: e.g. jumping, barking, stealing.

When you want your dog to perform a certain behavior, the best way to teach the behavior is by reinforcing it. Reinforce the behavior until your dog can do it by hearing the word.

When you want your dog to stop doing a behavior you should use some form of negative consequence. Using a negative consequence does not require you to hurt or harm your dog. A lot of people use squirt bottles to stop certain behaviors. If your dog does not like water a squirt bottle can be very effective. You can pair the word "NO" with the consequence of getting squirted by the water.

An example could be barking. Your dog starts to bark and you say: "Quiet" and then immediately squirt your dog with the water. Pair the word "Quiet" enough times with the water and your dog will start to learn the word "Quiet."

It's important to remember that whenever you use a negative consequence you run the risk of developing unwanted side effects or tolerance. Dogs that have received too many negative consequences can sometimes develop aggression problems. The other problem is that some dogs will develop a tolerance to the negative consequence. For example: water from a squirt bottle may not have the same effect if it is used repeatedly on the dog. A negative consequence works best when it is used three or four times and the dog makes the association.