Dog Obedience Training Psychology

Some people believe that dogs are relatively stupid creatures. However, when you start to analyze how they can coerce you into giving them treats, make you scratch their belly's, and get you talking incessantly to them (usually in baby-talk), you will start to realize that dogs are very intuitive and smart.

Even the dumbest of dogs can be clever. With this in mind, few can resist the soulful eyes and the offered paw when eating something the dog also views as tasty.

One of the reasons for the ten thousand year link between people and dogs is the ability of the dog to communicate in terms that the owner can understand. For example, I'm sure that your favorite companion has delivered a ball with a look that you unerringly interpret as - it's time to play fetch!

These are only 2 examples that show that dogs have a great capacity for learning complex behavior. This takes us to the point that dogs can understand a surprising amount of language and body posture. However, they process information very differently from people.

Case in point, the dog's eyes respond very differently to colors and have a greater ability to see in low light. Also, their head muscles allow them to rotate their ears in order to quickly and accurately locate the precise source of sounds. And, of course, don't forget that infamous sense of smell.

The differences continue on other levels of mental functioning. Dogs understand cause-effect relationships very unlike their human companions.

In regard to obedience training, people can associate a specific sound, word or unique hand gesture with every command. In consequence, dogs learn a wide variety of selected behaviors. They can sit, stay, down, come, roll-over, no-bite, fetch and release, even eliminate on command.

Provided that, telling your dog repeatedly not to eat things off the ground that they know will make them sick is generally a complete waste of time. they will repeat the same unwanted behavior the first opportunity they have. They simply can't grasp some effects when the cause is much earlier in time.

When all is said and done, the lesson from these examples is this: Your canine companion can learn an astounding variety of things, regardless of breed, provided that you don't expect the unreasonable. The dogs level of intelligence is proven with search-and-rescue dogs being trained to pull children from rivers and skiers from avalanches. Another example is the service dogs that can open a door and pull a wheelchair, or retrieve a container of water without spilling a drop.

But bottom line, do not expect your dog to think like people. With this in mind, no matter how much persuasion or how many times you tell them not to, your dog will continue to eat grass whenever they feel like it.