Puppy Obedience Training

"A Well-Trained Puppy Is A
Well-Behaved Puppy"

It's one of the first stages in puppy training, and is the first step towards a well-behaved puppy.

Teaching your puppy obedience training commands is easy - all you need is a little knowledge, patience and understanding.

We recommend you read our article on puppy training tips before you begin teaching your puppy the exercises described below.

The 'Watch' command teaches your puppy to look at you and pay attention to you, ignoring everything else around him.

The 'Watch' command can make other puppy obedience training easier as you will have your puppy's full attention before starting another exercise.

Your dog is more likely to respond to your commands when he's paying attention.

Teach your Cocker Spaniel The 'Watch' command today!

Teaching your puppy to sit on command is a very useful exercise as it can be used in many situations.

It's a good discipline to have your puppy to sit while you put on his collar and lead, before you feed him, before opening the front door to visitors, or to allow you to walk through a doorway first.

Apart from putting your puppy into a calm, submissive state, the 'Sit' command will help to reinforce your status as the pack leader.

Another useful puppy obedience command is the 'Down' command, especially if you have visitors with young children.

The 'Down' command helps to keep your dog calm and quiet, and helps to avoid a jumping, over-excited puppy knocking over a young child.

When your dog is in the down position, he is in a submissive state, and your position as the pack leader is reinforced.

Teach your puppy the 'Down' command.

There will be many times when you want your puppy to stand for you - whilst grooming or bathing him, or whilst he's being inspected by a vet. Your puppy will need to learn how to 'Stand' on command if you intend to take him to obedience classes, or you plan to show him when he's older.

One of the easiest ways to stop your puppy barking is to train him to respond to the "Be Quiet" command.

It sounds contradictory, but the aim is to train your puppy to bark and then teach him to stop barking!

Wait and Stay are two different commands to be used in different situations, and it's very important to know the difference before teaching your puppy either of these commands.

Learn about these differences, and learn how to teach your puppy the 'Wait' and 'Stay' commands.

There will be times when it will be very useful to have your dog lie down and stay there until you are able to make a fuss of him or attend to him, for example, while unpacking the shopping.

This is simply a combination of two commands.

The 'Down and Stay' command is very useful when your dog is unecessarily boistorous or seeking attention from you.

Your dog must have mastered both the 'Down' and 'Stay' commands separately before you try and teach him to lie down and stay.

When training a puppy it's important that the "Drop It!" command is amongst the first few commands that you teach him.

There are many good reasons for this, for example, your Cocker Spaniel puppy may pick up something that you really don't want him to chew, or something that could harm him - or worse, poison him.

Teaching your puppy the "Drop It!" command as early as possible will prove very useful indeed!

You may be surprised how much you use this command. For example, out walking, your puppy may stumble upon the carcase of a rabbit or something equally unpleasant, something which you wouldn't want him to touch let alone eat or roll in - which, of course, he'll try to do.

The 'Leave It' Command will ensure your puppy continues on his way.

One of the most important commands you'll ever teach your puppy is the 'Come' command as, at some point, it may be used to remove him from potential harm.

Follow this link to learn how to teach your puppy the 'Come' command.

Clicker training is an alternative method of communicating with, and training, your dog - it's scientific name is 'operant conditioning'.

A clicker is a small plastic device with a metal strip which, when pressed, makes the sound of a click. It's used as a positive reinforcement in the same way a treat would be used to confirm a wanted behaviour from your dog.

As with all reward based training, the reward, or clicker in this instance, must be used immediately as timing is very important. If you are slow to dispense the reward, treat or clicker, the dog will not associate it with the wanted behaviour.

You can learn more about clicker training here.

We hope you've found our puppy and dog training tips useful and are well on your way to having a happy, well-mannered Cocker Spaniel puppy!

If you need more advice on puppy or dog training you'll find good dog training advice here - dog obedience training, how to train a dog, and many more dog training tips.

Puppy obedience training doesn't, and shouldn't stop here. Your Cocker Spaniel will mature and eventually become
an old dog but that doesn't mean dog obedience training should become a thing of the past.

On the contrary, dog obedience training should be continued throughout your dog's life to keep him fit and active, both mentally and physically!

Search our site!

Custom Search

Return to top of page - Puppy Obedience Training