Is your dog obedient?
Every dog can be taught. By instinct, dogs can understand what we are saying and act according to it. Any dog owner can teach their own dog, but the result of it will depend on the rapport between the two. If they have a good relationship, the teaching will be easier and with better results. But a major factor in all this will be the dog’s obedience. If you’re up to it, to help you with this difficult task, here you have an obedience test, something that will help you to know how high is your dog’s training potential, and whether your dog will be a good apprentice or not.
Here you have some exercises specialists have suggested in animal behavior, as a way to evaluate in your own home the degree of obedience of your pet. The purpose of this is to determine how long the dog takes in processing information.
The classic test is to situate the dog in an empty room, and leave a container with some appealing food, such as canned food. The animal will approach the food; in that moment a firm ‘NO’ is in order. The idea of this is to see how many times the dog will try before frustrating. An obedient dog would give up by the second or third try; the disobedient will end up eating the whole thing. The same exercise can be done with a toy. Ask your dog to play and in a sudden way, end the game. How much longer can your dog hold before asking for more? Once more, after two ore three times the dog should calm.
Maybe your dog is obedient when alone, but what happens when other dogs are near?
It’s important to know if your animal obeys when being in the company of other dogs.
Try taking your dog to a safe park and let it loose. The most likely thing it’ll do is going socialize with the other dogs. Try calling by the name. If after calling a few times nothing happens and you have to go with the leash to get its attention, you can be certain teaching your dog will require lots of work.
But don’t be embarrassed or worried, and just remember this is only a test which helps you understand the potential your dog has to be trained. Even if your dog only learns the basic commands and more advanced stuff can’t be taught, there’s one very important thing you ought to remember: pets bear a strong resemblance to their owners.