January is National Train Your Dog Month! Dogs aren’t born knowing what you want, so training is a very important part of helping your dog to become a member of the family.
Training your dog provides a lot of great benefits. Here are just 10:
- The most obvious benefit is that your dog does what you want. Trained dogs have good manners and are generally a joy to be around.
- A dog who is taught appropriate outlets for normal behaviors like chewing and digging is less likely to wreck your stuff.
- It also provides mental stimulation, which is very important for dogs’ psychological wellbeing. Not only that, but if they aren’t getting enough mental stimulation, they will go looking for it – and you won’t always like what they come up with.
- Training is an excellent bonding activity, building respect and trust.
- It also deepens communication – you’ll learn to understand each other on a whole different level. Your dog will learn to understand when you are happy with him and when you’re not so happy, and you’ll have a better idea of how he feels about things as well.
- It will tire your dog out – so on days when he just can’t get out and run, a half an hour of training will help satisfy his energy requirements.
- If you decide to go to training classes instead of going it alone, it gives your dog a chance to learn how to socialize with other dogs in appropriate ways. Bonus: classes also give you a chance to socialize and get to know other dog owners in your area!
- Certain obedience commands will help keep your dog safe – commands like “come,” “stay,” and “leave it,” save lives.
- Training can be fun! There are all kinds of things a dog can learn, from advanced obedience and cool tricks, to sports like agility and flyball.
- Trained dogs are welcome in places where dogs that behave poorly are not – and it’s always more fun when you can bring your dog along with you!
So why not sign up for a class, or just teach your dog something new. Have fun with it! What will your dog learn this January?