Letting your dog do basic commands is a fun little game you can do with your little mutt. But if your dog is new or is still a cute little puppy, they won’t automatically follow your command no matter how basic it is. You can’t just repeatedly scream commands at your dog and expect him to follow immediately, that’s not how commands really work. If your dog doesn’t respond to the commands you are giving, there can be a few ways to make them follow you.
Making your dog Understand Your Commands
If you want to build a strong foundation on your communication skills with your dog, your quality of commands is what you really need to work on. Using your voice or body language is a great start, you should let your dog get familiarized with the things you are trying to make them do and how they should perform the said action. But your dog won’t immediately understand what you are trying to make them do, they are still not used to it. It won’t be an easy task, you have first get your dog’s trust and build a strong relationship with them through experiences, this could be playing with them, taking good care of them, or just being there for them. While you are doing all of these, you can then slowly introduce you simple cues for your dog to follow.
But there are times that your dog will still have a hard time understanding what you want them to do with your commands. You can solve this by trying a different approach to your teachings. You don’t just try and point at something and expect them to look in the direction you are pointing, your dog might not know what you are doing. Instead try calling out their name first then be sure that they are focused on you, be sure that they see your hand and slowly point towards the direction you want them to look. A slow and steady but comprehensive approach is needed for these kinds of situations.
Worried that your dog is a slow learner?
If you realize that your dog isn’t really responding to a certain command you are making, you should not directly conclude that they are trying to be disobedient. There can be a great number of reasons for this kind of behavior, your dog isn’t automatically showing stubbornness. Your dog might be always distracted by their surroundings, they might not actually want to follow your instructions because they feel very uncomfortable doing the command at that certain moment, or they basically still do not know how to execute the command.
Using Body Language
Using body language is an easy way to let your dog know that you want them to do something. Hand and body cues can be used together with a similar movement to make your dog do something. While passive and authoritative stances can let your dog know that they have done something bad and that they should stop.
