|
A good social life makes your dog easier to befriend and to care for. If your dog is used to meeting new people, teach him not to jump up or bark wildly. If you want to impress people with your dog’s fine manners, go a step further; teach him to sit and offer a paw. It’s also useful for your dog to be comfortable around other animals. Dogs who are used to be alone or only with people may become strongly territorial or aggressive with other dogs. Take your dog to the dog park, and walk him where other dogs gather; teach him to walk on a leash without being distracted by other dogs.
Get together with a friend and schedule a regular play-date for your dogs. Exposing your dog to other animals helps him remain calm when he is surrounded by them at the kennel. It also means he will be more likely to get vigorous play in a group of other dogs at the kennel. Teaching your dog some basic obedience also ensures an easier time at the kennel. Teach him “sit”, “down”, “stay”, and “come”. Teach him to go to his crate (if you use one) when you say, “crate”. Dogs usually know the word “no” having heard it so many times, and they usually know “okay” from the tone of your voice and its happy consequences. Teach him “stop”, a highly valuable word because it has so many applications. It means “quit” (eating the trash, chasing the car, kissing the baby) and “stay where you are”. This command could save your dog’s life. You probably already play lots of games with your dog: Frisbee is fun and good exercise for people and dogs too! Fetch is a great game, and like Frisbee ,it combines play and training, because for Fetch to work as people understand it, the dog has to return the item in order to keep playing the game. Fetch isn’t a natural game for dogs: before being trained, they see it more as keep-away. When your dog has agreed that Fetch and Frisbee involve bringing back the object you’ve thrown, he’s playing the game the human way! You can teach your dog hide-and-seek, which is not only a lot of fun, but also builds his skill base by teaching him to ferret out hidden items. Although you may never need to find a lost child, isn’t it nice to you could if you needed to? The more games you play with your dog, the more skills he learns that will help him play with other people, namely, the kennel staff. |
