Most dog owners want their dogs to be very obedient to their commands and this is why we are conducting a detailed review on the dog training techniques presented in the program, SitStayFetch. They claim by using the methods presented in the program that it will stop your dog’s behavior problems. So, I am going to put them to the test and see if I can take their tips and use them to train my german shepherd dog, Bear, who has no training experience. Bear’s main problem, at this time, is that he does not come when called. So, I am going to take their tips on how to train your dog to come on command and see if he improves using the tip.
Here’s a normal day with Bear. I let him outside to go potty and get some exercise. I soon notice he starts running up and down the fence with my neighbors dog playing tag and tearing up my garden, urg. I call him with a “Bear. . .Come. . .” command and do you know what he does? He looks at me, acknowledging I said something, and then keeps on playing, completely ignoring me. Now frustration sets in, so I start shouting “Bear. . .Come!!!” He will not even acknowledge me now. So I start yelling in frustration and go grab him by the collar and make him come inside, letting him know I am angry at him for not listening to me. I am sure many dog owners have been there and done that. The reason why my dog is not listening to me is a great lesson that SitStayFetch teaches us and just implementing the why will make our dogs a lot more obedient to our commands.
So what lesson does SitStayFetch teach us, to make our dogs more obedient? They instructs us that when we do discipline our dog for not listening, that they are not learning what we want them to learn because dogs think differently than humans. What we see as ‘urg, dumb dog, you need to listen to me’, the dog will see it as I get in trouble when I hear the command ‘come’ so, I better not go. When we get angry at our dogs and start yelling at them while trying to train them with a command, this will cause them to think that the command we are training them to learn means bad things and they will begin to ignore it. Thus, our dog ignores us, we get mad, and the vicious cycle continues. So, this program tells us that instead of getting angry, we need to teach our dogs that the come command means good things.
To teach our dog the command ‘Come’, we need to make it as positive as possible so our dog learns that the command means good stuff and not bad things like before. To do this, SitStayFetch has several tips, but since this is a review article, I’ll keep it to the 3 most important tips. One: Have some great treats in hand. Some good treats they mention are dog treats, cheese and hot dogs. I use cheetos and hot dogs, but not dog treats since Bear does not care for them, go figure. Two: Use a positive cheery voice when using the command and say “Bear. . . Come. . .”. Three: Use a long leash so you can reel him in when saying come. So with my new tips in hand I put Bear on my 15 foot leash and let him go outside. The results. . .
At first Bear did not respond because he had been preprogrammed by me that the command ‘come’ was bad. So I initially had to say “Bear. . .Come. . .”, and real him in to me, using the leash, while saying, “Good Boy Bear. . . Good Come. . .” in a very cheery voice, and then giving him a piece of a hot dog. Boy was he excited over that! Then I repeated this by letting him play with his neighbor dog friend and then saying “Bear. . .Come. . .”, reeled him in while giving him praise and a nice treat. It was not long that Bear soon realized when I said “Bear. . .Come” that he was going to get praise and treats and would come running on command. I was so ecstatic and grateful that my dog finally learned to come when I called him.
Therefore, does the SitStayFetch program actually help stop your dog’s behavior problems? I have to say, from personal experience, that yes it does do what they claim. I have applied all the techniques they say to teach my dog the ‘come’ command and it worked like a charm. So far, I am very pleased with the results. Bear now comes on command when he is playing with his friend next door. If you apply these techniques that SitStayFetch teaches, your dog will also come on command when called. Give the techniques mentioned in this article a try and you will also see great results.
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