Obedience training is meant to teach the Doberman to obey the owner’s commands. This is useful not only for daily care, such as brushing teeth, bathing, trimming nails, removing foreign objects from the mouth, and giving medication, but also for helping the dog and owner live together harmoniously and reducing the chance of accidents. For this reason, every owner should train their dog in obedience. The following points are worth paying attention to during training.
(1) Puppies should generally begin training around 70 days after birth, and adult dogs should be trained as soon as possible once they enter the home.
(2) When teaching something new, training should be carried out in a familiar, quiet, and safe place. When reviewing something the dog has already learned, a slightly more distracting environment can be used. Once the dog has fully mastered a skill, training can then continue in an even more distracting environment. In this way, the dog’s attention to the owner is gradually strengthened.
(3) Short daily training sessions are more effective. For example, compared with one 20-minute session per day, two sessions of 5 to 10 minutes each often work better and keep the dog feeling fresher and more engaged.
(4) Do not overtrain. For example, when training “sit,” if the dog has already done it well, or even just once correctly, it should receive encouragement. It is much better to stop on a success than to keep training until failure occurs ten times in a row.
(5) At the beginning of training, it is normal for the dog to have difficulty concentrating, so the owner must be patient and not become anxious.
(6) The best method is to reward the dog immediately after it completes a task correctly, such as with a piece of meat. If training cannot bring the dog happiness, then the training itself is unlikely to succeed well.
(7) To stop the dog from “doing bad things,” timing is critical. Correction should not happen after the dog has already finished the behavior, but at the exact moment it is about to do it, using a decisive and firm command to interrupt it.
(8) Repeated practice deepens the dog’s memory. If training advances too fast, the dog may begin resisting or trying to escape. Therefore, you should not expect the dog to learn everything in one day. Daily repetition is necessary.
(9) Physical punishment should be used with extreme caution and, in modern training, is generally avoided except in truly dangerous situations such as when a dog is about to bite. In general, relying on violence is ineffective. Training devices such as harsh metal or spiked collars are also not recommended, and owners should consult veterinarians or qualified professionals when in doubt.
(10) The real shortcuts to obedience training are practice, persistence, patience, hard work, rewards, and continuing to train together with your dog.