obedience training

Dogs are born team players. You can call this pack instinct, but I find it more helpful to think of dogs and their owners as a team. Any team has an objective which they work towards achieving and each member of the team has a part to play in helping their team to secure a victory. To be successful, a team has to have a strong, clearly defined structure, cooperation between all members of the team and a sense of mutual respect among the members. You could take the best players in the world; but if they don’t work together as a team, they would still lose 95 times out of 100. A team needs a clearly defined leader and every player has to understand exactly what their responsibilities are as a member of this team. If a member of the team is in need of help, they need to know that they can count on their teammates to help them out.

Many of us look at those oh-so-cute puppies in the pet store or shelter and see them not as they are, but as we would like them to be. We think once we take that pup home, they will prove themselves to be a Lassie or some other kind of fictional wonder dog. The reality, of course, is usually far different; your puppy will dash back and forth across your home, finally stopping to wag their tail and have an accident right there in your living room!