Do not feel guilty, a well trained dog is a happy dog as he knows what is expected of him. Find jobs for them to do, it builds their confidence knowing what you want, instead of scolding bad looks and confusion. The "no" command is probably the most useful base command, that will come into play training other commands. "Go Potty" is my other favorite, as this allows you to get the dog to go on command, say before going to bed, going on a car trip or what ever.
Use their natural traits to find new things to train them to do. You'll get a kick out of it as will the dog and amaze your visitors how smart he is. Dogs will easily learn as many commands as you can teach them, 100-140 different is possible. The more you train them the more they can sense what you want. I always talk to my dogs as if they were people as they can sense your meaning most of the time. |