Developing Good House Manners

In order to develop good house manners you will want to begin by building your relationship with the dog and doing leadership exercises. Remember that jumping, chewing, digging, nipping, etc are all self rewarding behaviors for the dog and thus consistency on your part is critical in helping the dog find alternate acceptable behaviors. Here is a list of things to do to develop the dogs understanding of his position in the family unit:


A. Practice sit stays in and out of the house. Be sure to practice at the doors. Do not allow your dog to enter or exit before you. To help this, have him sit before he can go through the door. Offer the release cue when you are ready for him to go over the threshold.

B. Do not allow your dog to eat before you. Prepare his food. Leave it on the counter. Sit down and enjoy your food. When you are done- you can feed your dog (have him offer a sit before receiving his food and be sure to offer the release cue when it is OK for him to dine).

C. Prior to walks, have dog offer sit stay.

D. Practice obedience daily.

D. Practice obedience daily (yep, D is here twice...on purpose! PRACTICE DAILY!).