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Jan 15 2015

10 Reasons to Celebrate National Train Your Dog Month

January is National Train Your Dog Month! Dogs aren’t born knowing what you want, so training is a very important part of helping your dog to become a member of the family.

Training your dog provides a lot of great benefits. Here are just 10:
  1. The most obvious benefit is that your dog does what you want. Trained dogs have good manners and are generally a joy to be around.
  2. A dog who is taught appropriate outlets for normal behaviors like chewing and digging is less likely to wreck your stuff.
  3. It also provides mental stimulation, which is very important for dogs’ psychological wellbeing. Not only that, but if they aren’t getting enough mental stimulation, they will go looking for it – and you won’t always like what they come up with.
  4. Training is an excellent bonding activity, building respect and trust.
  5. It also deepens communication – you’ll learn to understand each other on a whole different level. Your dog will learn to understand when you are happy with him and when you’re not so happy, and you’ll have a better idea of how he feels about things as well.
  6. It will tire your dog out – so on days when he just can’t get out and run, a half an hour of training will help satisfy his energy requirements.
  7. If you decide to go to training classes instead of going it alone, it gives your dog a chance to learn how to socialize with other dogs in appropriate ways. Bonus: classes also give you a chance to socialize and get to know other dog owners in your area!
  8. Certain obedience commands will help keep your dog safe – commands like “come,” “stay,” and “leave it,” save lives.
  9. Training can be fun! There are all kinds of things a dog can learn, from advanced obedience and cool tricks, to sports like agility and flyball.
  10. Trained dogs are welcome in places where dogs that behave poorly are not – and it’s always more fun when you can bring your dog along with you!

So why not sign up for a class, or just teach your dog something new. Have fun with it! What will your dog learn this January?

LifeLearn Team |