Dog obedience training tools – How to train a dog
Dog obedience training tools – how to train a dog is something I know all about! When I was little, I knew nothing. Now I am a very clever, well-trained dog.
Of course, my human helped me learn but more than anything else, I learned because of a few essential training aids that my human used.
I will tell you what these are and I’ll also talk about other training aids which, in my opinion are completely unnecessary.
Dog obedience training tools - How to train a dog
If you have not read our introduction to dog training, How to train a dog, and the follow up, How to train your dog 2, it might be a good idea to go back and read about it now.
If you have read our training pages, you may be wondering, “what training tools did we talk about?” We in the dogspeaking team are all well-trained good dogs but all of us were trained with just a couple of aids so we’ll have a look at them now.
Dog Training Treats
In dog obedience training tools – How to train a dog, these are the best and maybe the only essential training tools you need!
Dogs love treats and we will do almost anything for a nice treat. We are generally pretty clever and we soon learn if we do something and get rewarded, we will do it again and again.
Once we learn something, a lot of praise is also very important and you should not need to give us a treat everytime we do something right. Use treats to begin with and give lots of praise. Soon a reward of being given a toy and a quick play will work as well as a treat, once we have the idea of the thing you are teaching. We shouldn’t need a treat every time in our lives we “sit” when asked!
Training treats are ONLY for training!
Make sure you keep the treats you use for training “special”. Keep training treats out of sight unless you are training and don’t give them out at other times
Remember, a special toy that only comes out for training is also a good idea but again, keep it ‘special’ and for training only so that your dog will do anything to get a play with the toy! See also “Rules of tug of war” – keep it special.
Best treats for dog training
Zuke’s Natural Training Dog Treats; Mini Naturals Recipe
Treats should be small and tasty and our number 1 recommendation has over 5000 five star reviews from dog owners, I assume because their dog likes them! I can tell you they are very tasty and I love them and they contain chicken with no corn, no wheat, no soy and no artificial colors or flavors. They do contain some grain in the form of rice and barley but that’s a lot better than corn or wheat which are often used as dog food “fillers”.
There is a wide variety of flavors (I love the chicken) but also Duck, Peanut butter and oats, pork, rabbit and salmon flavors.
You might start off with a couple of smaller bags of different flavors and see which your dog likes best before moving on to a larger bag.
Pet Botanics Training Reward treats are Pork liver based and are also corn and wheat free. I haven’t met a dog yet that doesn’t love a liver treat and here you get a big bag of 500 small treats at a very reasonable price in various bag sizes and in salmon, beef, bacon or chicken flavors.
This again has over 80% of five star reviews from you humans and a 4.6 star rating over all – maybe you humans like liver too?
Crazy Dog Train-Me! Training Reward Mini Dog Treats are meat-based with other good ingredients and are low fat and low calorie.
They come in a smaller bag of 200 in bacon, chicken, beef or salmon flavors.
At just 1.5 calories per treat, they are a very good and tasty training treat.
- Created To Attract, Focus, Motivate & Reward Dog!
- Low Fat, Low Calorie
A Leash – Dog obedience training tools, how to train your dog
It would be very hard to train a dog without a good dog leash and collar. There is a full review of all the different types of leashes and collars on the Best dog Leash page with a couple of recommendations.
Two leashes you should NOT use for dog training are:-
- a retractable leash – no control, tend to snap and might be dangerous
- Chain leash – bulky, heavy and not good for training.
Must have dog training leashes
A good leather leash or nylon leash is best for training. For larger dogs, you might also consider a short leash like the Fairwin Leather Short Dog Traffic Leash for Large Dogs Training.
Long dog training leash – 30ft
Another type of leash that is worth considering for training purposes is a Long leash like the Lead Leash Dog Training Lead Rope which rolls out to 30m in strong nylon. These can be used for sit and stay exercises as well as teaching your dog to fetch.
The short leash and the long leash can be very handy but the standard or adjustable leads are just essential to dog training.
Dog Training Videos and dog training books - Dog training tips
You are reading this now because you are interested in training your dog. Make sure you use other sources too, we can’t show you everything.
There are many other free resources on the internet both in reading and videos. Many of these resources are quite excellent, (like this website), but there are others that are not good.
My human always has a book to read and he says its always good to have help on hand rather than just reading article after article full of adverts on the internet.
DVD's from a respected source
It’s the same with a good DVD from the one respected source. You know you can trust the DVD and its there for you anytime without going through lots of advertisements.
We suggest that it is a good idea to buy a couple of books and maybe a training video from a place you can depend on for the right information.
There are some excellent dog training books you can buy. There are so many that it is difficult to choose a few to recommend but here is our top five. They all have very good reviews so if you are interested have a look, there’s no point in me telling you more so just click on them to see more.
Best dog training books - Top 5 pick
Lucky Dog Lessons: Train Your Dog in 7 Days
Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love
Training the Best Dog Ever: A 5-Week Program Using the Power of Positive Reinforcement (under $10)
No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way
You can’t go wrong with these five dog training books – most have probably heard of the famous author
Best dog training videos
Here are six videos all from very good experience dog-training sources. We tried to make it 5 but we couldn’t leave out Lucky Dog with Brandon McMillan. I’m sure you will recognise some of the names, they are all world classics: –
Dog pens and gates
Dog pens and gates can be used very effectively in early training. I should maybe have included them above rather than in this “optional” training aids section.
A little dog doesn’t mind having a secure place that’s not too small that he knows is his own. Please, I am NOT talking about a crate here but a penned off area where a young puppy will not be able to find things to chew that he shouldn’t be touching. (we don’t like crates, see below).
If pens and gates are being used, we always recommend gradually increasing your dog’s area where he is welcome until such a time that your dog has the full run of the home.
We have a page on best pens and gates and other accessories like dog steps or stairs. If you are interested, you can have a look here.
Dog training techniques NOT to be used.
Dog obedience training tools - How to train a dog
Clickers
A clicker is just a small plastic button that makes a click sound. Some people have a lot of success in using a clicker but personally I think a human voice if every bit has good.
The idea is that every time we get something right, you give us a click followed by a treat. We soon work out that every time we do something good, we get a click and a click means a nice treat.
After a while, we know we have done the right thing when we hear a click and we will not always get a treat, we will just like the idea of hearing the click although we will get a treat some time after hearing a click!
My human never used a clicker, but he gets the same response from me with just a “good boy”. When I was being trained, he usually had a handful of treats in one hand and a leash in the other, it would have made using a clicker a bit clumsy because he only has 2 hands!
If you are interested, maybe get a clicker with a wrist band attachment, these Dog clickers are not very expensive and are quite well made.
Dog Training Whistles
A whistle is a very good command, we dog can hear much better than you humans and a whistle sound goes a long way. I have learned that a long whistle means “come quickly” but my human uses his mouth to whistle! I have never been trained with a whistle from a store.
Whistles are good for working dogs
Whistles can be very good for working dogs (if you can’t whistle loudly yourself!) and they are often used with hunting dogs or shepherd dogs. They are an excellent aid for dogs which may be working at a distance or even out of sight.
Just like using your mouth, dogs can be trained to do different things from different sounding whistle sounds. One high whistle may mean “stay” and a low then high whistle might mean “come”.
It’s not any easier teaching a dog to learn whistle commands, it still needs lots of training.
Many dog whistles are very high and make a sound that dogs can easily hear but its to high for a human ear to hear.
Dog training techniques
I know some people have had some success in training a dog to stop barking with a whistle. If this is a problem, a bit of whistle training might help but remember, if a dog stops barking when he hears a whistle, you still need to start the training with treats. The dog will then understand that a whistle also means doing something right!
I don’t think whistles are necessary for most home dogs, but I’d say there is no harm in trying to use one if you have an interest. These below are pretty good.
Dog Training Collars
You may have a small human pup who misbehaves all the time. Why not put a collar on his neck and every time the child is bad, give him a small electric shock!
In our opinion, if you think that electrocuting a child is a good idea, then it’s probably best that you don’t have a dog as a buddy.
They are usually advertised as, “animal-friendly and is in no way designed to harm your puppy”. Those who use them say things like “there’s a lot of mixed opinion”.
The dogspeaking team have a very firm opinion, please don’t use them!
Sorry NO recommendations here, they are all terrible!
Crates as Dog Training Tools
Sorry but we will say the same thing again. If you have a little human pup, do you think it’s a good idea to lock them up in a small crate?
If you really think this is a good idea to use a crate, why not just go one small step further and try an inside dog house or kennel? It’s a place we might like to call ‘home”.
Did you know that humans are “den animals”? I’ve often heard that dogs like being locked up because they are den animals and like the cosy small enclosure! We know that these crates can work for housetraining but spending a little time with a puppy and being consistent and patient will also work without the need for a crate.
They are also good for visits to the vet I’ve been told. Well we all go to the vet regularly, but our human takes us on a leash because we are good and well-trained.
Sorry but we don’t recommend crates.
Electronic Training Equipment
OK, I’ve already talked about training collars which fall into “electronic training equipment” but there are a few other things in this list.
Things like: –
- Tracking collars
- Invisible fencing systems
- Remote training collars
- Anti-bark collars – for dog barking control
- Bird launchers (for gun dogs)
A tracking collar may be OK if you want one, but we don’t think any of these things are necessary and we refuse to give advice on any of them. They are totally unnecessary and at worst, cruel.
Here in this article, "Dog obedience training tools - How to train a dog" I have tried to be simple. There is much you must give a dog in training but really, the only things you must buy are training treats and have a good collar and lead!
Please stay away from electric shock treatments! They are totally unnecessary.
“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.” – Orhan Pamuk (author, My Name Is Red)
How to train a dog – introduction
Little Malt introduces us to basic dog training from own experiences as a puppy.
In summary you can learn about:-
- The importance of building that love, security and comfort
- Having good experiences with your puppy – always
- Being patient and understanding
- Not making dogs frightened or anxious
- Teaching dogs to love being touched and petted
Then she looks at how she started learning with basics like: –
- Housetraining
- Ideas on how to stop dogs chewing the wrong things
- How to sit
- Learning “come” when called
- Help to make dogs enjoy the car.
- This is a good introduction to dog training and we suggest you read this before looking at Jerry’s tips on this page.
Want to know more about what’s best for your dog in playing tug of war?
Jerry Shep, our dog play and dog toy expert tells you more about how important it is for you humans to set the rules in dog tug of war
There are some dogs that you should never play tug of war with but for other dogs it can be one of the best play things you can do.