Imagine this for a moment: The pandemic is over, and you come home from a very long day at work. No sooner have you pulled your keys from the lock than your eight-month-old golden retriever, Rufus, is all over you. While he’s trying to lick your face, he knocks the groceries for dad’s birthday dinner from your hands and sends everything sprawling!
Now, you pick up everything, set the groceries on the island, and go to your room to change your clothes. As you are walking back into the kitchen two minutes later, you catch Rufus doing a little “counter surfing” with dad’s steak in his mouth!
At this point, you’re screaming at Rufus who has absolutely no idea what the fuss is all about. He just smiles at you while licking the remnants of steak from his face. You can hear the kids fighting over a video game upstairs, and by now you are fit to be tied.
What else could possibly go wrong? Just then, Grandma walks in for the big birthday bash, and Rufus knocks her cane right out from under her, and she goes down with the birthday cake she brought! Now, Rufus is licking icing off Grandma’s face!
As the cherry on top, you hear the garage door opening. Dad is there with a look of bewilderment on his face. He helps Grandma stand up, mom is hysterical over the eaten steaks, the kids are now duking it out upstairs over the PlayStation. The only one who is happy is Rufus, who enjoyed licking the icing off of Grandma!
This situation, and many others, happen all the time. In over 35 years of training dogs, you’d be surprised at the things we hear pets can do!
There are benefits of teaching your dog good house manners. Rufus is in sore need of some boundaries.
Command Training vs. House Manners
For years, we were like all other dog trainers out there. We’d teach dogs to sit, lay down, wait, stay, come, leave it, loose leash walking, etc. Our clients were happy, and we were happy!
However, everything changed after the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Many people welcomed dogs or puppies into their families, and we all lived at home for the next handful of months. Now, it’s 2023, and you got the call that all hands were needed in the office.
Bringing About Change
We’ve always taught house manners to dogs, but we began to realize that the global pandemic exacerbated problems for dog owners. Their dogs were getting 24/7 attention, rules went out the window, and all these pups had no idea what “no” or “leave it” meant. We discovered that dogs are extremely demanding.
We have now divided our packages to include the “house manners” element, and we’ve notices that our clients with small dogs want this more than command training. While we still teach all the commands mentioned previously, we also teach your dog how to be nice in the home!
Understanding Our Classes
We will teach you why your dog jumps on you and why he’s counter surfing or taking food off the kid’s plates. We don’t believe in putting a Band-Aid on the behavior. We insist on getting to the root of the problem, which always boils down to one word: Respect. We don’t use aggressive training methods. There is no yelling, swatting, alpha rolls, vibration, shock, or pinch collars. If your dog respects you, he will do what you ask when you ask.
Teaching your dog good house manners is beneficial in many ways. The single most common feedback we get from our clients is that the house is no longer crazy! Rufus stays out of the kitchen while you are fixing dinner and lies on his bed while the family is eating. He no longer jumps on you or your guests. The list goes on and on!
Get your pooch ready to learn good behavior by discovering our one, two, or three week Board & Train programs at Let’s Train Your Dog! Our expert team prides itself on being the top choice for dog boarding and training in Salt Lake City.