Is My Dog Ignoring Commands?

Dogs are one of the most domesticated animals and have become a treat to the eyes, relaxation to the heat and stress busters to our daily struggles. They are the therapist’s right hand at all times. They tend to be cute and responsive all the time, but what happens when they don’t respond to your commands anymore? Are they just fooling around? Is it something to be serious? Do they need to be treated? We are packed with everything that relates to such issues and even with facts that will help you cater to such instances in your life.

 

Dogs are one of the wonderful teachers of all time; they help boost the best of your personality trait and make you feel happy, special and loved. They are the best judge when anything begins to take a wrong turn in our lives when we are falling apart. When they are so much to us, why can’t a little more for them?  Bringing a dog or a puppy home brings home responsibilities that we cannot step back. You will have to learn things from scratch about their diets, fur, bathing, and the most important among these is potty training. If we keep these things aside, other crucial things need your proper attention; one of them is teaching them to respond to your commands. Making them familiar with their name should be the top among the priority list, and later comes teaching them the rest of the commands.

 

Teaching is the best possible way to make them understand your role in their life because they must know who are you to them, why you make things available for them such as food, clothing, bed, toys, and why do you wipe their shit from the floor or furniture with a smile. Training gives them that heads-up, you can either hire a professional trainer or be the one yourself. Watch videos online and try new things with them side by side. 

What includes in dog training?

 The foremost is the recall training, where they come around wagging their tail on your single command. They will understand their name and become familiar with your voice so that whenever even from a long-distance they will come running to you in no time. 

The second includes sitting training. This helps in making them peaceful and patient and comes in handy whenever there’s food, toys and most importantly, treats around.

The next in the picture is staying command; this also helps to enhance their patience level and help them become less aggressive and more friendly to others.

The next includes a bunch of commands that help them socialise, such as teaching them to say hello, play games like roll around and stay happy around strangers and other animals. 

 What’s more about training? 

Now, let’s get technical about it. The more we teach them or train them, the more they will understand the importance of commands. If we talk in-depth, training settles their curiosity to acknowledge newness in their life. Once they recognise the value of commands, they will become aware of the good and bad things in their life. Following good things will lead them to treats, and bad will lead them to punishment. 

 What happens when they start ignoring commands?

Well, that’s unlikely, but yes, it’s possible. We have compiled a list of reasons which might give you a way out in understanding this behaviour change: 

 

Incomplete Training

 It is one of the most common problems, and because of which dogs become irritated of listening to commands which they don’t understand. Choosing a professional to train your pet is good, but always take a walk through and notice how the trainer is teaching. Are they opting for any harsh method or is your pet uncomfortable around them? Always make sure to be around your pet whenever they are in other’s hands. There’s a chance that they are trained to ignore you, so keeping an eye and including yourself in their training will help decrease the chances of them ignoring your commands.

 If you have trained them by yourself then there must be some gap. Without taking a test of your pets’ patience, calm down and start the training again. It will help to break all the knowledge gap and help you realise whether the problem was your understanding with your pet or is it something wrong with the reference videos that you were following. 

 Confusion

 It is one of the most common issues that pet parents face, and this usually comes at the starting stage of their livelihood when they are busy getting trained. They are always taught to do a certain action whenever they hear your command. But all of a sudden, they hear you say a different word, which wasn’t included in the list of commands that they know or are familiar with. 

They will feel confused, and think of a situation what if they weren’t supposed to that action, what if that action leads them to punishment? So, they would rather wait till they hear a familiar command and then respond to hear “that’s my good boy/girl” from their pet parent. 

Try not to use the same commands to express two different scenarios. For example, saying “come here” for treats and when you are angry as well. Try using it every day, and they will show certain disapproval in reacting to it. You can use such expressions as a catalyst to treat’s command and then see their response. 

Whenever your dog is going through this situation, make sure to settle down as early as possible. And tell them it wasn’t their mistake. Always make sure to use familiar and easy commands, which they can remember. You can take the first step by choosing an easy name for them. 

Persisting Medical Problems

Given the fact that your dog continues to ignore you even after rigorous attempts from your end, something is going on in its head. There are chances that they must be going through some medical issues such as pain in their stomach, they have hurt their leg and it’s paining or an injury in their head. The list can go on, but if this is the case then you shouldn’t wait for even another hour and take them to a vet. If it’s late already, find the emergency rooms or doctors. Seek your best resource – online search. Even if the search isn’t helping, start by making a list of pet parents that you know and ask them for their reference to a vet. 

It is best if they are treated well and in time because the more you wait, the more it will impact their system.

Age Factor

Age is one of the major factors when it comes to their change in behaviour. You can’t expect a two months old pup to act the same way as a two-year dog. Because a two-year-old has been trained well and has experience in understanding their pet parent. 

If puppies show these behavioural changes then just hold on, and give them their own space of understanding. This their age of exploration, and they will soon start understanding commands and gain trust over their pet parents.  

Fear  

 Have you noticed your pet’s behaviour whenever you call them using the “come” command? Do you see any weird expression? Well, there are chances that they have acknowledged this command to a situation when you are calling after being mad at them. If that’s the case, try to communicate more and comfort them during your conversations. It will help substantially. Try to use this command or more easy commands whenever you are happy as well so that they can understand you better. 

Whenever they are trained around fear it challenges their psychological abilities, their way of understanding things and in turn impacting their response behaviour. Never trouble them by commanding them to stay whenever they are afraid of someone, a location and specifically at the vet. It will give rise to a long-term psychological effect. 

However, this kind of behavioural impact shouldn’t be counted as ignorance because it’s the lack of compliance. They are not avoiding you; they are only avoiding the situation. 

Train them from zero to help them overcome their phobia or fear for something or someone. Seek a professional's help, take advice from the vet, friends and family who are pet parents and make peace with them. 

If they are not taught in time and well, this type of situation will become much worse. Their fear will be converted into trauma and they will keep avoiding that situation. This will give rise to a much bigger problem, and you will see major changes in their energy, behaviour and reactions. 

 It’s time to start from scratch, using a different approach. You can always take help from friends and family members who already have experience with animals. Clarity is the key element that helps against confusions and issues. Try communicating with your pet in every situation, even if you are busy, remember to spare some time for them. That's good if you are already doing it, try being more expressive, staying proactive rather than reactive is the key.

There’s no end to solutions. Treats play an important role in helping them understand positive renunciation. Explore the delicious dog treats online at Dear Pet, best online pet store India. Pursue the best brands, study their ingredients and nutritional charts and learn what benefits them. Dog treats help in training them so that whenever they are putting an effort in understanding what you are trying to teach, appreciate with the best dog treats. These come in different flavour so that you can test run what suits them and give the best dog treats to them. You can buy the best dog treats online in India and give your pet the best treatment.  

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