What Age Should Obedience Training Begin For Dogs?

Obedience training is an essential step to ensure you have a well behaved dog. A well behaved dog can make all the difference in how many extra messes you have to clean up and other fires you have to put out. Obedience training also has the benefit of developing a dog so that they can perform other skills or can function better in a home with children and other pets. Therefore, with these type of benefits, it is no surprise that many people are eager to get their dogs trained.

One of the first questions that many people are curious about is at what age should obedience training begin for dogs. The short answer is that 3 to 6 months is the general consensus. Dogs can be trained at an earlier age than this as tricks can be learned after the 2nd month. However, most classes usually make the cutoff at 3 months. With this said, most people usually begin training their pets at 3 to 4 months. The reason this time is recommended is that the dog has been given enough to develop physically and is at a point where socialization and learning skills are important to develop at this critical time.

These classes at this earlier age are beneficial for another reason than the actual training because they can build a closer bond with the dog and its owner. This is important particularly if the dog is to later get more advanced training but is also important so that the dog will obey the master as the trainer's role is really more of a tool rather than as a substitute master.

Dog owners should also recognize that a class format may not be the best option for their pet. Some dogs learn better with individualized training from a trainer. This can occur with 2 months of age and can be done at the home of the owner. The only drawback here is the pet may not be getting the socialization aspect which is an important part of their proper development.