To illustrate this, suppose that you catch him chewing on your shoes, with a firm voice command 'Off!' Then straight away direct your dog to his own toys then praise him for using those instead. If correctly performed, your voice alone is sufficient for reprimand. Remember to keep all reprimands short, sharp and instant and never reprimand unless you catch your dog in the act. Inappropriate punishment, such as physical punishment, is intolerable and usually worsens or creates attitude problems.

Choosing an obedience instructor or club: Before you choose an instructor or club you will need to be familiar with some basic definitions:

Obedience instructor: An obedience instructor is the person qualified to teach you to train your dog. An obedience instructor works with people, the people work with their pets.

Dog trainer: A dog trainer is the person who will teach your dog to obey, then will teach you how to get your dog to listen to you.

Behavior consultant: A behavior consultant is a person who possesses a vast experience in recognizing and understanding dog behavior and finding means to correct inappropriate behavior.

NADOI: The National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, a membership organization that certifies instructors at several levels of competence. You can visit their website for more information at http://www.nadoi.org/ and find out more about the services they provided.

APDT: The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) is a professional organization established in 1995 to promote excellence in the Dog Training field by providing recognition and standards to professional dog trainers, while at the same time enhancing public consciousness of dog friendly training techniques. For more information on the organization, you can visit then at the following website: http://www.apdt.org/

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