Popular Commands for Dog Training A good command to teach first is to "Come". Then you can teach your dog to "Heel" upon command.

People are amazed at watching a well trained bird dog in action. These finely trained bird dogs never fail to heed their owners’ commands. When you see them perform you may begin to ask yourself, how did they do that? You may wonder if bird dog training will help bring out the best in your dog.

The simple answer is yes, but you have to invest hard.

There are several dog breeds that could be trained into being excellent bird dogs. Teaching them to obey basic commands is the best place to start. Professional dog trainers know how very important it is for dogs to understand what it is their owner wants from them. For this basic voice command training, there are basic words a owner should use to train the dog.

The "Stay" Command

The most basic command is "Stay"

As the dog follows these commands completely, it is a clear picture on how obedient and respectful he is to his master. Dogs will express obedience to their master by doing whatever they are commanded to do, even if their master walks a great distance before giving the command.

Using the command ’Whoa’ or ’Easy’ is very useful for dogs that get excited about flushing out birds, because they may begin to get out of control, and start mouthing or playing with the birds. Once they obey your command it would be good to go to him and praise or reward them for a doing a good job.

Commanding them to ’Come’

This is a simple command used to train your dog to come to you every time you give it. This command is one of the easiest to use. Say for example, retrieving would be a lot easier if the dog would come to you the instant you tell him to do so. Also, there are dogs that are a bit stubborn and may decide to go off in different directions. Giving this command will help cut down on the distance between you and your dog in case he decides to do things his way.

Teaching them to ’Heel’

If you want your dog to walk by your side, the right command to teach your dog is, ’Heel’.

It is normally matched with another one-word command such as "okay", or "go" to signal his release. By using this command your dog will know they did a good job during the hunt and you are pleased with them.

Whenever the dog performs well, never fail to give him a tap, a treat or a word of praise to acknowledge his performance. Fine dogs are born with the instinct to please their owners. When you begin to reward your dog in this way, let him know he is behaving correctly and that you want him to continue that type of behavior. Overtime, he will learn to repeat the same desirable actions as long as you allow him to do so.

Bird dog training is not easy. This is the reason why there are not many bird dogs around. However, if you really want to turn your dog into a really good hunter, you should be ready to invest some time and patience in perfecting the basic commands used in his training.