This is a featured guest post for Lost Pet Prevention Month 2020. Written by the team at Dogo
It’s a fact that training plays a crucial part in lost pet prevention. There are undeniable benefits of having a trained pup, such as being able to understand your furry friend better, providing them with mental exercises, or creating a strong bond based on mutual trust and affection.
As a responsible dog parent, you want to ensure your dog’s safety at all times. Dogo has shared six of the most useful commands your dog should know to prevent them from becoming lost. Check out these pups showing off their tricks and then dive deep into Dogo’s practical guide below.
Come (Recall)
This basic obedience command can save your dog from many kinds of accidents - when your dog is off-leash on the walk, you have to make sure that they will always come back when called. There might be a dog or a bike approaching their way, there might also be a fun distraction but you have to build the connection with them that strong that whatever it would be, your pup will be always happy to quickly come back to you.
Sit & Stay
It is a great cue to train your dog’s ability to focus on you and strengthen your bond. First, your dog needs to learn Sit. After they master it, you can start practising staying in one position. It can be helpful when you have to leave your dog for a moment and you want to be sure that they are safe and they are politely waiting for you to release them from the cue. This command is a wonderful training to improve your mutual trust.
Moving objects
Teach your dog to ignore distractions. This training is especially important when you take your dog out and they get very excited by flying birds, playing children, cars, bikes, sounds and smells. You have to compete for your dog’s attention with all of that! Sounds impossible? It requires lots of patience and effort but it is definitely worth practicing for your dog’s safety and your own inner peace.
Hand gestures
Introduce hand gestures instead of verbal cues. This is useful in public when it’s noisy and your dog can’t hear you properly or in office surroundings if you don’t want to disturb your coworkers. Before teaching hand gestures, make sure your dog knows a command well with a verbal cue or luring in case of a deaf dog.
Gotcha!
Many dogs dislike being grabbed by the collar, as it usually is bad news: playtime is over, another dog is approaching, confinement time. Involuntarily many of us have taught dogs to dislike it. And they might want to run away from you when they see you approaching them during their off-leash time on the walk. To prevent being hand-shy, start holding your pup on a collar and hand-feed them.
Hide & Seek
Playtime! How about a game that might prevent your dog from getting lost? Once your dog knows basic commands, try to play Hide & Seek with them. This interactive game is not only a great workout for your active pup but also a fun way to practice their prior knowledge, combining it with a rewarding scent game.
Not sure where to start? Good news - you will find all the commands in the Dogo App! Download Dogo and enjoy step by step instructions on how to train your dog the cue. If you need more inspiration, have a look at ‘’Good examples’’ of other Dogo students performing the command that you are currently training. Once your pup is succeeding, take a video exam - your pup’s performance will be evaluated by a professional Dogo trainer. Sounds fun, right? Good luck in your training and feel free to reach out to us for additional help.