Being a fur-parent is all fun and games until your dog starts to ignore you out of the blue. On top of that, you may find that no amount of pleading can make her follow your command.

With this, you may be racking your brains as to why your dog is behaving this way. You may also think that this is her way of challenging your authority—or that she doesn’t love you anymore.

Before anything else, you should get rid of such negative thoughts.

The truth of the matter is that dogs behave according to their training. If your furry friend has started to ignore you, you have likely been unknowingly training her to do so.

On that note, here are three of the biggest reasons why your dog may be paying no attention to your commands:

1. You Keep Calling Your Dog, Even When She Doesn’t Listen

Dogs do not communicate through words. Rather, they communicate with their posture, tails, eyes, and ears. They’re very visual.

This means that your constant talking is simply noise to your furry friend. Furthermore, repeatedly calling her or passionately begging her to get off the table will not make her understand what you want her to do.

Considering this, you must stop commanding your furry friend to do something, especially if she isn’t following. Otherwise, you may already be training her to ignore you.

What you should do instead is make your words count in dog training. You also need to learn when to practice silence.

2. You Aren’t Quick to Reward or Reprimand

One of the first things you learned in dog training is that you can teach your furry friend to behave well by using rewards or correction.

Another thing you must remember is that the timing in which you reward or reprimand is crucial. This is because dogs are creatures of the moment. They only think about what they are doing right in that instant and how their owners respond to such action.

For example, if your dog has been refusing to come to you for an hour, it’s natural to grow frustrated. However, you must be quick to reward her when she finally approaches you. This way, she’ll associate your response to what she is doing at that moment and not what she made you wait for.

3. You Assume that Your Dog Knows What to Do

You should never assume that your dog already knows what to do since she has done it at home. On top of that, you shouldn’t conclude that your dog is embarrassing you when she isn’t following your commands in front of your friends.

When your furry friend fails to respond the right way, especially when in an unfamiliar environment, it’s not disobedience. It’s just that she doesn’t understand you. Aside from that, you should know that the difficulty of following your commands changes with the situation your dog is in.

For example, asking your furry friend to sit when you are alone in the living room is easy. However, asking her to sit when there’s a delivery guy at your door and the rest of your pets are becoming restless is another story.

Rather than assuming your dog already knows what to do, it’s better to train her in different environments and situations.

Conclusion

Training your furry friend to be obedient can be fun, but it can also get frustrating. This is especially true when she starts to ignore you. However, you should know that this isn’t her way of challenging your authority nor rebelling against you. In reality, this may be due to slip-ups you may be committing when training her. The bright side is that, as long as you keep in mind the pointers above, you can successfully teach your dog to be more obedient.

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