Clearly some dachshunds can be trained to competition-winning levels of obedience.  And for all other dachshunds, being able to obey four or five simple commands will help to keep them safe and out of trouble.  Commands or cues can also help you manage a variety of common behavior problems.  Aside from anything else, a disobedient and uncontrollable dog is much less fun to live with. 

What is dog obedience training?

A dog successfully trained to be obedient is one that will reliably respond to a direction or command from their handler.  Obedience training encompasses both the basic commands that are used by dog parents in the home, and, for a smaller proportion of dogs and their handlers, competitive obedience work demands a much higher standard of response, consistency, and accuracy from the dog.

It’s down to the dog owner to determine the right level of obedience training beyond the basics.  A professional dog trainer could be expected to achieve results with you and your dachshund more quickly than you could on your own, but you may prefer to work slowly and patiently on your own without costly classes.  However you choose to do it, obedience training with your dachshund is a way of bonding with and understanding each other better. 

The basics - sit, down, stay, come

The basics of obedience training for your dachshund consist of four commands: ‘sit’, ‘down’, ‘stay’ and ‘come’.  Each one of these actions are essential for your dachshund’s safety, and you will want to start on obedience training at an early age. 

There are many different schools of thought on precisely how to train your dog to obey commands, so we won’t reproduce any of the training methods here.  You’ll want to find one that fits with your dog parenting philosophy, your budget, and the time you have available.  Some people enrol their dog in obedience training classes.  If you’re lucky to have recommended trainers near you who offer small class sizes this is a great way to socialise your young dachshund.  Other people do their own obedience training at home, relying on all the helpful information available online.  

We got Sunny when he was nearly eight months old.  He was house trained, but other than that we had no clear idea of what obedience training he had before he came to us.  He had been returned to his breeder by his first owner, and the breeder undertook to rehome him.  He didn’t respond strongly to our commands, so we decided to start from scratch.  We couldn’t find any recommended obedience classes near us which didn’t have a long waiting list, so we relied on the excellent Dogs Trust training videos. There are twenty five videos in all, starting with getting your dog to recognise and respond to their name, and moving through how to stop your dog pulling on his lead, the ‘come back’ command, and leaving your dog alone.  

It took a lot of persistence to get anywhere with Sunny, but we were proud to have eventually achieved a basic level of obedience.  Maybe it took longer because there were two of us, each with a slightly different tone of voice and perfection requirement. 

Dealing with bad habits and learning additional commands

Once your dachshund has got the hang of the four major commands, these can be built on to stop any bad habits that she or he has got into.  Begging for food at the table - yes Sunny I’m thinking of you - can be tackled with the ‘down’ and ‘stay’ commands.  

Of the four main commands, the most difficult for us was ‘down’.  We’ve just never been able to crack it, despite trying all the different methods we could find online.  We tell ourselves that it’s down to the unique dachshund body shape and short legs, and the negligible drop distance for our low slung friends.  A remnant of our ‘down’ training is Sunny zooming low under my knees during fetch games if we’re sitting on the floor to play.

There’s a clutch of other commands, equally important in my view,  that contribute to the safety of your dachshund.  These include ‘leave it’, ‘drop it’, ‘wait’, and emergency recall.  In our household we also use ‘keep going keep going’ if we’re having a purposeful walk rather than a sniffing walk and Sunny starts to zigzagg from one side of the pavement to another.  ‘Look at me’ is a command we use to keep him focussed on us rather than lunging and barking at dogs we pass. You probably have your own!  From time to time we re-do certain elements of obedience training to reinforce the message with Sunny.  

To summarise, from the fantastic Dogs Trust basic training factsheet ‘How to have a well behaved dog’ 

Training should be FUN for both of you 

Training will exercise his brain 

Training positively will build a great relationship between you 

Training should be based on POSITIVE rewards 

NEVER punish your dog – this will cause him to be frightened of you 

SHOW your dog what you are trying to teach him – NEVER physically force him Be patient and keep commands consistent 

Don’t let him get bored, keep training sessions short 

Never ‘train’ in a busy area, only begin to build up the distractions gradually once he knows the commands really well

 

Happy training!