Great Swiss Mountain Dogs are among the breeds recognized as being receptive to obedience training. They are great family pets as well as being good guard dogs, search and rescue animals, therapy dogs, and valuable work and draft animals. Every single one of these fields demonstrate much more clearly than anything else could, the fact that Great Swiss Mountain Dogs are easily trained and obedient.
Obedience training is the one facet of dog ownership that cannot be downplayed. Every single part of pet ownership depends upon a dog's being trainable. Whether your Great Swiss Mountain Dog is a family pet with companionship its only duty, or a working dog with a whole set of serious responsibilities from something as serious as search and rescue to something as arduous as being a draft animal responsible for pulling heavy loads, or something as joyous as pulling a cart full of children in a local parade, obedience training is equally important. According to AKC obedience competition concepts, obedience training is the best way to achieve the objective of promoting and developing a close working relationship between dogs and their masters, while capitalizing on canine enthusiasm and utilizing dogs to the best of their particular abilities.
During obedience events, dogs are judged based on a standard set of exercises and the dog's ability to complete each facet of that set of exercises. This is not a competitive trial, but each dog is judged separately based on the achievement of task completion excellence. Each trial has a possible 200 points, and to qualify, each competitor must earn at least 170 points. Great Swiss Mountain Dogs may earn an obedience title by qualifying in three events.
Obedience training basically holds true through almost all breeds and types of dogs. Once a relationship of authority, dominance, and trust is established, the rest largely depends on the temperament of the animal in question. All dogs relate to a pack mentality, and in every pack there must me a leader. The human is always the leader of the pack in a dog/human relationship. The relationship between the natural desire to please, and the strong work ethic inherent to the breed of Great Swiss Mountain Dogs makes obedience training much more easily achieved than that of many breeds.
In spite of the workhorse nature of this working breed of dog, Great Swiss Mountain Dog discipline and trainability is never more noted than it is in their appeal as an alert and vigilant family pet. They are not noted as being aggressive as far as canines go, but they are adept guard dogs who are alert, intelligent, and protective of humans. Eager and willing to please in every aspect from working as therapy dogs, to utilizing their keen sense of smell and tracking ability as search and rescue animals, to farm work, dog shows, or simply being obedient pets, Great Swiss Mountain dogs are always rated high on the list of the most easily trained, most obedient breed of dogs.
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