Are Pugs Easy To Train? – Tips To Make It Easier

It is good to have Pugs around us because they are pleased and energetic. Pug owners often want to teach their dogs some basic actions in daily life, especially in the case of puppies. If you desire to have a pug at home and keep wondering, “Are Pugs easy to train?” this article is for you. Let’s read on and discover exciting things about this dog breed!

Are Pugs Easy To Train?

A small pug, with a red ribbon around the neck, is jumping a fence made for horses
A small pug with a red ribbon around its neck is jumping a fence made for horses

When interacting with Pugs, people find them energetic, enthusiastic, and fun. Owners often say that they always seem happy and lucky. Like baby Bulldogs and cane Corso puppies, those tiny, chubby bodies have a lot of good personalities.

The Pugs are quite stubborn but not aggressive, and with tiny bodies, they are ideal pets for children. Because Pugs love to stay close to their owners and imitate them whenever possible, people often refer to them as “shadows”.

Nevertheless, Pugs are lazy and stubborn; they seem not to bother with the trains and do well.

By nature, Pugs take a nap frequently. However, when they wake up, they are also energetic and animated by expressing their feelings as they prepare to play and eat. 

Pugs are not the easiest to teach, but you can train them with basic obedience and commands without too much effort. 

Pugs love lying on the carpet but respond pretty well to reinforcement. You need to go around and get their attention by conveying your enthusiasm through gestures and speech. Then, make them follow your instructions, give feedback, and repeat this cycle to let your dogs get the hang of these actions.

What Is Recommended To Train A Pug?

Are Pugs Easy To Train?
Are Pugs Easy To Train?

Before starting the process, you should understand what your dog wants to have the best preparations:

Give It A Name

It is of vital importance to make sure your dog knows its name. Pugs are more intelligent than many other dogs, so they can quickly get acquainted with the name.

If you want your Pug to listen, you must let it recognize that you are talking to it. Everything will go right when your Pug hears its name and looks at you as its instinct. 

Choose Right Accessories 

Treat: Food would be the first choice to motivate dogs effectively. Your Pug will not be distracted with a suitable amount of food during the training. When beginning, try to maintain the type of connection of command, action, and treatment. It would bring significant results!

Clicker: A clicker is also useful when training the Pugs. It would help in associating the action and the enforcement that they receive. The clicker is efficient over long distances with immediate feedback. Besides, it is more consistent and distinct than your voice.

Praise Your Dog

Like bulldog breeders, Pugs often feel tired quickly with repetitive exercises because of their independence and stubbornness. They are easily distracted by crazy and silly games. 

Fortunately, you can use praise to keep their heat during the training as they always want to become your best companion. When you are consistent and praise your Pug for good behavior, he tends to be more enthusiastic during the train. 

Remember not to inadvertently praise them when they do cute things that aren’t part of the training. As Pugs love treats, using some delicious food as a reward is very efficient when starting.

How To Train Obedience For A Pug?

Obedience is the first and easiest thing when it comes to training a puppy. Read on to find out how to teach your Pug those commands:

Train a Pug
Train a Pug

Gain Its Focusing

As we mentioned above, Pugs are easily distracted by things around them. So gaining their focus is very important if you want to train them well. The rewards are still efficient in this case.

Another way you can apply is by touching your dog’s nose with your index finger, saying keywords such as “focus” and “watch”, and turning the finger into your nose. If your Pug follows your gestures, give it a lot of praise. Repeat this several times a day.

Teach Basic Obedience

Basic obedience, such as “sit” or “stay,” are good examples.

As for “sit”, you can keep a treat out of your Pug’s reach until it can not stand and has to listen and sit down.

Regarding “stand”, it is a bit harder with more steps. 

  • Firstly, hold the treat on your arm and put it in front of the dog. 
  • When your Pug sits down, tell it to stay. Then, you move gradually backward while your face is still opposite him until you find some wall to hide behind.
  • After hiding for some seconds, come back to the dog, give it the treat and rub his head.

You need to repeat those steps and strengthen the hiding time (from 30 secs to 60 secs is ideal) until he can follow your command at any time you want.

Conclusion

That is all about our answer to the question, “Are Pugs easy to train?”. It may be challenging, but we hope you enjoy it and succeed. You will need a lot of consistency to have a more well-behaved dog. But in turn, your dog can become a good friend to communicate with and play with daily.

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