3 Commands You Should Teach Your Emotional Support Dog Today
If you have an emotional support dog, you will get more rights than an ordinary pet. You can live with your ESA without paying extra pet deposits under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). However, you need to ensure that your pet isn’t causing trouble to anyone. So, having complete control on your support animal is important.
How Long it Takes to Train
an Emotional Support Dog?
Usually, an emotional support dog takes a few weeks to learn the basic commands. It’s important to note that a pet’s training is never complete. You need to continue training your ESA with new commands to have better control over it.
Here
are some basic emotional support dog training commands you should teach your
support animal today-
Sit
A
frequent command for emotional support dogs. It’s extremely useful in daily
life. You can use this command in various situations, such as meeting a person
who is afraid of dogs. A sitting pup is unable to jump around and is likely to
pay attention to your commands.
Here’s how to teach your
dog to sit on command
- Get a treat and keep it closer to your dog’s nose
- Move your hand up slowly, your dog will follow your hand, and sit.
- When your dog is in a sitting position, say “sit”. Give a treat and
show love for every success
Down
Another
useful command that can help you calm your dog when in an aggressive state. You
can use “down” to relax it in the car. Or, you can calm your dog when you want
to read a book or focus on work.
Here’s how to teach your dog
the down command
- Hide a treat in your hand and keep it closer to your dog’s nose
- Move your hand towards the floor slowly, your dog will follow your
hand while sniffing it.
- When your dog is in a down position, say “down”. Give your pet a
treat for success.
Stay
Like
other commands, stay helps you to control your dog in many situations. For
instance, if you want to do house chores, simply say “stay” and focus on your
work.
Here’s how to teach your
dog to stay on command
- Firstly, say “sit” to make your dog sit.
- Keep an open hand in front of you and say “stay.” Move backward.
- Give your dog a treat and show some love if it stays.
- Add more steps to the process and repeat.
Covering it up, although an emotional support dog doesn’t require any training to perform
their tasks, still you should teach it some basic commands such as sit, down
and stay. The objective to have a better control on your pet to avoid any
problem. You can use these commands to calm your dog in certain situations,
such as meeting a friend, doing household chores, etc.
For emotional support dog registration, visit a licensed mental health professional. With telemedicine services, you can see a therapist online and get your ESA letter in PDF format via email.
