It is fun having a dog at home because you get to play with it
. This will be especially beneficial if you live alone. The home environment would not be as lonely because your pet could serve as a wonderful distraction. If you own a guard dog, you also would not have to worry much about your security. These dogs will bark at the sight of strangers so you would be alerted.
However, there are a couple of problems pet owners encounter. Most of the time, dogs could be ill mannered and would refuse to follow your orders. This is not true for all dog breeds but for most, you would really need proper dog training.
This does not mean that you should run to a training school immediately and pay those high fees. There are dog training DVD that you could get online. With these, you would not have to hire expensive trainers for you could do the training yourself. With the help of an actual dog expert, you would be able to teach your dog basic tricks such as sit and stay. There are also dog training DVD that focus on behavior modification. If your dog has been behaving badly, you will get to learn conditioning from these dog training DVD.
One benefit that you would get from these other than the obvious fact that these cost a lot cheaper is you would get to personalize the training. This would be a great activity for you and your pet, helping in building a stronger bond between pet and master.