Dog Training
Books aren’t always a good source of information for helping you have your pet on its best behavior. Good pet advice is simple and practical – it doesn’t have to sound like a fancy diagram. Nothing speaks better than direct experience. You and your pet are on a journey of understanding one another, and along the way you learn about each other.
A common advice to follow if your dog has behavior issues is to claim your right as its master. Be domineering enough to give it a set of rules and boundaries that limit it. Dogs will interpret this as a sign that they are the followers and you are the leader. If they recognize your supremacy in the household, then they are more reluctant to try and misbehave for fear of defiance and out of respect. Be cautious when trying to sound commanding though, as being too strict and domineering can cause your pet to fear you instead of respecting you.
A hungry dog can lead to a dog with bad behavior. Feed your pet properly and correctly. Feeding it too much will spoil it, feed it too little and you’ll have a malnourished dog on your hands. Learn to balance it according to your dog’s needs.
Behavior problems sometimes come from improper training. It is advised to keep your pet mentally as well as physically fit. Training not only gives your pet a reason to run around and have fun, but it also maintenance its obedience. If it’s been a long time that you’ve commanded your pet to fetch your newspaper or go after a stick, then go outside and try. A few half hour sessions a weak won’t hurt either.
A good advice for any owner that wants good behavior in their dog is to be friendly with your pet – but not too friendly. It’s all about balancing your responsibility as its master and its companion. If you try and press your power on it, it’ll just create a gap between your bonds. But if you spoil it thoroughly, you lose its respect and treat you like dirt. Remember, moderation is advised.
Apr 10, 2011 | | Dog Training
Potential Puppies Illness
You name it and it seems as though a puppy illness is soon to follow. They can basically have the same health issues as humans. However, the biggest difference is they won’t be able to tell you what they are feeling. Most of the time puppies suffer in silence until they can’t bare the pain any longer. Your job as the owner is to recognize the symptoms before they turn into full-fledged issues.
Infections- The most common issue that are considered a puppy illness has to do with infections. Your dog can get them in the ears, eyes, teeth, and even the skin. When it comes to ears you can make sure it doesn’t develop into something else if you monitor them. Check to see if there are red spots, swelling, excessive moisture, or dirt. It’s actually the easiest puppy illness to prevent.
Allergies- This type of puppy illness will bring out several different forms of allergies. The first one to look into would be a flea allergy. This can cause hot spots as well as infections if it’s not treated properly. Take the time to get flea medication for your puppy every month, and even have a vet examine him or her. This just ensures that the puppy stays healthy and you prevent any serious issues. Then again, if you see skin problems surface, hot spots, or even ear infections all at the same time it could be a food allergy. This is much more severe and should be addressed by a vet.
Diabetes- When puppy illness reaches this stage you will see that it tends to mirror human issues. This is especially true when it comes to diabetes. When your puppy has excess rich, fatty, and sugary foods they can end up with pancreatic issues that leads to diabetes. In order to avoid this all together you can put your puppy on a strict diet (the less table scraps the better). If they have already been diagnosed with diabetes then a regular vet visit will be necessary, as well as regular shots.
Arthritis and Dysplasia- Once your puppy gets older he or she will be dealing with issues that many of us have to go through. They are extremely susceptible to joint problems, and even more so if you have a pure breed. This is due to longer and narrower joints, but it is preventable. When they are a puppy you have to make sure they are given the necessary vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. Also make sure your dog’s vet checks the joints at least once a year.
Obesity – Obesity is one of the most common and deadly health problems in older dogs and is directly caused by eating too much and not exercising enough. Obesity itself doesn’t lead to mortality, but the higher rates of heart failure, tumors, liver disease, and skin problems are all very dangerous if not dealt with immediately. Obesity can be treated with a careful diet and keen eye to a dog’s activity levels. Start off with lots of excecise when you dog is a puppy and try to keep it up over time.
What it comes down to is you won’t have to deal with a puppy illness if you give your dog plenty of exercise, make sure they eat well every day, and they are continually cleaned and groomed. Still take the time to visit the local vet, but the response he or she will give you will be much better if you utilize the tips we’ve given you here today.
Apr 10, 2011 | | Dog Training
Canines misbehaving doesn’t always manifest as a wild and untamed canine that rips out your furniture to keep it satisfied. Sometimes it can be in the form a very lazy canine. Lazy canines, which most people might admit – isn’t as destructive as wild ones, they are just are just as misbehaving as them. If you want your canines to remain perky and actively healthy, you might want to lay it off some treats. Feed it just enough to keep it full, but not too full.
If you are having trouble containing or commanding your canine to get it to behave, then your canine may have behavioral problems. canines are animals that behave either as leaders or as followers, show the canine who’s boss by restricting it access to some parts of the household, feed it enough to keep it healthy – not fat. Do not be slack and handing out just punishment to your canine when the need arises. Don’t be too cruel to your dog. Your sole purpose is to make it known to your pet that you are its master.
In most cases, canines don’t behave the way they’re supposed to because of an obvious fact – they don’t you’re fit to lead them. You’re not much a leader and you’re not be respected. This sort of thing happens when you spoil your canines or don’t punish them when they really deserve it.
A canine at times, misbehaves not because of an ongoing power struggle between you and it. It may not be because of how you feed it – maybe your pet isn’t making holes around your porch to just get you angry at it – maybe it just wants you attention. Misbehavior isn’t always because your pet has a character for being misbehaving – it only does that because you’re ignoring it constantly.
You canine might be misbehaving in a different and more passive way. Maybe it prefers to lie down rather than go outside and play ball with you; maybe it’s so layered with fat from you spoiling it with food that it can barely walk without it gassing up. Though lazy canines aren’t exactly as harmful as actively destructive ones, this might raise your concern if you want a long-lived and healthy canine.
Apr 10, 2011 | | Dog Training
We all love pets, specially the dogs. But when these dogs turn out to be unruly and disobedient it becomes quite difficult to handle them. If you have a pet dog at home then you might have faced this problem at some point of time or the other.
You tend to lose your cool in this kind of a situation but it is very important to stay calm and cool and handle the situation maturely. There are various reasons due to which the dog tends to behave unnaturally.
You might suddenly find that he is not listening to your commands and is doing all those things which you have asked him not to do. The dog might suddenly start barking without any reason or he might start biting the family members.
This is quite a tough situation but there is surely a solution to it. Each and every dog owner should be aware of the various training tips that are required at this point of time. First of all it is very important to find the root cause of the problem.
Sometimes it might be due to some internal problem of the dog while at other times it might be because of the behavioral problem of the dog. One of the major reasons why the dog seems to give you a deaf ear is because they are unable to understand your command.
You should always use the right tone as well as the right signal for the command. You should give your commands very firmly. When you want your dog to do something you should make an eye contact with him while giving the command.
Other than this, it is also important to give the right hand signal at the same time. You should also make sure that you praise him whenever he performs a job correctly. This will provide them proper encouragement to perform better.
The other reason for the dog disobeying your commands can be that he is ignoring you. This can be understood by his body language. If your dog sits confident and straight when you give the commands then you should understand that he has decided to ignore you.
He might seem to be defiant and might even bark at you and run away from you. At this point of time you need to be very calm and composed. Make sure you do not start scolding and punishing him because this might create more trouble.
You should always try to create a good environment for him so that he knows that you love him. It is also important to make him understand that you are the boss. Try to get rid of the dominance issue of the dog.
Apr 09, 2011 | | Dog Training
A key thing to remember when training your dogs is to make sure that you are the dominating entity in the household. You call the shots, and what say goes. But this doesn’t mean you have to be strict and demanding on your pet – just give yourself enough command that it will respect you and your household items.
Your dog will learn from you and in the process, create a long and lasting bond that will last ages. But like children growing-up, it must learn its manners, know its place and be proper. Being able to train a dog varies from breed and the patience of the owner, there are some helpful tips out there that can better help you get started at training your dog.
If your dog has a bad streak of getting easily distracted by butterflies when you were trying to teach it to fetch, say “no” while reverting its attention to the stick you’re waving around. The sooner you train your dog these commands – the better.
Make it clear that the dog isn’t allowed on the bed or not invited to sleep in your child’s crib. If it decides to chew your favorite shoes, punish it accordingly without being too cruel. Remember, you are trying to get its respect, not have it cowering with fearful obedience. Remember, a disobedient can prove difficult if you want to train it.
Training a dog is can be both easy and hard; depending on your bond with the dog and the patience you’re willing to invest to train it properly. Perhaps an effective command to have it understand is the word “No”, though not exactly a command, it helps iron out the pet’s bad behaviors. If the dog likes drinking the toilet, drag him out gently until it calms down and say “no”. Once it recognizes that what it’s doing is a wrong action, it will avoid doing it before it becomes a serious habit.
Apr 09, 2011 | | Dog Training
Pets are always special. Lots of people keep pets in their house because they love these wonderful animals. Dogs are one of the most popular and lovely pets that people have in their home. If you have a pet in your house then you should always make sure that you take proper care of him.
There are various dog training tips which can really be helpful for you. Training a dog is not too easy. First of all you should learn how to train your dog and then you should start the training session.
Obedience training is one of the most important things that you should practice for your dog. It is always better to bring a dog home when he is still in the puppy stage. It is always easy to train a puppy than a full grown dog.
You might have an idea about the fact that dogs are intelligent animals and hence they do not take much time to learn these things. Dogs usually have the habit of living in packs and hence they have a leader. You need to evolve yourself as the leader.
You should make sure that the puppy recognizes you as the leader of the pack in the beginning you should teach him the common lessons like sit, stay, come, go and lie down.
You should give enough time to the dog to learn one basic command before you move on to the other. You can allot at least 30 minutes every day for the training. Make sure you follow it like a routine so fix a time for it. This is will also help your dog to become disciplined.
When you want to teach your dog to sit then you can gently pat the rear of the dog which is signal for him to sit down. Whenever the dog performs a command make sure you give him a treat.
This will encourage him and will also make him happy. You should repeat the command again and again and help the dog practice this for at least a week. Always make sure you are not impatient when the dog fails to perform the command correctly.
If he fails to do it then you should not punish him or scold him. Instead be gentle to him and talk in a firm voice. If you are rude to him and punish him then it might have adverse effect and the dog might refuse to learn anything.
If you follow the same tips for the other commands then you can surely achieve success within a few weeks. There are certain websites which can offer you with top tips on dog training if you subscribe to their websi
Apr 08, 2011 | | Dog Training
Teaching your dog has two interesting phases; its punishment and positive training. The clear difference between them is that punishment seeds fear in your dogs while positive training is technically ignoring and rewarding your pet. Most pet experts argue that punishing your dog does more harm than it does well since it gives your pet canine the wrong ideas about training.
A lot of dog owners unintentionally reward their dog’s bad behavior unknowingly. Maybe you thought it would be a good idea to give it a little extra on its food rations since it’s been giving you puppy dog eyes. What most newbie owners don’t understand that spoiling your dog isn’t a good idea, it’s almost as bad as punishing them.
Dogs need constant praise at the right times during teaching sessions to make sure you engrain the right type of behavior for it. If your dog successfully carries out a command, praise it as hard as you can – it must internalize in its head that doing the right things can yield very satisfactory results. If you reward your pets in the appropriate setting, you might see a drastic improvement during training.
Your dog might be a smart animal that can be taught, but it takes them a lot of getting used to if you’re going to punish them correctly. It’s no secret that it takes dogs a lot of time to figure out what they’re getting punished for. Punishment is discouraged by most experts not only because it harms dogs, it also confuses them. The proper way to punish dogs is to ignore them.
Training your dog using the positive training approach helps create a bond of trust between you and your dog and develop your dog’s self confidence.
Apr 08, 2011 | | Dog Training
Crate training is among the most prominent dachshund training courses that you ought to properly accomplish to be able to raise a more responsible, happy and obedient pet. It may be troublesome in the beginning. The truth is, expect a complex and lengthy crate training process because dachshunds are known for their obstinate and uncooperative tendencies. Still, you must keep your cool, continue being patient and persistent, and always be disciplined or consistent so you can immediately receive the good results that you want.
Crate training is not the same as dog confinement. Many people do not really appreciate the true essence of crate training a dachshund and end up believing that such endeavor is pointless and inhumane. Nevertheless, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Crate training is actually one critical and beneficial undertaking. Believe it or not, the more effective you can crate train your dog, the more sensible and obedient he becomes.
Even though such decision is all up to you, keep in mind that crate training helps to boost the development of several dachshund training courses such as the house-training and housebreaking. You’ll be able to undergo many dog training activities without having to be worried about coping with a unruly pet. The faster that you can successfully crate train your dachshund, the less difficult, more enjoyable and productive other dachshund training activities come to be.
Hence, first things first. Buy or make a crate with a size that’s appropriate and pleasant for your dachshund. It is much better to assemble one yourself so that you can have a personalized crate that is absolutely suitable for your dog. The crate should be large enough for your dachshund to stand or do his stretching and turning; there should also be enough room for his toys, bowl for water and food as well as other stuff that would make him feel at home. Make sure that there’s no room for his dump or he’d most likely soil his crate.
Make certain that you emanate an optimistic and assuring aura so as not to terrify him away or give him negative thoughts. Help your dachshund to examine the structure of his new home and give him some time to become accustomed to it. Never force or coerce your dachshund because this may only set off behavioral problems. Persuade him by giving some treats and praise him every time he gets into his crate.
Leave the crate’s door open during your first few sessions and progressively train your dog to stay in his crate for reasonable time frames. If he struggles, whines or whimpers, do your best to ignore, particularly if he’s just trying to get your attention because he wants to go out of his den. Learn to really decipher or distinguish different kinds of dog barks. This way, you will know which bark to ignore and which bark to attend to.
Minimize confining your dachshund for a long time. Alternatively, execute this dachshund training routine consistently. Of course, you must be wary of your dachshund’s movements or body language, especially if it’s about time for him to pee and/or dump. That way, you can get started with your potty training routines and help your dog become accustomed to doing his business in a designated area. You may as well check your obedience training through this lesson.
Apr 07, 2011 | | Dog Training
If your dog is timid around people or other dogs, then agility training can to build confidence in your dog. An agility class is a great place to learn about the sport and how to train your dog. But it may take some time before it is ready from your lap or under the chair.
A shy dog can only learn when it is inside its comfort zone. So all training must start where it feels safe, and all learning must be done in small increments. The best place for training and learning is probably the home.
So, how do you train at home? You will need guidelines and equipment. There is a multitude of websites that can give you information on agility training. There are also books and videos that will give details and visual aids and lesson plans for beginners thru expert levels.
You can find a lot of equipment that is helpful and useful to have at home for dog training. All the equipment recommendations are based on location of training and the available space. Do you e.g. have a large yard with room for 10 obstacles? Or do you only have a small yard, so you have to tear down the equipment before you can setup something else up? Will the training be in the basement or garage; or maybe in the living room?
The equipment has to be safe and sturdy when training a timid dog. A good place to start your agility training is a pause table. A 12″ high pause table (preferable with adjustable legs) is a great starting point for dogs in all sizes. Setup the table in an area that the dog is familiar with. If your dog is the type that barks at everything new, you can leave in the house or yard for a couple of days before using it. Then the dog can inspect and smell it. Remember you need to use baby steps with an insecure dog.
To encourage it to get up on the table you can use treats or its favorite toy. And remember it may well take several lesson. If it loses interest, you should try something new like placing yourself on the table. Then you can either hold it or have it on leash, while you are sitting on the table. But remember only to treat it when it comes against you. Never reward it, when it is pulling away.
Eventually, you want your dog to be able to jump on the table with your cue word like Table (or whatever word you use), Stay to have it stay on the table as you back away and then Come when you call. Build your distance slowly so that your dog is not pushed too soon.
You can follow the above techniques introducing new obstacles as your dog is able to succeed. As your dog succeeds on each new piece of equipment you will see his confidence grow.
Apr 07, 2011 | | Dog Training
We are often asked, “How many jumps should I start with?” You can never have too many single jumps to practice agility. A good starting place is four jumps. This is the absolute minimum number of jumps that we recommend.
With four jumps you can learn your dog a lot of different skills, exercises and drills. With this number of jumps you can work on jump grid and short jump chute. It is also possible to setup a “box”, so you can practice collection, handling and 270 degree jumps.
You can teach your dog jumping left and right. You can be outside the box and send your dog or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps can be setup in a horizontal line, so that you can practice serpentines and treadles.
Go the next step and get eight jumps. Now you can setup two boxes with one introductory jump. You’ve now multiplied your drills that you can practice with your dog. Your jump grids can be of recommended size and quantity of jumps.
Another option is to setup the jumps in circles with jump bars at a 90 degree angle to the circle or on the bounds of the circle. With this pattern you can train a lot of various skills.
Now you can think about double and triple jumps. You can choose to setup two or even three single jumps to make your extended jump, but the real value of practice comes when doubling or tripling the jumps. You see it every time; the dog runs a clean course until the last triple jump obstacle, and then the dog is not ready for it. The result: the bar comes down.
You can really be ahead of the pack and have two sets of eight jumps. This is the ultimate in training because you can keep a jump grip up at all times that is separate from your course work, and have eight single jumps to have for course work. And when you include your double and triple, you can really practice all the jumping skills and drills necessary to get you those “Qs”.
Apr 06, 2011 | | Dog Training