Love and care for your sweet puppies…
Mar 9 2010
Training your dog to come while its called
Instructing a k9 to come after it’s called can be a fundamental, and likely life saving, component to every successful puppy training course. Any effectively trained dogs must learn how to react quickly to the owner’s voice, and also earlier that lesson is learned the better.
The benefits of training your puppy to come as soon as called are understandable. For starters, coming as soon as called will assist you regain control of your puppy in case of collar break, snapped leash or other related equipment failure. This is particularly important while you are out with your dog, especially in an area with lots of traffic. It can be vital that your canine friend respond to your voice and return to your side, even in your absence of collar and leash, and whether there are lots of other things competing for its attention.
Coming while called just happens to be a crucial talent for every single working puppy. Whether your dog’s job is herding sheep, guarding livestock, or sniffing out bombs and drugs at your airport, your working four-legged friend must be under total control at all times, whether on leash or off.
Even if your dog’s sole job is being a loyal friend, it will be still vital that he learn this important basic obedience exercise. After the first obedience lessons, such as heeling, stopping on command, sitting on command, etc. have been learned, it will be time to start incorporating the come when called lessons into your daily training sessions.
One note about k9 training – it is all too easy for training sessions to become dull and routine for both handler and dog. A bored k9 will not be receptive to learning, just as a bored handler will not be a good teacher. This is important, therefore, to always incorporate fun things and play into each and every training session. Incorporating a few minutes of play time before your lesson begins can do wonders for the attitude of k9 and human alike. Likewise, ending each training session having a few minutes of free play time is a great way to end on a positive note and to help your four-legged friend associate obedience training with fun and not drudgery.
The command to stay and the command to come anytime called are often combined in obedience training lessons, and they do go naturally together. Start with the k9 on a loose leash, ask the pet to sit and then slowly back away. If the four-legged friend begins to get up and follow you, return to the four-legged friend and ask him to sit again. Continue this process until you can reach the end of your leash without your pet getting up.
After you can successfully reach your end of your leash on a consistent basis, try dropping the leash altogether. Of course you will want to do this in a controlled environment like a fenced in yard. After your dog has mastered the stay command, it will be time to add your come while called command.
Take up your leash again, and with the four-legged friend on your end of the leash, say “come” or “come here”. Its often helpful to use a lure anytime training this behavior. The lure provides a visible item for the puppy to focus on. Training your dog to come to the lure is a good first step in training your four-legged friend to come as soon as called.
Repeat this procedure many times until your pet will consistently stay and then come as soon as called. After the k9 has mastered coming anytime called while attached to the leash, slowly start introducing the concept while your leash is removed. As before, these training sessions must only take place in a controlled, safe environment, such as a fenced in front or back yard.
A highly trained, obedient dog should respond to the call to return to its owner no matter where it’s and no matter what distractions may occur. It will be therefore necessary to test the dog with distractions of your own.
If you have a neighbor, if at all possible one with a dog of their own, try having him come over with your dog. Have him, and your dog, stand just outside your fenced in area and repeat your come anytime called exercise with the dog off leash. If he becomes distracted by your other dog, put the leash back on and repeat the process. The goal is to have your puppy consistently pay particular attention to your commands, whatever interruptions may possibly present themselves.
Mar 8 2010
If your dog is acting aggressively towards anyone then this is something that you should not tolerate and be dealt with as soon as the problem becomes apparent. But in order for you to be able to find the right type of dog aggression training for your pet in order to bring the problem under control, one first needs to know what kinds of aggression your dog has.
In this article, we look at the various kinds of aggressive behavior, which dogs of different ages, breeds and genders may well suffer from. Also, what one should also remember is that a dog may actually show more than one type of aggression towards others at any time.
1. Dominance - This kind of aggression will occur in a dog who thinks that they are in fact the alpha member (leader of the pack) and will use this as a way of asserting their dominance over the others in the pack (you and your family). Most commonly, you will find that male dogs and certain dog breeds are likely to suffer from this kind of aggressive behavior more. But in order for you to control the situation, you need to quickly and fairly establish that you and your family are the leaders in the group and they are at the bottom of the pack hierarchy.
2. Fear - A dog who suffers from this kind of aggression will generally find even the slightest noise can trigger an episode. In most cases such dogs will generally only growl, bark, bare their teeth or snap at the thing, which they are afraid or unsure of. However, should a owner choose to ignore the warning signs that their dog is suffering from this form of aggression it could lead to much more serious problems in the future. If left uncontrolled such dogs could end up causing injury to others as they may retaliate to the situation by biting what they feel is a threat to them.
3. Over Protective/Territorial - A dog who suffers from this form of aggressive behavior is actually a danger to anyone who they come into contact with. Along with feeling territorial about the place in which they leave, this if left to continue will also become an issue for dog and owner when they are away from the home as well.
4. Possessive - This type of behavior can turn a loving pet into a real monster and will occur without any prior warning. Normally this kind of behavior occurs in a dog whose owner has allowed them to have their own way and is over something that they consider to be theirs. Such things that may trigger this kind of aggression in a dog is if when playing with them you choose to take away what they have or if you approach them as they eat their food. The only way to prevent this behavior becoming any worse is to immediately react to the situation as soon as you notice it happening.
5. Punishment - This kind of aggressive behavior occurs more often in those animals where punishment has been used excessively by their owners. Although initially when being punished the dog may not respond aggressively towards their owner, if over time the punishments become more severe then the chances of the dog responding in such a way is greatly increased.
In this article, we have looked at just a few of the kinds of aggressive behavior that dogs may suffer from. It is only once the owner has identified what kind of behavior it is they can then find the right kind of dog aggression training to use. As you will soon find when you search the internet there is plenty of advice and tips on ways of dealing with an aggressive dog.
Mar 2 2010
One of the challenging responsibilities that a dog owner faces is to be in a position to commission a program on dog obedience training in the shortest amount time possible. This is critical to be in a position to achieve the desired dog behaviour without going through a very firm and time-consuming process. Some dog owners spend too much time on puppy training because of ineffective strategies based on hunches and myths. The best way for an effective dog training program is to go through a methodical approach that will provide leads to less than a week. The only way to do that is to follow a step by step approach which will guide you thru the dog obedience and behavior training with defined goals and behaviour changes.
Step by step approaches for dog training in just a matter of a few days can be implemented in any of 2 approaches.
Approach 1 - Use the internet as source of program.
You can easily check on available programs from the Net that you can implement for your obedience program. By passing time in getting the right sites as source of info, you can get the program that you need but you might not be bound to get a program that may generate quick results. The sole drawback is that you may not be particularly sure about the completeness of the program on dog obedience training in the sites that you’re going to find. There may be some areas that can be neglected if you will get free programs from the net.
Approach 2 - Get a step-by-step program meant for fast dog obedience training.
With the right site, you can get the right resource that will supply a systematic approach in helping you train your dog. You might need to invest a little amount on the resource but you can be guaranteed the best results that you need in just a matter of a few days.
Get more information on dog training: Click Here
Feb 22 2010
Tips on How to Stop Dog Digging.
Often, the motivation behind dog digging is boredom.When it’s not boredom, dogs dig as a response to a primal urge.Digging can look harmless but it’s not; your dog can be seriously in danger especially if he lets himself out of your yard.Digging poses a serious risk in such events.Your dog can cause significant property damange with digging left unchecked.Leaving your dog unsupervised will rapidly turn your yard into an ugly mess.
Check this guide to Ways to Stop Dog Chasing.
Understanding is the Required First Step.
What triggers your dog to dig? Be able to answer that to know how to deal with the behavior.Ordinary dog owners such as yourself, can do that.Carefully observe your pet for a week or two.Paying enough attention makes you uncover certain behavioral patterns.Watch the digging pattern.If you watch closely enough, you’ll begin to recognize when they’re about to dig.
If your dog is digging everywhere, obviously hyperactive, this is an obvious sign of boredom digging.Walk your dog around the park.Daily exercises for at least an hour is a good outlet for excess energy and makes your dog happy.Dogs are working animals; they’re naturally supplied with excess energy.They must use that excess energy every day.
Read this interesting information on How to Train a German Shepherd .
There are a number reasons that explain why your dog likes to dig your garden.Gardens have plenty of curious scents.Plantings have manures and these smells are very attractive to a dog’s heightened olfactory nerves.A selection of herbs and flowers carry a variety of scents through the air and can get your dog to dig.Dogs find plenty of entertaining things in the garden.Plants for one can certainly arouse a dog’s curiousity.When this is the case, use a sprinkler that’s attached to the end of a water hose.
As soon as your dog ventures in to the garden and shows signs of the need to dig, spray him off.Make sure the dog associates the wter with the sprinkler and not with you.If he knows you had somethng to do with the spray, he’d stop digging only when you’re watching.If your dog thinks it’s the sprinkler, he’ll think it’s the garden wetting him; the sight of the sprinkler will effectively keep him from digging even when no one is watching.
If this fails, give your dog a break and designate his digging spot in the garden.Just like small children, give your pet a sandbox, doggie version.Entice the dog to a specific digging place by burying treats or toys to a certain spot.Start by only half-burying your treats so that the other half sticks out and your dog sees it.Drill this behavior into your dog by play-acting and ordering him to dig the treat up.The next time he starts digging beyond the area, attract his attention to his digging spot.
Find out more with How To Stop Dog Digging.
Dec 25 2009
The wicker basket dog bed is one of the better choices for dog beds that have come along in a while. They are a wonderful, environmentally friendly home base for you dog. Wicker is easy to make any color of your choice and easy to keep clean. On top of those wonderful features its durable, an easily renewable source of material, easy to shape into almost any shape you want, and completely biodegradable when you do have to get rid of it. Wicker provides a stiff holder for the bed to stop the bed from becoming misshapen. However, wicker also has many other wonderful properties as we mentioned, and when paired with a good mattress makes a wonderful wicker basket dog bed.
All of the information above is just the basket portion of the bed, the mattress or pillow insert on which the dog sleeps is also amazingly versatile. It can come in many different fapics for the cover, including a fleece dog bed. The choices of fapic colors are also numerous. And then to further add choices, the materials inside the bed are many different types that can accommodate almost any need your dog can have. You can have pillow material, shredded foam, foam, memory foam or cedar shavings. All of these choices provide different benefits and different disadvantages that need to be weighed by each dog owner, to find which one works for them.
The mattress or bed portion of the wicker basket dog bed comes with a cover that allows for quick and easy clean up of the bed. Dog’t love dirt, dirty water, rolling in sand, dirt or grass, and many more activities that guarantee they are going to ping dirt into the house and onto their bed. This make is important to have a bed than can be easily cleaned. The wicker basket dog bed has a detachable mattress portion that has a detachable, easily washable cover. All you have to do is toss it in the washer.
While there are many other choices for beds, the wicker basket dog bed provides the most easily maintainable bed. This is not a small advantage, when you consider that you cannot toss the foam formed beds into the washer, you must use a furniture cleaner to get them clean. That is neither easy, nor convenient.
While the many choices provide you a way to find what makes your dog happy, the wicker basket dog bed increases you options with the many shapes and styles available. One style has the wicker that forms a overhead to allow for the dog to have his only enclosed space. Some dogs prefer that type of shape. My dog loves to sprawl on the bed so an open style is best for me. My friends dog loves to have the top open but sides that allow him to hide in his bed. There are hundreds of choices for people beds to accommodate our different styles and choices and there are finally choices for our dogs also.
About Author: David Hueber is a food packaging expert. He also offers top Dog training and puppy training tips online.