Dog Training Day

Have you ever been walking down the street and witnessed that dog and dog owner gliding down the street, ignoring all the playing kids, cars driving by or the aggressive bull dog across the way?  I have and it makes me think of what the best obedience training for dog strategies I should be doing differently.  Since the day I noticed that perfect “couple” 3 years ago, I’ve been researching the proper dog obedience training techniques.  Some have worked wonders and some of fallen flat.

In this article I will be letting out of the bag my top 10 dog training tips that, if followed correctly, will ensure that your pooch will be a happy well trained canine.

Tip #1: Exercise

Possibly the most important strategy to overcome a pet obedience problem is to give your dog plenty of exercise.  Dogs love to run around and play, and this is what makes them happy.  A happy dog is more apt to listen and stay focused on you, which is essential when training a dog or puppy.  Another benefit to playing with your dog is that strong bond that will build between you two.  Just imagine how your dog will react to you when it knows that your presence could result in a game of fetch or a long walk.  You can be sure your dog will pay good attention to you.

Tip #2: Daily Routine

Like the most successful people, a daily routine is the road map for success and quick learning.  A routine, if you think about it is like a curriculum in a obedience school for dogs.  When ever we feed our Yorkie Bichon we have him sit and wait for the “OK” command before he eats.  When ever we walk through a door way, we tell give the command “Wait”, which tells him to stop and wait for us to go through the door first.  These daily routines become ingrained in our dog and will help make training quick and easy for you.

Tip #3: Find What Motivates Your Dog

Some dogs love to play with their favorite sock toy or will do anything for a treat.  Yes you are bribing your dog, but it’s the best tool we have for transforming our dog into an obedient mate.  Don’t always use his favorite treat or toy, mix it up and save the big rewards for when they did something spectacular.

Tip #4: Short, quick and Fun Training Sessions

Like little kids, dogs have a short attention span and are very easily distracted.  Knowing this, it’s important to make the obedience training sessions short, fun and to the point.  If you try and drag it out your dog will have moved on and begin to ignore you.  You don’t want that.  Train in 5 minute spurts and if you find that your dog is not paying attention don’t force it as it’s very important to be successful.  Go do something else and come back in 10 minutes and try again.

Tip #5: No Cruel Punishments

In my opinion punishing a dog is a sure fire way to train an aggressive, snap first dog.  Spanking, hitting or putting your dog in a crate makes your dog skittish and he’ll begin to not trust you.  If you back a scared dog into a corner it will attack.  If you corner and loved and praised dog it will behave obediently.  My dog will roll over for you to pet his belly or drop my wife’s t-shirt that he grabbed out of the laundry.

Tip #6: Praise and Reward

As I mentioned in tip #5, always praise and reward your dog for doing something correct.  Dogs eat this stuff up (no pun intended) and will be eager to please you in the future.  Follow these rules for rewarding.  If your dog does something he is good at, like sitting, give him a small reward and praise.  But if you have been working on rolling over for weeks and he finally does it, it’s BIG COOKIE TIME and a game of keep away.  Act like it’s the greatest thing he has ever done.  I know I’d do that trick again if I got rewarded that way!

Tip #7: Appropriate Corrections

If while obedience training your dog, you are having trouble.  For example, your dog tends to sit instead of lay down when you say “down”, correct this by giving your no sound “ehh” and then help him down to the proper laying position.  Don’t force them though as it could scare your cute puppy.

Tip #8: Start with One Easy Command

You don’t want to start off trying to get your dog to “play dead” you will get very frustrated with your dog because he doesn’t realize just yet that obeying you will result in a treat and praise.  Try getting your dog to sit, as that is the basis for many other tricks.  It’s easy to suggest to the dog what you mean by pressing gently on his rear end.  On the first success don’t forget to reward, reward, reward!!

Tip #9: Repetition of the Command and the Action

Just like the daily routine, getting a dog to learn requires patience and repetition.  Don’t try and teach him another trick until your dog has learned and consistently does the previous command.  Conversely, make sure to review old training commands during your daily routine in order to re-enforce the behavior.

Tip #10: Eliminate Distractions at first

If the dog is not paying attention to you, it won’t be learning any new tricks.  As a puppy, try obedience training in doors sans distractions.  This will greatly increase your chances of being successful.  Once your dog has demonstrated an ability to follow a command you can then start to introduce distractions.

And their you have my top 10 Obedience training for dogs tips.  It’s very important to remain consistent and positive even when your doggy is just not getting it.  They will eventually and when that moment comes be ready to show that dog some serious love.  Don’t forget to exercise your dog as well, and if you use your imagination you can work some of the training commands into play time.  Have your dog stay sitting as you throw the toy and then release him.  They will love this game and you’ll see the excitement in your pet as soon as you say “OK, go get it”  Pure Happiness!

There are many ways to train a dog effectively, with some ways being harder then others.  To be honest though, the method used is more dictated by your dog then it is by you.  Clicker training dogs is one way that is gaining popularity over the last decade.  At first, It seems a bit silly to use something that makes a clicking sound for training dogs doesn’t it?  And who would have thought it would actually work so well?  Just like any other training style there are some secrets to the art of clicker training a dog.

Dog Clicker Basic Association

Before even attempting to teach your dog a new command, you must train it to associate the clicking sound with a treat or some thing your dog loves to do.  For your first training session all you will be doing is getting your dog’s attention, click the dog clicker and then immediately give him/her a treat.  You will repeat this process several times until little Jack (that’s my dog) knows he is getting a treat when he hears the sound of the clicker.

Once you’ve pretty much accomplished the association, you can step it up a notch by randomly clicking the clicker through out the day to see if your dog comes running for a treat.  I bet he does!

Simple Commands, But Wait!

This might sound illogical, but stay with me here.  The best way to train a dog to follow a command is not to give them the command at all, at least in the beginning.  Say you want to teach Fido to sit.  What you will do is let your dog discover that sitting will get him rewarded on his own.  This is done by watching your dog pretty good and the very first time he sits down, tush on the Ground, you’ll click the clicker and immediately follow that up with a treat.   Since you have already associated the clicking sound to mean a treat is coming, Fido will quickly pick up that sitting will bring upon that owe so wonderful ‘click’.  Keep this up for a little while until your dog is more focused on you and it will happen.

Now it’s time to introduce the command.  As you see your dog sitting, say “Sit” and then “Click” and then give them a treat.  Make sure not to repeat the command or it will only result in you having to repeat yourself in the future.  You don’t want “SitSitSit” to be the command your dog understands to mean Sit.  Soon your dog will start to sit upon command.  Remember to always practice your commands, don’t think that once he gets it from your initial dog clicker training session that it will stick for life.

Important Dog Clicker Training Tips

Always be positive with your dog and ALWAYS follow up the click sound with a treat, you want that association to be strong.  If you fail to treat, your pup will start to lose interest.  The reason why clicker training works for dogs is because it’s accurate and immediate.  As soon as the dog obeys a command you click!  Clicking can be done from across the room or in a crowded area, while if you depended on words or treats as your lone acknowledgment of a well done you’ll have to be up close or in a quiet place.

Remember that dogs won’t always get how to do a command and, like humans, will get frustrated.  When this happens start smaller and build him up to the final command.  If you can’t get your dog to roll over, first try sitting, then laying down and then rolling on it’s back and then rolling over.  Whether you are clicker training a puppy or a dog, it’s important to have patience, be consistent and be positive.

It’s a common argument in the dog world and one that just boils down to personal opinion in the end.  Crating your dog can be a cruel practice and depending on your dog can really affect them negatively.  Placing a blanket statement on crating your dog as being Cruel though, is wrong.  With the proper attention and techniques, it can be a very effective to crate train a dog.

In this article I will go over some of the arguments for both sides of the crate training dogs debate.  Initial reactions to can be skewed because for many new dog owners, the only place we’ve ever seen a dog crated is in a mall pet store or in a pound.  Those settings make us feel sorrow for the dogs, and we inevitably relate it to being in some kind of doggy jail.  That association is only natural and I can’t blame you at all for those feelings.  But I only ask that you have an open mind, look at both arguments before taking sides.  I myself can understand both opinions.

Negative View of Crate Training Your Dog

• Your dog will only retreat to it’s cage if it is what we trained them to do, instead of what they would rather do.
• Even though it is said that your dog will take to the cage because it feels comfortable and den like, there is no den that has a door close behind it.  A dog should be able to come and go as it pleases from it’s bed.
• Many owners fail to clean the cage often enough, forcing the dog to sleep in a filthy environment.
• Dog crating is illegal in some countries.  It must be cruel!
• It’s like putting your dog in Prison

Positive View of Crate Training Your Dog

• It’s a place for your dog to get away from commotion
• Crates are often seen as a den, which a dog will instinctively seek out.  In the absence of a crate, dogs will very often burrow under covers or hide out in dark rooms.
• There are proper ways to use a crate that are not cruel
• It’s an effective way to potty train your dog since instincts will prevent your dog from going to the bathroom where they sleep.
• Dogs will grow up being more confident knowing that they always have a safe place to go.

Crate Training Tips

So, if you do decide you want to go the crate training route, here are some very helpful tips to make sure that it is done properly and keeps your dog happy.

1. Make sure the crate is large enough to allow your dog room to move around.
2. Never leave him in there with the crate door closed for more then 3 or 4 hours for puppies and 8 hours for adult dogs.
3. Clean the crate regularly and immediately if your dog goes to the bathroom in it (some dogs will).
4. Never crate a dog with a choke collar or leash attached around their necks.  This can cause a choking hazard if the collar were to get caught on the crate itself.
5. Use safe dog toys like Kongs
6. Introduce your dog to the crate at an early age
7. Place treats in the cage and let your dog find it themselves.  Soon they will associate that crate with good things
8. Don’t over stuff the crate with blankets or pillows.
9. When the dog is sleeping in the crate, try to leave the gate open.
10. Don’t use the crate for a punishment.  You want your dog feeling safe in his “den”, not locked up in a jail.
11. Don’t overuse the crate, if you are going to be out all day schedule a neighbor or friend to come by and periodically let your dog out.
12. Place the crate in a place where your dog can see you.  It will comfort the dog and keep an anxiety to a minimum.
13. Always praise your pup when he enters the crate.
14. Randomly drop treats in his crate to let your dog discover them on his own
15. Practice crating your dog for short periods of time while you are home.  You may also leave the room for a few moments and then come back.  This will teach your dog that if you leave, you will come back.
16. Make sure your dog has fully eliminated before going into the crate
17. Do not allow children to play in or around the crate.
18. Do not allow children to handle the dog while it’s in the crate.  The reason is that the crate is your dog’s safe haven, and there should be no intruders.

Training a dog is a challenging job and the key is to chose one method of training and stick with it.  Crate training definitely has a negative image, but that is the way my wife and I initially thought of to train our dog.  We had mixed results, but I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do and hopefully my tips in this article can help some people who have chosen this path of training.

Many dog owners, like myself, live in an apartment or condo who don’t have the luxury of just opening the back door and letting the dog out to do it’s business.  Sure in the spring and summer it’s great to be outside walking your dog, but when there is a nip in the air and the wind is blowing or it’s pouring rain I sure the hell don’t want to be outside.  So why not train your dog to go on an indoor potty like the toilet?

Wee Wee pads, news paper or some gimmicky portable dog potty system are options, but not very good ones when you compare the benefits of your dog using the lieu.  This idea came to me after watching the cat in Meet the Parents using the toilet.  I couldn’t have been more jealous as I grabbed the poop bag, a treat, dog collar, winter jacket, gloves, dog coat, umbrella and my pants so I can let the dog outside.  So I set out and did some research on indoor dog potty training.  I found some funny, yet helpful videos on Youtube and also some great articles with various techniques for getting  your dog to use the toilet.  In this article I will describe the best techniques.

First Things First, Dog House Training

First and foremost you’ll need to house break your dog and get the little fella to recognize your command for going to the bathroom.  It could be “Go Pee Pee”, “Go Potty”, “Bathroom” or anything else you’d like to use.  In the beginning you’ll want to bring your dog to the same spot outside to go to the bathroom.  This is important, because you want to create an associate to a particular spot just like we associate the bathroom as the place where we go to re-leave ourselves.

The Dog Portable Potty Bowl

Once your dog has become accustom to piddling in “his spot” and you feel he has been house broken, it’s time to bring in some sort of portable dog potty.  I don’t mean some fancy product from IAMs, but anything that can be used to pee and pooped in.  Take that item and place it in your dog’s area.  It may take some time, but if Fido hits the target be ready to praise him to death and give him a huge reward.  You’ll have to do this over and over again until he is using the container every time.

Bring The Potty Inside

Now this is where it gets fun, you’ll move the container into your house and place it in your bathroom next to the toilet.  When it’s time for your dog to go potty, give your command and lead him to the container in the bathroom.  Hopefully at this point the container has become “the spot” and your dog will recognize it and successfully go to the bathroom.  If that does happen, GREAT!  if not try moving the container outside again for a few more days and then try again.

Raising the Bar…or Potty Pot

After your dog uses the container, in the bathroom, it’s time to start raising it to the height of the toilet.  You’ll raise it by placing the container on something sturdy.  I read on another site that using cinder blocks works perfectly for this because they are solid and stack-able.  Eventually you’ll be placing the container inside the rim of the toilet, making sure the edge of the container matches up with the toilet edge.

Finally, you can remove the container after your dog has become accustom to jumping up on the toilet and going to the bathroom!

This obviously won’t work for every dog as some just won’t get the association of an indoor dog toilet.  If that is the case, don’t force your dog against it’s will.  Just be ready with big praise and rewards after each time your dog is successful with any of the steps above.  Dogs want to please their owners.  Best of luck!

My biggest fear when getting our puppy was if I would have the patience to potty train a dog.  We got a smaller bread dog, Yorkie Bichon mix, and there are many stories out there that it’s harder to house train a small dog as opposed to a larger breed dog.  Guess what, IT’S TRUE!  The little guy’s bladder could not hold more then a shot glass of water at any one time.  My wife and I probably made every mistake in the book.  The first thing we had to admit was that we had no idea what we were doing and then I went out and did a ton of research and asked dog experts all over the area how to properly potty train a puppy?

There are ton’s of articles out there that tell you all the things you need to do to make sure your little doggy gets house broken.  I don’t know about you, but I learn better from people’s mistakes as opposed to someone’s successes.  That’s why in this article I wanted to list the 5 biggest mistakes made when you potty train a dog.

Mistake #1: Rubbing Your dog’s face in it

I’ve seen my parents do this, my friends parents do this and even did it myself.  The logic is that if you show the dog what he did wrong that they’ll understand.  That couldn’t be further from the truth and you only serve to confuse them.  I don’t know about you, but every dog I’ve been around actually likes to eat poop!  Your dog might actually like having you shove their nose in it.

Getting serious again, dogs have a short attention span and respond so much better to praise and love then yelling and forcefulness.  This leads me into the next mistake.

Mistake #2: Punishing Your Dog

Dogs, especially puppies,  have no idea that they are not suppose to go to the bathroom inside the house.  It’s only natural for us to get mad and want to yell, but in all honesty it really does no good at all and only creates tension and fear in your pooch.  If you continue to yell at your dog while catching him in the act you’ll cause your dog to be afraid to go to the bathroom in front of you inside or outside of the house.  Here is what you should do…If you notice that your puppy is about to go, quickly make your “no” noise and then scoop him up and bring your puppy outside.

Mistake #3: Inconsistency

Puppies learn best in a consistent environment.  If you try and potty train a dog by taking him out when you have time, or when it’s not raining or snowing outside this will only serve to confuse the dog.  They will never know when a good time to re-leave themselves is.  Take the other approach for example, when you wake up in the morning you take your god outside.  After your puppy eats he goes outside.  When you get home from work it’s time to go outside and lastly before you go to bed.   It’s important, especially early on, to time these events to the hour.  So at 8am; 12pm; 5pm; 10pm; you are taking your dog outside no matter what.

Mistake #4: Not Rewarding Your Puppy

As I said earlier, dogs respond best to praise, love and rewards.  Be ready with a treat after the deed is done and even play with your cute little puppy to show him how excited you are that he just went to the bathroom outside.  Why does this work so well?  If your puppy were to go to the bathroom inside the house, there would be no treat, no playing and no excitement.  Dogs want to please and they will quickly associate going to the bathroom outside is a good thing and brings rewards, love and praise.

Mistake #5:  Training For Too Long

One last mistake is trying to train your dog in one outing.  Like little kids, puppies have very short attention spans and will quickly lose interest in the potty training exercise.  Even if you have food, your dog will get full or tired of what you have and start ignoring you.  This will only lead you to get frustrated and start yelling and repeating yourself.  The best thing with any kind of dog training is being consistent, keeping the training to around 5 to 10 minutes and if your dog isn’t paying attention to you, stop and try again later.

It’s just important to know what not to do as it is what to do.  The reason for this is that even if you think you are doing everything write, you may slip in some improper ways to potty train a dog.  Many slip ups later in a dogs life can be directly traced back to bad training techniques when they were puppies.  A happy, well trained dog will greatly improve everyone’s demeanor and create a loving relationship with your dog, not one where you are cursing the thought of coming home to a mess on your carpet.

Happy Dog Training!

It seems like it will never end, the sound just drives deeper and deeper into you until you can’t take it any more and then it still continues.  Even though it’s as natural as talking is to humans, excessive barking by a dog is just not acceptable.  You don’t want to be known around the neighborhood as the person who owns that barking dog, do ya?

Most of the time we blame the dog, or that the reason for the excessive barking is inbreed into the dog.  Even though there is some truth to that, the reason your dog is being such a nuisance by barking is you and I’ll get into why later in the article.  The good news is that there are some very effective techniques for stopping your dog from all that barking.  All it takes is a little time and patience.

Determine The Reason

Your dog seems to bark at everything from passing cars to a door bell ringing on The Cosby Show.  There is a reason why your dog is barking and you’ll have to do some detective work in order to draw it out.  My dog barks when he is excited, and nothing excites him more then when guest come over.  It’s not the door bell ringing or the front door opening, those things only mean that someone is coming.  The odd thing is, Jack will not bark if nobody is home and I come in.  But if my wife is home with our dog and then I come home from work, he barks his head off.  The trick here is to find exactly what is getting Jack excited.  If I can do that I can get the dog barking under control.

Anti Barking Training

One very effective way to end the barking is training your dog to obey the “Quiet” command.  It won’t be easy, but imagine the praise you will get from your friends and family when your dog immediately stops barking on your command!  Just like training your dog to obey a command like “Sit”, you’ll have to be ready to praise and reward your dog for his silence.   Taking Jack for example, we would repeat his barking trigger and the moment he quiets down we will bark (pun intended) the command “Quiet”, wait a few seconds and then reward the dog with a treat if he remains barkless.  This won’t happen over night, but a good consistent effort should do the trick.  The hard part here is when friends come over, because you’ll have to tell them not to acknowledge the dog until he quiets down.

Ignore The Barking

Ignoring your dogs excessive barking is the key.  If you don’t you are just rewarding your dog and it will be next to impossible to undo that.  The reason is because you’ll be confusing your dog.  First you rewarded the barking by taking him out of the crate or letting him outside.  Now you are rewarding him and the only thing that will happen is your dog will bark more.  In the opening paragraph I mentioned that excessive barking dogs were the fault of their owners, and this is the reason why.  We unknowingly are rewarding the dog.   Yelling at your dog to “stop barking” does not come across to the dog the way you might think, it actually thinks you are joining in and will bark more.  To him this is a reward!

Request an Alternate Behavior

Continuing with my dogs example of barking when guests are coming in the front door, a way to curtail this behavior is to distract your dog by requesting another behavior from your them.  I may grab his chew toy, or fill up his kong with peanut butter.  I want Jack to associate guest coming over with something more calming.  Basically distracting him to the fact that someone new is coming up the stairs.  This works really well as long as in combination we do not get overly excited ourselves at the moments when our guest comes in.  This is important because your dog’s energy level will mimic yours and will soon forget about the distraction.

Exercise

Lastly, but definitely not least important is to properly exercise your pooch.  A lot of the times dogs bark excessively because they are full of energy from a lack of exercise.  If your dog is tired, he will maybe give out a few barks, but will not follow through over and over again.  In general dogs behave much better when properly played with and walked.

In the end it all comes down to obedience training.  A well trained dog will very rarely have problems with excessive barking and if they do, it will be easy to curtail it with a few adjustments to your and the dogs behavior.  Never ever yell at your dog for barking, but make sure to reward him when he quiets down or even stays silent while one of his triggers is happening.  Dogs are very social animals and will bark for a veriety of reasons, some good some bad.  Stay patient, keep consistent and love your dog.

We all fall in love with the idea of having a cute and cuddly puppy.  Whether it be a Labrador Retriever or a Yorkie Bichon mixed breed puppy, it’s a dream of many.  However, a startling reality soon sets in after getting the puppy and that is the amount of energy they have and how important it is to properly exercise them.  Without exercise, your fur ball will act out in other ways making you crazy!

Okay, now you understand that you have to take your dog walking at least twice a day.  These walks take time and we lead busy lives and if you are anything like me, you tend to take shorter and shorter walks with your dog as time goes on and as the weather gets colder.   You are not a bad owner for doing this, but a good owner will find alternate methods to walk your dogs.  Here a few ideas that will keep your pooch happy and healthy for a long time.

Hire a Dog Walker

Very simple!  hire someone to do it for you.  This can be anyone from the sweet old lady down the street to a professional dog walking service.  I, myself, would recommend going with a professional dog walker as they will be able to work with you and your dog in order to setup an appropriate walking schedule.  Grandma, might have a problem when the weather drops below freezing or not be able to come by on the days you need.

Cost is usually not to bad, can be as little as $10 for a 20 minute walk which would be plenty exercise for a smaller breed dog.  Prices can vary greatly but if you shop around and ask for recommendations you’ll surely find a dog walking service that will appease you.

Dog Treadmills

To me this is a brilliant idea and if you are someone who lives in a city or in really cold temperatures, this could be the best purchase you have ever made.  There are specific treadmills made for dogs that aren’t to expensive,  $500 will definitely do the trick.  Alternatively there are many people who have trained their dogs to walk on an existing treadmill in the home.  There will most certainly be a learning curve for your dog, but in the end this is a great solution.

Doggy Day Care

My wife and I work opposite schedules so our little Jack has someone around for most of the day to walk him.  However, many families are not in this situation and the poor dog is left alone for 10+ hours each day.  Treat this situation like you would if you had a young infant, bring your dog to a dog sitter or doggy day care.  More and more of these are popping up as we become busier and busier.   The price is reasonable at $30 to $40 a day and just imagine how much more fun your dog will have playing with other dogs and being walked by the dog sitters.

The best solution is to be able to walk your dog yourself.  It creates a growing bond between you and your pup that you will love!  But hey, we all live busy lives and have to do what is best for our dog and going with one of the above options is an outstanding answer.  Whether you hire a professional dog walker to come to your house, train your dog to walk on a treadmill in order to keep him well exercised during winter months or drop your dog off at a sitter your baby will be happy, healthy and a great companion for you.

This past weekend I took our 12 pound Yorkie Bichon, Jack, down to the park where they were having opening day for the little league baseball.  It was packed with people young and old and had lots of hot dog buns laying on the ground and other assorted garbage.  You can imagine the trouble I had keeping Jack from all these distractions, plus when little kids want to come and pet him he gets a little nippy which makes me very nervous.   Even though I had trained Jack well, I quickly found out that I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

Your dogs behavior should stay consistent no matter the distraction and the key to this is understanding your dog.  Like myself, many of us think that we have done a good job training our puppy because he sits, stays, and leaves that carrot on the floor when you drop it.  Unfortunately what they do in a quite, distraction free home is one thing and what they do out in the world is another.  If you are having trouble training your dog, hiring a dog behaviorist to train your dog and train you to understand your dog is a great idea.  My wife and I have recently started this process with our dog and it has already payed off.  Below are three questions that you should ask yourself if you have a question on whether you need some help.

Question #1: Does your dog stop behaving when there are distractions around?

In other words, can you call and get your dogs attention in a crowded place or when a piece of chocolate (which is poison to dogs) falls on the ground?  These are the moments when it’s imperative for your dog to obey your commands and to response instantly as it could be a matter of life or death.  Have you ever seen those show dogs that will follow their owner around like they have a Filet Mignon stuffed in his pocket?  You may not need to train your dog that well, but something close to that is what we should aim for.  Remember, you are the boss not your dog.

Question #2: Does your dog’s behavior around children make you nervous?

A lot of small dogs get skittish around children.  My best guess as to why is the fact that kids are unpredictable and often times will poke, pull your pets fur and corner your dog.  This can be a recipe for your dog biting or attacking the child.  It’s important to acclimate your pooch to small children when they are young, but if that wasn’t possible or you continually have that uneasy feeling when your fur baby is around children it might be time to visit a dog behaviorist.  This is an area that we are working on with Jack.

Does your dog chew up your furniture?

This could be a sign of separation anxiety or even just pure board-em.  It’s important to understand why your dog might have trouble staying home alone or what sets off the furniture chewing.  Look for signs, triggers or even see if you can replace the habit with something else.  This can be very frustrating and there is no shame in trying to get help.  With Jack, he started chewing our entertainment center corners when he was young.  He eventually grew out of it all on his own, at least I think he did.  It’s possible my wife and I slightly adjusted his play schedule or eating times.

Sometimes to change a dogs behavior is as simple as a small change like adjusting when you play with your dog or for how long you play.  Other times you need a drastic change such as enlisting your dog in some dog behavior training.  What I’ve learned is that the reason your dog has behaving badly is the result of improper training and or a lack of exercise.  To truly find out how well your dog is trained, test them out.  Take them to a crowded part and as you walk by other dogs, people or fallen food try and ask your dog to obey a command.   See how well that goes and then ask yourself if you believe you can correct any problems.   If you can not, hire someone who can help you.

We’ve all heard of Cesar Millan and his dog training technique called dog whispering.  I’m not one to doubt another person’s method for training dogs as I’ve seen a lot of different strategies turn out successful.  In fact it really all depends on the dog and the owner as to which method will work out best.  Dog whispering is not really what it sounds like.  It’s not really a secret language that we softly speak to our dog to get him/her to obey immediately.  At first hearing of this training method, I thought it was some sixth sense or super natural way to speak to a dog’s mind.  I could not have been more wrong.

Is dog whispering a valid training technique?

In fact, dog whispering is about reading what is on your dog’s mind by paying attention to the signs his body is giving off.  This is not a skill that is easily learned and is the reason why you see Cesar routinely mention that he has to train the owner in order to train the dog.  What makes it even harder is that not all dog’s body language is the same.  Just think about how you read your wife, siblings or parents body language.  There are commonalities, such as slouching or smiling that will give you clues as to how they are feeling or what they are about to do.

Not only are you to learn your dog’s body language, but your dog is to learn your body language.  This is how you two will communicate, by actions and not words.  The reason why this works is that dogs are instinctual and will obey the pack leader.  Words don’t make you a pack leader, your actions and body language do.  Have you ever seen a person who is confident and powerful walk into a room?  Their body language screams it.  Now pay attention to how other people react to him.  We look up to people like that and are more willing to follow his lead and obey his wishes.  The same is true of dogs when they see you walk into a room.  Your body language says you are the boss, the pack leader.

Is it hard to learn?

Learning Dog whispering is not something that can be learned over night.  Most people will quit and declare the dog whispering is a load of crap and will go back to other methods of dog training. Make no mistake, this is an advanced dog training technique that can pay off huge dividends when you dedicate yourself to it.   Dog’s speak to us through their wagging tails, playful jumping and the way their heads turn.  It’s all a matter of interpreting what is being said.  If you call upon your dog to “come” and he puts his nose to the ground and slowly walks over to you what does that mean?  Well what Fido is trying to actually do is ease tension and say that all is OK.

If you misread what your dog is saying, then you risk confusing your dog.  His instincts tell him that wagging his tail is how to express happy and you mistake it for disobedience and punish your dog, you’ll confuse him.  He will not know how to express his happiness anymore.  It’s a very interesting concept to me and there is no way I can really dispute the validity of this training technique.  What do you think?

Taking your dog for a walk can be a great bonding experience and can be a lot of fun.  It puts your dog in a good mood and gives him/her the exercise they need to live a happy and healthy life.  Taking your dog for a walk however requires the right tools as some dog collars promote bad habits in dogs.  One such bad habit is when your dog continually pulls on the leash and chokes.  As it does me, I’m sure it amazes you how it seems that your

dog doesn’t mind choking and will continue to pull.  I feel terrible every time I hear my little dog cough or strain to move in the direction he wants to go.

This article is not about training your dog to properly walk but to make sure you have the proper dog collar so you won’t severely harm your dog when and if they start pulling on the leash.  Dogs have a one track mind and if they see something of interest in front of them they will charge towards it having no regard for the fact that they are choking.  Below I’m going to review a few types of collars that you should never use and then give you my recommendation for the best dog collar for walking.

Bad Training Dog Collars to Use

Many first reactions to stop a pulling dog is to some how make it less comfortable for your pup when it pulls.  Slip collars do just that. As the dog pulls the collar will tighten, choking the dog.  As we’ve experience before, a dog won’t really stop when it is choking.  Many times, these slip collars will cause your dog to pass out from lack of oxygen.  How can anyone feel these are a good and safe way to prevent a dog from pulling?  Slip collars are often referred to as Choke Collars and there are a few varieties out there.

• First there is the simple noose collar
• Worse yet there is a barbed collar the not only restricts oxygen flow, but also digs barbs into your sweet dogs neck.  Just plain crazy!

Anti-Pulling Dog Collars that won’t hurt your dog

The first type of collar that can be used is similar to what you would see on a horse.  This category of collar is called a head collar.  While a dog is wearing this type of collar and attempts to pull, their heads will be turned which will greatly reduce any leverage they may have.  This type of collar will also reduce any strain on your dogs neck that may cause suffocation.

A second type of collar that is highly effective is the harness that has the lead attached to the chest of your dog.  Again this eliminates any neck strain as well as completely negates your dog from pulling by turning it’s body.  Your dog will soon get the message that pulling gets him no where fast.

Recommended Collar for walking Dogs who pull.

My favorite collar to use is the harness collar with the chest lead.  It’s very easy to use and seems more comfortable for my dog which is important because he then does not try and pull it off.  It’s a little awkward at first to walk your dog with the leash attached to it’s chest, but I soon realized that was because I was walking my dog incorrectly.  Jack (my dog) used to slightly lead our strolls, not me, which is a big no no when it comes to properly training your dog to walk.  So give this collar a try and I promise you’ll be happy with the results.

Remember though that no collar will take the place for you properly training your dog.  You want your dog to walk along side you because that is a rewarding experience, not because pulling you across the lawn is uncomfortable and will get him in trouble.  Whether you have a leather dog collar, stylish spiked dog collar or a personalized one, they all will work well if you put the time in and train your dog when its a puppy.  The longer you wait the harder it will get.