courtesy of ihasahotdog.com

Just goes to show, dogs are smarter than we give them credit.  This little guy didn’t take his master’s word for it, he looked it up for himself.

Webster’s Thesaurus:  Pad -

2 a place set aside for sleeping <went back to my pad to get some rest> — see bed 1

On a side note, if you’re currently trying to use potty pads to house train your puppy, you need to listen to the bonus interview that comes with my Hands Off Dog Training course, it’ll really open up your mind, and show you why you’re struggling to potty train your dog.

Puppy pad is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

courtesy of www.sixwise.com

We’ve all been there.  You are relaxing in your easy chair and your furry companion wants to cozy up for a petting session or just settle into your lap for a nap, when all of the sudden, you are engulfed with an aroma that is beyond unpleasant, it’s downright disgusting!

Dog Gas:  What Causes Doggy Flatulence … and What Can You do About It?

posted 2/17/10, www.sixwise.com

Does your dog have problems with flatulence that can easily clear a room? It’s nothing personal … just a normal process that occurs when bacteria in your dog’s digestive tract breaks down his food.

However, while some gas is normal, excessive flatulence can be a sign that something is amiss in your dog’s diet.

What’s Causing Your Dog’s Gas?

As in humans, flatulence in dogs is often related to the foods they eat.

It occurs when a food does not get completely broken down in the stomach and small intestine. The food then reaches the large intestine in this undigested state, and bacteria there get to work, essentially breaking the morsel down further.

This process actually ferments the material, which produces a mixture of gasses: carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, and sometimes hydrogen sulfide (the tell-tale odor we think of when we think of gas). If you’ve ever been in the room when your furry best friend has passed wind, you know exactly the odor we’re referring to.

Read the rest of the article.

Doggy Flatulence is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Crate training

Does Crate Training Dogs Work?

www.obediencetrainingfordogsblog.com

A dog crate is a cage made of wire or molded plastic. The purpose of crate training dogs is to provide confinement for reasons of security, safety, housebreaking, protection of household goods, travel or illness. You may think that putting your pet in a crate is mean or inhumane and might cause your pet to resent you or to be psychologically damaged. However, dogs view the world differently than people.

As your dog sees it, the crate is a room of his very own – a “security blanket”. The crate helps to satisfy the “den instinct” inherited from his den-dwelling ancestors and relatives. Your pet will feel secure, not frustrated once accustomed to his crate. Your pet wants to please you and you want to enjoy him. The crate can help you achieve a better relationship with your pet by preventing unwanted behavior when you aren’t available to supervise him.

Read the rest of this article.

Does Crate Training Work? is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Why does he look so sad? FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you seen the commercial on TV where the little boy proudly shows his mom the neat trick ‘Toby’ has learned with mom looking horrified as the dog scoots his rear end on her nice, clean carpet?   If you didn’t understand why she was so upset, read on.

by Sarah Stroud, January 7, 2010

Richmond Pet Care Examiner

You are a dog owner, and you have noticed that your beloved pet is scooting his hind end on the floor. You are concerned, could this be a sign of worms?  That is usually the pet owner’s first thought.  There is usually not a concern there.  The root of the problem is what is called anal glands.

Anal glands are located near the rectum. In larger breeds this is usually not an issue.  Smaller breeds do have a problem in this area.  These glands, which are casually called skunk glands are usually expressed or drained during defecation.  The main purpose for these glands are a way to identify themselves between dogs.  You may notice that if your dog comes into contact with another dog they will raise their tail and they will sniff one another.  At that time they express a little to show dominance or protect territory. That again is why they are sometimes referred to as skunk glands,  skunks have that same defense ability.

Read the rest of Sarah’s article.

Why is my dog scooting on the floor?? is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

I'm So Sorry!

It’s frustrating as hell, ruins your socks, and stains your carpet.  But it doesn’t have to be that way any longer.  All you need is the right dog training information, a string, and a little bell, and your dog won’t mess on your floor ever again.

I house trained my golden retriever puppy below to ring a bell to go potty at 11 weeks!

Hundreds of dog training experts are teaching techniques like how to use crates to build bladder strength, and increase the length of time between eliminations; grinding your dog’s face in his poo to teach him it’s not OK, or methods even as intricate as getting a dog to go in a kitty litter box.  And while all these techniques can work, they all have one major flaw…

… they all rely on your dog to hold his bladder for hours on end, until you finally remember that you should let him outside to go potty.  This is fighting an uphill battle with your dog, because it is infinitely easier to teach an animal to DO something than it is to teach an animal to NOT do something.

Meaning that if we could find a way for our dog to tell us he has to go to the bathroom, that would be much easier than training him to NOT go to the bathroom

Here’s a few more examples to show you what I mean…

My Golden Bauer

It’s much easier to teach your dog to sit when meeting a stranger than to NOT jump up on them.  It’s much easier to teach your dog to chew on one of his toys, than it is to NOT chew on your furniture.

This is because we can reward a dog for doing a behavior we want, but we can only PUNISH a dog for doing a behavior we don’t want.  And when push comes to shove, a dog will obviously be more willing to work for praise, treats and rewards, then be scared into submission with more aggressive tactics.

So let’s take this philosophy and show you how I trained my brand new 11 week old Golden Retriever puppy to tell us EVERY time he needed to go potty, by ringing a little bell I hung from a string on our back door.

Here’s why this house training technique is so effective…

Obviously an eleven week old puppy hasn’t fully developed his bladder strength yet, and he was needing to relieve himself every couple of hours.  And if I wasn’t there when my puppy was ready to go… we ended up with a puddle on our floor.

So I thought to myself, “I don’t want to just sit here watching my puppies every move, just waiting for him to look like he needs to go outside.  Why don’t I train him to tell me?”

And that’s exactly what I did.  First I got some of our puppy’s favorite treats and kept them in a bowl by the door, so I could have easy access to them when I needed them.

Then I tied a little jingle bell from our Christmas tree, to a long string and tied it to the handle of our door, so it was easily in reach of my pups nose.  This made it so that every time I opened the door the bell would jingle, and I’d let my puppy outside.

Then I took it one step further.  I spent a few days closely watching my puppy in our house (you could do this in a weekend).  I’d watch for any signs that he was going to go potty.  Signs like sniffing the ground and pacing; like he’s looking for a good spot to let it go.

When I saw my puppy doing this I’d immediately and gently distract him, rush him to the door, open the door and send him outside… of course this causes the bell to ring which is important as it starts to get the dog used to the fact that when the bell rings he goes outside.

Because the dog already had to go potty, as soon as he got outside he’d immediately go.  I’d then toss him a treat and give him lots of praise.  This taught the dog that he gets rewarded with a treat for going potty outside.  And in my pups little doggy brain he very quickly started to realize that if he wanted one of those tasty treats, he had to go potty outside… and that that was the ONLY way to get one of his favorite treats.

After I’d spent a whole day doing this I adjusted my strategy on the second day of training.  Instead of just opening the door for my pup when it looked like he had to go, when I took him to the back door I made him bump into the bell with his nose before I opened the door for him.

And after a full day of bumping into that bell with his nose he was trained that if he just bumps that bell with his nose, I’ll come open the door for him to go outside and go potty — and of course that earns him a treat!

This ends up being a HUGE blessing for me because I can be anywhere in the house and if my dog has to go to the bathroom I can hear him ring that bell.  And because new puppies can’t hold their bladders for very long, it was the perfect way to show him that there was a perfectly ok way for him to ask to go outside.

Otherwise I’d never now when he wanted out, and even if he held it for as long as he could, if I wasn’t there to let him out because I was in the other room watching TV, or not paying attention, he would have had another accident and it would have taken 3-5 times more time to house train my dog.

So remember, you’ll have much more success with house training your dog if you focus on training him to DO something that’s taking you closer to your house training goals, than it is to just get mad at him every time he has an accident

How I House Trained My Golden Retriever Puppy is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Would you like to be able to TRUST that your dog won’t piss all over your house?

Have you tried scolding him, or rubbing your dog’s nose in his own pee when you catch him… and it just doesn’t seem to be working?

If that sounds like you, then you’re going to LOVE these 3 FREE potty training tips that you can use to fix your dog’s potty training problems once and for all.

Each of these tips are crucial to follow if you ever want your dog to be TRULY potty trained.

Make Your Dog EARN Room Rights

Dogs have a natural instinct and desire to NOT piss on themselves or their territory.  This is why you see so many dog trainers talk about why you should crate train your dog.

I call this desire to not eliminate on themselves or their territory, the “Rental Car” mindset.  The “Rental Car Mindset states that we always treat things we consider to be our own, better then we treat things that we are merely renting, or don’t consider to be our own.

This certainly is a simple way to think about whether your dog is potty trained, or is NOT potty trained.  If he’s potty trained, then you’ve effectively shown him that your home is his territory and, if you haven’t potty trained your dog, you’ll want to follow the exercises below to help teach him to respect his territory.

A very simple example of the Rental Car Mindset at work is when you see dog trainers talk about crate training.

Crate training a dog forces the dog to live in a space for a long period of time without peeing in it, because dogs don’t like peeing on themselves.  And when a dog lives in a space long enough without peeing in it, and is also shown WHERE to pee once he leaves “his” space, you end up with a dog who understands where he can and can NOT pee.

But most experts who teach you this technique are leaving out a big part of the story.

What Do You Do After
Your Dog Is Crate Trained?

Simply crate training your dog is NOT enough to effectively potty train your dog.

In order to effectively potty train your dog you need to take the same concept that crate training uses to teach the dog that a crate is his OWN space, and apply it to larger rooms of your house.

This is where the concept of Earning Room Rights comes into play.

When I say Earning Room Rights, I’m talking about a process of confining an un-potty trained dog to one small room, and helping him understand that that particular room is not to be eliminated in until he fully grasps that concept.

Once the dog has fully mastered the art of holding his bladder in this first room that room is now Pee Proof, then and only then do we slowly give the dog the opportunities to earn the rights to additional rooms.

Thus the name, Earning Room Rights

3 Tips To Pee Proofing A Room

Most of my clients who struggle potty training their dogs are making one of these 3 Pee Proofing mistakes.

Mistake #1: Focusing on more then one room, or one space at a time

Never forget that potty training dogs is done one room at a time.

Start teaching your dog how to be potty trained by picking one room of your home and confining your dog to that space with gates.  I personally like to pick a heavily trafficked room that has a door leading outside

Pee Odors Are Harder To Remove From Carpet. Start potty training in rooms with harder surfaces.

To some dogs carpet is a bulls-eye just waiting to be shot at.  So to help make your potty training job easier, just avoid carpet altogether if you can.

Mistake #2: Failure to do Temptation Testing

If your dog seems to be holding his bladder in his one isolated room for hours at a time, even when you leave him unsupervised, don’t think your work is done.

As I mentioned before, many dogs have certain surfaces that they prefer to pee on, or certain objects like stuffed animals.

When I was potty training my Golden Retriever, Bauer, he would behave perfectly on linoleum, but had a hard time resisting the urge to go on the carpet.

So I felt that before Bauer had earned the right to have access to carpeted rooms, he needed to undergo some carpet Tempatation Testing.

Temptation Testing is simply taking the types of surfaces, or objects that your dog likes to pee on and puting them into the gated off room that you’ve been Pee Proofing.

Tempt your dog to pee on slabs of carpet before introducing to carpeted rooms

In the case of my Golden Retriever, I noticed that if I left him unsupervised with a slab of carpet in his room, he would pee on it.

Knowing he couldn’t pass this Temptation Test saved me lots of messy clean ups, because if my dog couldn’t resist the urge to pee on one single slab of carpet in an entirely linoleum covered room, then he hadn’t Earned The Rights to carpeted rooms.

If your dog has the same kind of problem, this is the point where you want to train him that if he has to go, there is an EASIER and more rewarding way to go to the bathroom INSTEAD of peeing on the carpet.

This is the point that I like to teach people the “Jingle Bell” technique, which is a technique for teaching your dog to TELL you when he needs to go potty, and earning rewards for doing so.

If you’d like to learn more about the Jingle Bell technique, along with dozens of other potty training strategies, you can find them inside my “Hands Off” dog training course here:

Hands Off Dog Training Course

In short, just make sure your dog can pass the Tempations to pee on different objects before you expose him to a new room.

Mistake #3: Only give Partial access to new rooms

Allow dogs to lay on small sections of carpet before giving full access to new room

This technique is pretty straightforward, but ignored by many.

Too many people get their dog’s to stop pissing in one room, and then start thinking their dog is completely potty trained and ready for the whole house.

That ‘aint necissarily so

When you’ve successfully Pee Proofed the first room of your home, and your dog is passing his Temptation Tests don’t just give complete access to a 2nd room of your home.

This new room, hasn’t been lived in by your dog, and is not yet considered his.

In the case of my own dog, when he’d earn the right to gain access to a second room in our home, instead of opening up the entire room to him, I adjusted the baby gates that had previously locked him in our kitchen with , so that they allowed Bauer enough space to come lay down in the second room, but nothing more.

This meant I only allowed him to walk two or three additonal feet into this second room.

This process allows him to be further tempted by the carpeted surface I was letting him onto, as well as slowly spread his scent into that room and start to think of it as his own as well.

As I noticed him continuing to do well, I would slowly open up more and more of the room to him.  By the time he had access to the whole room, he’d already filled the room with his scent and taken ownership of it.

If you’ll follow this process, you’ll notice that each additional room your dog earns the right to live in becomes easier and easier to Pee Proof.  Just try to resist the urge to give your dog access to the whole house and you’ll find potty training a MUCH simpler process.

Additional Potty Training Tips & Recommended Reading:

If you would like to listen to learn additional tips for how to quickly potty train your dog, you should listen to the Potty Training Interview I did with expert dog trainer, Amanda Brothers.

You’ll receive a free copy of this interview when you order a copy of my Hands Off Dog Training course here:

Hands Off Dog Training Course

3 Free Potty Training Tips is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

A lot of you complained about not being able to download the .mp3 file of my last interview, so I decided to keep it simple and just use the audio player below. As long as you have flash installed on your computer you should be able to play this.

Enjoy!

Chet Womach

P.S. I will not be leaving this recording up for long… it turned out so good that I will be adding it to my “Hands Off” dog training course within the next few days. So if you’re interested in listening to it for free, don’t wait too long

And again…

Please leave your comments on what you thought of this call.

Expert Dog Potty Training Interview w/ Amanda Brothers is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog