Category : Puppy Training

Teaching Your Thief How to Retrieve

I am in a fairly new relationship.  I have never had the joys of having children of my own and so raising a puppy was always a fairly easy task for me, after all I am a professional  ha ha.  I have never dealt with someone giving the wrong commands at the wrong time, or reinforcing bad behavior, so I was dismayed the other day when my pup grabbed a piece of nasty trash and as soon as I noticed she playfully bucked and bowed and frolicked in the opposite direction.  Calling her sent her bounding in the opposite direction tossing her prize into the air and daring me to chase her.  “Ahhh” I thought, “Someone has been chasing her when she has confiscated a naughty item”.   My new family are not yet professional dog trainers!

The Grab And Chase Game has to be, hands down one of a dog’s favorite pastimes.  This interactive game requires a partner, who is often quite animated and angry and who haughtily chases the thief around and around the house.  Most often the dog is enjoying every angry moment and expletive as they spryly dance throughout owner’s legs and dash by, gaining grace and distance with every well timed movement as their owner crashes into furniture and throws themselves toward the walls and floor in an attempt to catch the robber.

Your dog is having the absolute time of his life, and because he does not have the ability to reason, he doesn’t really realize at some point he is going to slow down or give up and give you the upper hand.  This is normally when punishment arises and enters the equation.  Dogs don’t understand punishment, they go from having a great time to being toss around, yelled at, or worse kicked, beaten or abused.  Typically, no matter what the punishment and because it arises “AFTER” the deed is done it does not diminish your dogs excitement at the prospect of doing it again.

Often the item is swallowed, or ruined before the owner has the opportunity to take it from their pet and so the anger is magnified by the frustration.

So, what do you do then when Scruffy grabs your underwear and begins to dash through the house?  I use doggy psychology to my advantage.  I have two options that will work to MY advantage:

• Prevention: I make sure I NEVER leave any object out that he may get a hold of that he shouldn’t have  (I do recommend this for high priced items.  You will never see my $500 sun glasses on or near the floor) or I keep him on a leash so that I can pluck the item out right away, extinguishing the ability he has to run and be chased.   This is not always realistic.

OR

• Reward: I praise him and go get him a treat as exchange for my underpants.

Trust me the look on his face will be just as confused as the look on your faces now at reading this or on my clients faces when I recommend the same feat.  Yes!!! Praise and reward!!!  This also keeps you from playing the run and chase and frustration game.  Instead of being rewarded by the “Best Game Ever” (remember that for him chasing him and interacting with him IS a reward), he is rewarded for showing you and bringing it to you.

Reverse psychology, if you will, instead of chasing him when a bad situation arises; reward him for doing the right thing and bringing it to you.

Please, keep your expensive and dangerous things locked up so that a deadly situation does not occur.  But when faced with this situation, give up and give in and let your dog know if he has something and brings it to you instead of running there is a reward in it for him.

Won’t this “create a monster” out of your dog?  That is the most frequent question I get after the look of shock and horror goes away.  People are afraid that this will create a criminal and reward bad behavior.  Yes, to some degree you will watch the behavior escalate but if you know some key learning and behavior principles you can get the behavior you want.

At first, you will see your dog grabbing objects and bringing them to you for reward.  Just this morning my puppy spit a dime at me while I was getting my soon to be step-son ready for school, and yes I rewarded her for it.  Once she begins to realize that the game is bringing me the object, then I can determine if I like the behavior or not.

Personally, I like dogs that retrieve.  I have raised, trained and work with Service Dogs for people with disabilities for most of my career and I like having a dog that picks up the things I drop, heaven forbid I have to bend over and pick something up!  It is a skill I relish in and enjoy.  My dogs can retrieve anything from as small as a paper clip to as large as an over turned wheel-chair.

Once the behavior is consistent, (no more dart and dash) I either choose to continue to reinforce it with praise and rewards and then ask for it on command, or I never reward the behavior again and wait for the behavior to extinguish.

You see, dogs are just as shallow as we humans are if at first they are paid for a behavior but then never receive payment for that behavior again, they refuse to show it anymore.  Imagine your job decided to quit paying you, with no payout you would probably never go back there again.  However, if they increase your pay, reward you with onsite education, frequent bonuses and treat you with kindness and praise, you will probably be a happy employee for life.

If you don’t want to see this behavior continue, never reward it with anything but half-hearted praise again.  You will quickly see a decline in the thieving.

If you are like me, lazy, and like to have a dog around that retrieves on command then give it a command and start requiring more and more until you have a polished retrieve (more on this later).

Your dog is simple; even negative emotions and behavior elicited from you can be rewarding.  Use the knowledge of reverse psychology to your benefit.  It is a lot easier than chasing your dog out of frustration!

Dog Training Tips

Do you have a puppy that requires training? It can be highly fascinating to have a puppy at home. It will bring a lot of fun into the family and it will serve as a great stress reliever for the entire family. If you want your puppy to be molded in to a disciplined dog, you need to train your puppy well.

Here are some puppy training tips that you can use. First of all do not start your training too early. There are varied opinions about the right age for starting your puppy training.

One of the mostly agreed views is that you should not start your puppy training until your puppy is 3 months old. If you wait for too long before you started your puppy potty training, then it will be difficult to unlearn some of the habits your puppy would have already learned.

When it comes to dog training always remember that it is much easier to train your puppy on new habits rather than making them unlearn some of the habits they have already learned. That is why the age of the dog or puppy is a crucial factor for dog training.

When your puppy is still young, it would not have learned too many bad habits and even if they have a few bad habits, they would not have been reinforced strongly.

On the other hand if your dog grows up with bad habits for several years, then you will have tough time to get rid of those habits.

The next important factor that you should remember is that you should give your puppy or dog enough time to assimilate the new training that you are giving them. Give them time to learn the proper dog obedience. Do not expect them to obey your commands from day one. They need time to associate your commands with specific actions.

Do not try to train your dogs for eight hours a day just because you are free on a particular day. Do not try to train a dog too many things on the same day. At any given point of time, you should only teach one new command or trick. Only when your puppy understands your new command or trick, you should move to the next. Never compare your puppy’s performance with your neighbors or with your friend’s dog. Each one of them is different and treat them so.

Follow through is always very important. You must always start your training each day with the tricks or commands that you have already taught your puppy and make them repeat them each day so that the new tricks and commands will become part of them. Always set the pace of your training based on your puppies abilities.

Check out this page for more tips like these and other free dog training tips check

Preparing and Dealing with Thunderstorms

This is the time of year for afternoon thunderstorms.  Many dog’s suffer from thunderstorm phobia, and sometimes it seems the older the dog gets the more severe the phobia becomes.

Because we are not dogs, we can only hypothesize how dogs feel when it storms, but for some dogs storms truly cause a panic attack.  This can actually be life threatening in some cases; because some dogs run away, break through windows and some have even been reported to jump from secondstory windows causing mutilation and even death.

Some experts hypothesize that the electrical current in the air actually has a shocking affect for some dogs.  This theory may explain why some dogs choose to lay in the bathroom, bathtub or behind the toilet because the porcelain does not conduct the shock.  Some people report success from rubbing their dogs down with dryer sheets prior to a storm.  This may help to lessen or take away the electrical stimulation.

Some say that the drop in barometric pressure and the boom of the thunder and the crack of the lightning may actually cause pain because dogs hearing is so much keener than ours.

No matter what the cause, it is essential to help our dogs to deal with this phobia or to help them never develop it.

Alleviate the Problem:

• Got a puppy or a new dog?  When the storm begins, the barometric pressure drops and the booming starts; begin playing with your pup.  If thunderstorms equal fun and games; your dog will look forward to the event rather than fearfully awaiting its arrival. I also take this time to distribute great treats and chewies that may take a long period of time to chew; rawhides, bully sticks, and all kinds of edible bones and toys can be used to keep your dog’s mine off the impending storm.  I also crank up the radio and blast out some tunes in order to keep the sound from being overwhelming.  Any event that can be perceived as scary, should be turned toward fun and exciting.
• On the evening of the fourth of July I often play outside games and do scent work around the neighborhood so that the sounds are not overpowering they become the background to the fun that they are experiencing.

Dealing with the Problem Once it arises:

Even though I spent hours and years desensitizing my dogs to storms after one of my dog’s ear drums rupture he has experienced some noise phobia since and my oldest has watched him in his fervor and developed some of the same problems; so I know it can happen to anyone.

Desensitization

• This is the first thing to try and although it takes time it is often very effective.  Start with whatever stimulus first elicits signs of nervousness.  Pair the drop in pressure or the darkening of skies with treats, games and praise. Your goal is for your dog to emotionally respond to thunder as a predictor of something good.  You need to make the first signs of the storm induce happiness and relaxation.  If you have been working hard on getting eye contact and focus, you can also use this to help calm your dog before and during a storm.  Give him a command that he can be successful at achieving which will give him something else to think about.  Run through his tricks or commands, take him out before the storm and play ball and make this time fun for him.

Give Him a Safe Haven

• Designate an enclosed area for him to get away from the storm; a closet, in the bathroom, in his crate or wherever he might feel comfortable and add your tricks for desensitization here while the storms rage.  Crank some tunes and try to preoccupy him from thinking about the storm and hopefully the next time the storm begins he will rush to his safe haven to find comfort.
• Acupressure and Acupuncture has even been reported to help and be an effective tool for dogs with thunderstorm phobias.  Contact your local veterinarian to find a vet that provides Acupuncture.

Noise Therapy

• There are CDs you can use that mimic the sounds of thunderstorms and you can use them to help with your program of desensitization.  Start by playing the CD on low and then slowly increase the sound as your dog is more successful.
• Leeds and Wagner have developed music specifically designed to calm dogs. Their work is based on solid biological principles. You can read more about it, and get a CD or download the music by googling Through a Dog’s Ear.

Medications

• Homeopathic remedies, pheromone plug ins, flower essences and melatonin have been used and success has been shown.  A book called “The Big Bang” by Claudeen McAuliffe offers even more suggestions and tips on helping your dog with his phobia.
• Last but not least is prescription medications; if all else fails or you are not seeing victory quickly enough, talk to your veterinarian.  Thunderstorm phobia is so severe in some dogs that drugs have been specially designed to help them deal with storms.  Sometimes this is the best option for people who have to work during critical storm hours.  Often medications are only successful with desensitization and behavior modification.
  

  Is Your Dog Scared of Storms?

Thunderstorm phobia can be horrifying for your pet, but with some time, effort and dedication you can give your dog the tools needed to deal with his fears!

Learing To Be Firm But Gentle With Your Dog

All of us love our pets and most of us consider dog as one of our family members. This makes us difficult for many of us to train our dogs. So we let them do whatever they like and our puppies turn out to be naughty rogues and sometimes even unruly.

When they turnout to be unruly dogs, we will have no other go but to send them away to pet orphanage or to some other similar place. If only you knew how to train your puppy or your dog, it would not have gone to that extent of sending away your dog.

When it comes to dog training many of us think that we need to be tough with our dogs or puppies to make them obey to their masters. So many of us think that we cannot be tough with our dogs and thereby we fail to train them properly. Some of us even end up being tough with our puppies wanting them to be a well disciplined dog. These are extremes and both approaches will hurt your puppies one way or the other.

So what it takes to train your dog or puppy well is a firm but a gentle master. When you engage in dog training or puppy training, you must learn to be firm but gentle with them and just not tough. Dogs are very sensitive animals and they can easily sense when you are angry. This can make your dogs sulk and withdraw leading to behavioral problems.

Before you set out to train your dog or puppy for puppy house training or puppy potty training, you will need to find a good dog training program or dog training courses. You need to first be well equipped before you take the trainer’s seat.

Do Your Homework On What’s Available!

Don’t choose your dog training course randomly, before you buy your dog training course review them closely and make sure that it is a suitable course for training your puppy because poor choice of dog training course can hurt your puppy. You can even turn a healthy puppy into a rogue dog through inappropriate training.

Your dog or puppy will take some time before it understands your commands. So until then you need to be firm with your dog without being tough. It requires a lot of patience too to train dogs. By finding the right dog training course you will be able to accomplish things fast.

Good dog training courses will be developed based on sound dog psychology. Only such dog training courses will be effective. So it is your responsibility to pick to dog training course. You cannot blame your dog later for your poor choice of dog training course and your faulty approach to dog training.

Check Out Our Hands Off Dog Training Course Today!

PBS Series: “Through a dog’s eyes”

Coming to PBS on April 21, watch this heartwarming series on the impact that service dogs have made on the lives of those they serve.

Video: Through a dog’s eyes

By Daniela Caride, Publisher, www.thedailytail.com

The PBS series “Through a Dog’s Eyes” will surely be wonderful. With premier scheduled for April 21 at 8 p.m. E.T., the series follows the journey of service dogs and the people whose lives they change.

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Misconceptions about Shelter Dogs

While many people want to purchase a new puppy from a good breeder, there is an alternative for those who don’t want to fork out the big bucks just to get a great pet.  Consider a shelter dog.  Many of these dogs are just waiting for someone like you to come along and rescue them, and they are more than ready, willing, and eager to provide you all the love and companionship you could possibly want!

Common Misconceptions about Shelter Dogs

by RenewTrients March 15, 2010 10:25 am

Indoor Doggy Games

I live in Southern Georgia, most people move to the South to avoid the dramas of the weather known to our cohorts to the North.  Being from Wyoming, I know the joys and horrors of winter and most of the time I joke that we don’t even have seasons here in the South it is just one extended summer.  However, much to my chagrin we have had a winter this year.  My pipes have frozen, and I have had to scrape my windows more than a dozen times (after 3 years I had to buy a window scraper).

The whole country it seems has been experiencing a winter of record, so I thought while we are all cooped up inside we should discuss some of my favorite foul weather games to pass the time until spring comes and we can get outdoors and get the exercise we are all in need of!

Dogs need mental stimulation, without it they begin to choose naughty behavior and get into trouble.  Our dogs cannot watch television, they can’t read books or do any of the things we usually enjoy when exercise outside is not an option.  However, they still have the same amount of pent up energy building up day by day and they need a way to expel it.

The easiest way to entertain your dog is to give him something exciting to chew.  Chewing is a minimal form or exercise and mental stimulation for your dog.  Often, if we don’t provide an appropriate chewy, our dogs will begin chewing things that they shouldn’t put their mouths on.  Chewing gives them something to do.

I also like to play indoor games with my dogs when the weather is bad, or when their energy level is driving me crazy and I can’t take them outside for some physical exercise.  The whole point of playing games with your dog is for both of you to enjoy yourselves!  Pick games or invent games that you will both enjoy.

I love to play hide and seek with my dogs!!  Hide and seek not only builds a bond, it also teaches your dog to find you utilizing his other senses; his sense of smell and his sense of sound.  I want my dog to know how to find me using all his senses just in case there is ever an emergency.  Instead of panic at being lost, by playing this game, I have given my dog the tools to find me and he thinks he is playing his favorite game.  This is also a great way to teach your dog that the word “COME” is the most exciting and fun word he can hear.

• I often use a helper (or you have to tell your dog to stay), this is great for kids, and one person holds the dog’s collar while the other person dashes off and hides.
• Both people should stuff their pockets with great treats.  As soon as the person finds a fun hiding spot they should call the dog and encourage him with every step “Rover, Come…good boy, come, good boy, good boy, good boy COME!”  this excitement and encouragement gives him the motivation to find you.
• When he finds you, praise him and give him a treat while person #2 dashes off to hide.
• Repeat this process.  In the beginning, I like to hide in easy spots, like just in the next room, as play continues I enjoy hiding in funny places like in the bathtub, under the table or in his crate.  The one rule, have fun and enjoy, your dog has a sense of humor, make him laugh!

I also like to hide my dog’s toys and teach him to find them.  Find your dog’s favorite toy, first I like to wave it around in front of him to get him excited.  Next I hide it in an easy spot, beside me or behind me and tell him to find it.  Praise him and you can even give him a treat when he finds his toy.  Next try hiding the toy in a more precarious but semi-easy place.  You may have to use a helper or tell your dog to stay as you hide his toy.

• During this stage I hide the toy so it just sticks out and is barely visible.  Once he has mastered this process begin to hide the toy better so that he cannot see it.  Tell him to find it.  You may have to follow behind or walk past the toy to help him at first.  Don’t show him where it is, just stand near and encourage him to look or sniff for it.  The next step is to hide the toy on all different levels in your home.
• Don’t just hide the toy on the floor or in one room, also utilize higher surfaces like book shelves or chairs, next move it even higher and perhaps even out of his reach.  Challenge his brain so that he never knows where his toy might be.  Sometimes, I even hide it in my pocket or in other silly places.  Have a good time, mix it up and enjoy bonding.
• The next and final stage is to use a specific name for specific toys.  This gives you the option to hide 2 toys at once and ask for him to bring you one.  I like this game because I can hide a few toys and sit and watch TV while he has to go and find them!

There are many things to do inside to entertain yourself and your four legged friend when the weather is bad!  Teach your dog  a trick!  Let me know what trick you would like to teach your dog!!

Don’t let the weather get you down, grab your best friend and play some games, if you do this you will build a bond that lasts a lifetime!

Newspaper Puppy

This puppy owner thinks they have it all covered, but maybe this little guy has other ideas!

Does Crate Training Work?

Crate training your dog is an important decision.   Does it really work?   The truth is that for most dogs, the crate provides a secure area where they feel safe and protected.   Crate training is also a great method to lead your pet right into house 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.

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Helping Your Dog Live a Long and Healthy Life

Since our beloved dogs become such a big part of our families, we want them to live as long as they possibly can.  Find out more about how you can help.

How to Help Your Dog Live a Healthy and Long Life

by Brenda Nelson, www.factoidz.com

Although we know that our beloved dog will probably die before we do, there are many things an owner can do to help their dog live a longer life.

Dog Selection

Right from the start, the dog you buy, and the place you buy it from, can have a huge impact on how long it will live.  Pups sold in pet stores come from mass breeders, places who only breed for profit.  As such these pups may typically have genetic health problems or predispositions to some problems.  Of course, most owners know that small dogs live longer than big ones, and most pets stores sell only small breed pups.

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