Useful Training Techniques For A Well-Behaved Dog

Training a dog may be one of the most rewarding experiences a pet owner can have. To see their dog sit, stay, and roll over on command is a thing of wonder. However, this sort of obedience and training doesn't happen overnight. Here are some tips to help you get your dog doing tricks.

As with anything, reinforce the good behaviors from your dog. Make sure that you have treats handy, or just use lots of praise for actions that are good. This will teach your dog to try and get a treat, or your praise and reinforce to them that what they just did was something you want them to keep doing.

Verbal cues are very important to make sure that your dog is under your command. The word "yes" may serve as a good gap-filler in between the dog's good behavior and the giving of the reward.

Most dogs respond better to positive reinforcement rather than negative punishment. If you're trying to train your dog, reward him for good behavior and only scold him if absolutely necessary. Your dog will remember the reward for good behavior more distinctly than the punishment for bad behavior, making rewarding more effective.

The best way to prevent your dog from barking excessively, is to make him more comfortable with whatever it is he barks at so frequently. Dogs bark at anything that scares of threatens them, so if you show your dog that the object of their fear is nothing to be afraid of, he'll stop barking.

You should make sure to eat your own meal first before feeding your dog. This shows your dog that you are leader of the pack and helps establish your dominance. Your dog will be much more likely to follow your other commands if he or she knows that you are the boss because you eat first.

To train a dog how to act around people and guests in your home, it is crucial that the dog is socialized with other people. This contact with people, especially people who are new to your dog, will allow you to train the dog on how he should react. This is very useful to the training process.

When you train your dog it is important to reinforce every example of behavior you want to encourage. Whenever your pet behaves according to your wishes it should be rewarded. This will prevent your dog from becoming confused and establish positive reinforcement associations. Behavior that is rewarded is behavior that will be repeated and eventually become habitual.

It is vital that the dog's leash remain loose when you are trying to train it to walk on a leash. This gives your dog the option to explore and walk around freely. Their eagerness will cause the leash to be strained. Some owners do not encourage this behavior and instead, allow some slack on the leash.

By being consistent in toilet training, you dog will learn to wait until he is outside to relieve himself. If you are home, spend time everyday with your puppy, and take him out every hour or so. When the dog eliminates outside, offer it praise. Do not scold the dog if he relieves himself inside the house. He is not yet aware that this is wrong and he is going to learn if you just yell at him. Instead, give the pet every chance to succeed by taking it outside as soon as you remove it from the crate and roughly 15 minutes after it eats or drinks.

Dogs can be spoiled just like children. While rewards are definitely necessary to keep your dog on the right path, too many rewards can lead your dog to expect them! Your dog should be treated for challenging tasks, or performing tasks he knows under exceptional circumstances. Making him work for his grub encourages him to stay on his toes.

When training your dog, avoid overlong training sessions by training your dog in several smaller sessions spaced throughout the day. By scattering your training at different times throughout the day your dog will learn to listen to you whenever and wherever you are.

Listen to professional advice. If you adopt a dog from a shelter or a rescue organization, listen to their advice. More often than not, they will have spent a lot of time with the dog, and will know the best method to train him. Some shelter dogs are very skittish, and require extra care when trying to train them, especially if they have been previously mistreated.

By way of conclusion, the rewarding feeling of teaching a dog to obey your commands is blissful. To watch them do what you say can bring a smile to your face. If you practice, and have the right advice, it actually can be rather simple to train them. This article offered plenty of advice to help.

Train Your Pooch By Following This Advice.

A cute puppy can melt anyone's heart. If you've started considering getting one, congratulations! A well trained dog is crucial for having a successful relationship. When your pet knows what is expected and behaves as such, it is much easier for you to accept him and show your love. The following article offers several tips to help you effectively train your dog.

There are many different approaches that can be used to crate train a new puppy. If your puppy seems reluctant about entering the crate, place a chew toy inside and close the door to the kennel. Your dog will get excited at the prospect of the treat and soon be eager to enter the crate. Once they go in the crate, praise them so that they know they did well.

Ask yourself how your dog is seeing things. You need to exercise patience with your pet, even if you think he should be learning at a faster rate. Understand your dogs position, to reduce any tension that you may have towards them. Imagining things as they see things may give you a different perspective in training them.

Sometimes it may be necessary to physically establish yourself as the Alpha in the pack. If your animal is being aggressive to another animal or a person, hold them by the scruff of the neck and put them in a prone position on the ground firmly, not violently. This lets your dog know you are in charge and exhibits behavior they would expect from another dog.

If you cannot calmly work with your pet, it is best to put training aside until you have composed your mood. Your dog does not understand bad moods. Confusion can set in with your dog if you become frustrated in trying to work on basics. Patience and kindness are key factors in a dominant leader.

Young dogs can easily be trained to retreat to their crate when they are tired. When crate training your dog, always keep the crate in the vicinity of where you and the dog are interacting. When he tires from play he will naturally gravitate towards the crate because to do so doesn't isolate him from you.

When you are working on commands with your dog, work only on one command at a time, and only say the command one time. Do not say the command word more than once. Your goal is for your dog to obey the command immediately. You don't want to have to say the same thing over and over.

To keep your dog from barking while you aren't home, you need to make him think you can appear at any moment. This will take some time on your part. Pretend to leave the house, but stay outside until the barking starts. Then open the door and deliver a stern "No!" This will make your dog think you are all-seeing and all-hearing. A few sessions of this technique, and you'll train your dog to keep it quiet.

Producing good dog training involves patience, encouragement and a good reward system. What you need to do is establish a quality reward system for when they are doing the right things. Supplementing positive behavior with treats is a great way to start, and after some time you can train them with a different reward system such as compliments and affection. The main thing to focus on is encouraging them to do the right thing.

Encourage your dog's cooperation in training by rewarding good behavior. Dogs respond to a calm, confident leader who earns respect. When your dog responds to commands make sure you reward him with play or food, and make sure you reward easy commands as well as harder ones to build his confidence.

Make sure you are feeding your dog high-quality food. Behavior problems are often caused by a poor diet. High-quality dog food has human-grade ingredients and an expiration date. Making sure your dog eats plenty of protein and avoid giving him "junk" food from the table. A well-fed dog is a happy, obedient dog.

To teach your dog to go outside, you should keep a very close supervision on it for a few weeks. Every couple of hours, take your dog outside to the area that you would like to see it use. Wait until your dog is done, and reward it. If your dog does not go, take it back inside the house and try again later.

You should have discovered some dog training techniques here that you might not have known about. Use the information that is right for you. As time progresses, you will develop a love for your faithful friend. Training is an important part of your dog's life. The importance of having a trained dog simply cannot be overstated. Best of luck to your and your beloved dog -- or dogs.

How to Handle Dog with Serious Food Guarding Issues

 Food-Guarding Issues

How to Handle Dog with Serious Food Guarding Issues - If you've never seen a dog with serious food-guarding issues, it's difficult to appreciate the potential severity of the problem.

Food-guarding issues are not necessarily a reflection on the personality or training level of the dog: it's an instinctive thing, and although dogs with a general aggression problem are naturally more prone to demonstrating the condition, it's also exhibited by otherwise-sweet, well-behaved, well-adjusted family dogs. Like an evil djinn, the problem can rear its ugly head only when food (or the food bowl) is present: a real case of Jekyll and Hyde.

A dog with serious food-guarding issues can be a real danger to anyone who should approach her during a meal: it's not a scenario in which you can expect to train your dog to "play nice". Instinct is what's compelling her to act in this undesirable, and even dangerous, way - you need to take steps to turn the behavior around before your relationship with your dog suffers or somebody gets hurt.

There are different degrees of food guarding. In the mildest case, a dog will merely tense up a little or freeze if somebody approaches her while she's trying to eat. She may even continue eating, but her posture will be rigid and stiff: she'll clearly be uncomfortable.

Signs that the problem is more severe would include a marked increase in eating speed, a direct, hard stare right at you (often accompanied by a still, tense, "watching" posture), a lifted lip, a snarl, a snap, and finally a real bite.

NOTE: A dog exhibiting any of these last three symptoms has a pretty severe case of food-guarding aggression, and may be prepared to inflict actual harm. If this is the case with your dog, hiring a hands-on trainer may be the best answer for you: it'll ensure your safety, and they'll be able to examine your overall relationship with your dog and see if there are other areas contributing to the problem.

A food-guarding dog is a pretty confused one. In her mind, she's got your role mixed up. She fails to recognize that you are the dispenser of food (which should accord you automatic alpha-dog status, ensuring your immunity from any kind of aggression or dominance), and instead is viewing you as a threat: a blackguard who might be going to take away her precious food. Hence, the possessiveness.

The degree of aggression that a food-guarding dog is capable of might be hard to understand, until you consider the fact that food is one of the greatest pleasures of your dog's life. Dogs are scavengers by nature: they're programmed to eat just about anything they can get their jaws around. As well as the instinctiveness of this gluttony, most dogs also simply enjoy the tactile and gustatory sensations that come with a good meal (or an indifferent one .. and sometimes even a bad one). They just … like to eat.

And it's this overwhelming importance that's placed on food that gets some dogs a bit mixed up: their grasp of the situation gets a bit thrown off, and they begin to wonder, miser-like, who might happen upon them and take away their cherished food. The obvious conclusion: you. Or anyone else who comes along at meal-time.

To cure her of this frustrating and antisocial habit, you need to remind her that you're actually the purveyor of that which she holds so dear: to make it clear to her that you're the one in charge of the kitchen, and of all the delightful morsels contained therein. Dogs can develop food-guarding instincts at any point in their lives: some will have had the problem since puppyhood, but for others the tendency lies dormant until it's awakened by an item of particular juiciness.

For most dogs, the deciding factor is meat, in some shape or form - whether it's a marrowbone, a mutton hock, or cast-off scraps from the dinner table. Meat to dogs is like money to humans: it can change them, make them do things they otherwise wouldn't do. So it's not entirely surprising that the intrinsic value of meat-related foodstuffs can give our dogs a new, unpleasantly skewed perspective on the sanctity of the food-bowl.

Because of the possibility of food-guarding becoming an issue in your dog's behavior at any point in her life, prevention is obviously the ideal path to take: whether you get your dog from puppyhood or adopt her as an adult from a shelter, you should make a point of approaching her during mealtime.

Have you ever heard a friend with dogs ask you to "leave her alone when she's eating"? This is a short-term solution at most: it'll prevent anything untoward from happening, provided that all the humans play by the rules and ensure that they don't disturb the dog - but the dog is still the one calling all the shots.

And what will happen if the unexpected occurs? What if a toddler charges full-tilt towards the dog and makes a playful grab for her bowl?

In a wolf-pack, the alpha dog is never disturbed when he or she is eating. Not only does she get to eat first, and eat the lion's share of everything; but he or she also eats undisturbed. This is why a dog that's permitted to eat in solitary splendor can actually become more food-aggressive, not less; without anyone to take her down a notch, she begins to assume more authority than she actually has.

To prevent your dog from getting an overinflated sense of her own importance, make sure you disturb her plenty while she's eating. Don't make a point of tiptoeing around whenever the food bowl's out; it'll just accustom her to solitude and silence when she eats (which are things that only the alpha wolf or dog is entitled to).

At the other end of the spectrum, don't make these disturbances a negative experience for her either, or else you may actually create a problem where none previously existed. All you have to do is approach her from time to time while she eats - starting from the very day you bring her into your home - and add something tasty (and small!) to her dish while she's eating, to make the connection in her head that 'humans approaching food bowl = good news'. A spoonful of scrambled egg, a piece of liver treat, a few chunks of cheese - anything that she'll enjoy, and that has a greater "food value" than the kibble she's eating, will work perfectly.

Of course, if it's too late for preventatives and your dog already has a problem, you'll need to adopt a very different approach. Here's what to do:

- The dog bowl is going to be put away for the next seven to ten days. Over this time, you're going to be feeding your dog by hand - one small handful at a time. Yes, I know this is going to be time-consuming, but the alternative is even worse: a dangerous dog that can't be trusted around food. So feed her by hand for the next week or so. Be sure not to encourage any greedy snapping or grabbing for the food: only allow her to take the food from your hand when she does so gently. Remind her that bite inhibition is necessary to get what she wants!

- Once at least a week has passed and she's eating politely from your hand, you can reintroduce the food bowl, with one slight modification: it has to be empty. And it stays empty until you pass by and drop a small handful of kibble into it for her to eat. When that's been polished off, wait at least a full minute before adding another, small, handful of kibble. Keep doing this until the entire meal's been consumed - this is a very effective way of teaching your dog to actively long for your presence near her food bowl!

- When she's graduated to the next stage, you can start setting down a half-empty food bowl for her. Don't let her lunge at the bowl and start gobbling: holding the bowl out of reach (or placing it on a handy counter), make her sit and wait before you allow her to eat. Don't put the bowl down until she complies. Sit or crouch beside the bowl and continue to add small handfuls of kibble, just as you did in step two, until a full meal's been eaten.

- The fourth, and final, step is to allow her access to a full food bowl. Again, it's very important that you do not allow her to call the shots: she must sit and wait until you release her with an "OK!" before she's permitted to eat.

To keep the message clear in your head that you are in charge of the food in this house, practice calling her away from her food a few times a week and rewarding her with a super-tasty treat for her exemplary obedience while she's trying to eat.

If at any time your dog's behavior gets shaky on any of these four steps, backslide until you've reached the stage at which she is 100% reliable. Wait at this stage for at least two or three more days before attempting to progress once more. As with any training, it's essential that a solid foundation is built before moving on to the next level - she must be completely comfortable with each step before trying a new one.

Further Reading

For detailed, in-depth information on canine behavioral problems (both preventing and dealing with them) take a look at Secrets to Dog Training. It's the complete handbook for responsible dog owners, and is packed with valuable advice and step-by-step how-to's for dog training. You can visit Secrets to Dog Training by clicking on the link below: