How To Train My Dog

Choosing a dog breed can be difficult when you are not sure what kind of dog you want to get. Every household is different. What might work for some, may not work for others. It’s important to ask yourself a few questions before you decide on one.

What about the size of the dog? In most cases (although not always), the bigger the dog, the more room its going to need. So if you have a small home or apartment, there may not be enough room for the dog to roam around. Although small dogs are more perfectly suited for the smaller home.

Shedding -Let’s face facts. Shedding is something you are going to have to deal with no matter what dog you choose. Obviously certain dogs will shed more than others. But you have to be prepared for it. If you are going to get a sheepdog or a golden retriever, you better the get broom prepared, because you are going to be using it everyday.

Suitable for Children - Certain dogs just have a natural chemistry with children. It’s important that you pick a breed that is very sociable and easy to get along with.

Living With Other Pets - If you’ve already got some other pets in your home, like a cat or even another dog, then you are going to want to choose a dog breed that will naturally co-exist well with other animals.

High strung or Lounge Lizard - Different dogs have different energy levels. Depending on what you are looking for, you will have to decide what works best for you. Do you want an active dog that has a lot of energy or do you want a dog, that likes to lounge around and is good at keeping you company.

How much can you afford to pay? - Purebreds are not cheap, and you better be prepared to pay top dollar. Obviously the more common the breed, the less expensive it’s going to be. For example labs will be cheaper than Great Danes, because there are more dog owners breeding them.

Many dog owners don’t really know how to groom their dogs. But its something that everybody should learn. It’s also not just for the beauty purposes either.

For new dog owners, proper grooming is essential to keeping dogs happy and healthy. But, different breeds require varying levels of care, from weekly appointments with professional groomers, to lower maintenance breeds who merely require a periodic rinsing in the family’s bathtub.

A good course on grooming dogs should have content on how to care for your dog’s hair and coat. They should offer proper teaching about how to use easy techniques that can help you treat your dog like a king or queen. But professionals can always do it best.

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Bathing Your Dog

Here are some tips when bathing your dog.

A small, short-haired dog is pretty easy to wash. You could use anything from your sink to the bathtub, However when using a bathtub your back will be under the stress of prolonged bending. When using a tub consider using a hose type shower extension.

Sometimes you will need two people to take on the job of washing a larger or long-haired canine. You can best accomplish the task by using either your bathtub or, weather permitting, your yard outside.

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Dogs need to learn that walking on a leash means no pulling. Once you teach this, the leash is a great way to help set boundaries for your pet, because you are in charge and make the decisions on where you both go. Dogs off the leash and thinking for themselves won’t respect your authority. Running free, a dog can suddenly take off after another dog, a child, run into the street, or just run away.

When you walk your dog using a leash, you are able to control your dog to a certain extent. The dog may still try to attack another animal, but you are able to pull him away easily.

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Image by frogarythm via Flickr

Sure, most dogs like to fetch! But on occasion, you will get a dog that looks doesn’t have any idea what his part of the deal is. You’ll grab a tennis ball, go outside, throw the ball, and the dog will stare at you, as if to say “are you expecting me to do something?”

If this is your dog, don’t worry, there are some things that you can do.

You can begin with doing the old bait and switch. Grab two identical things that the dog likes to play with. For this example, lets say two tennis balls.

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Here is just a basic outline of what you should expect to do when you are trying to teach obedience for dogs. First, it is important that your obedience training sessions be short. Your dog will be bored and you’ll be bored if you try to make the sessions too long, and not much will be accomplished. Making the training part of your routine will keep the training meaningful to your dog. As you’re moving around your home and your puppy is following along, make sure they have something to do, as well. Read more »

Many dog owners have a difficult time trying to keep their dogs from jumping on top of them. This could even be frightful for dog owners who have children. This is a usual occurrence whenever somebody has been away all day and when they finally get home, the dog is so overjoyed to see the person, that he jumps on top of them relentlessly. So what can we do to stop dog jumping?

First off, don’t make it a big deal about you coming home. You shouldn’t have to greet the dog until you have finished greeting the other members of your family-household. The dog should have to wait a good 10-15 minutes before you greet him. If the dog is being persistent and uncontrollable, squirt him with a small toy water pistol. It should rattle him into calming down, at least for the time being.

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Clicker Dog Training is a great way to train your dog without having to make any kind of physical corrections. There is no pulling on the leash or moving the dog around, somehow hoping that the dog understands your commands because your are using brute force.

The clicker itself, looks like a simple plastic toy. There really isn’t much to it. It contains a metal strip which, makes the “clicking” sound.

The premise behind the clicker is basically to act like a translator between the dog and you. Its a way that we can signal the dog into performing a certain behavior. The more the dog does it, the more it shapes his behavior.

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I know there is nothing worse than seeing your dog in pain, but sometimes its really hard to tell. It’s not like the dog is going to run up to you and to tell you, so you are going to have to be a little more focused and pay attention to the warning signs.

What makes it really difficult is that most pains that dogs have, aren’t sharp, stinging pains that will make him cry. The majority are slow, nagging pains.

The best way to compare it is, if you look at a human. Humans get all kinds of nagging pains. They get arthritis, headaches, backaches, earaches, etc… Now, by looking at a person, could you tell if they had any of those problems? Probably not, unless it was really severe. I wouldn’t presume to know how you can spot somebody having a headache

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If by chance your dog has never whined in the past and all the sudden he starts you need to not punish him, instead you have to start looking for the root of the problem. Dogs whine for several reasons; feelings of being abandoned by his or her pack, a sign to show that he may be upset, scared or in pain. This is how dogs communicate with you that there is something wrong. It is very important that watch for these cues that your dog is giving you, so you have to pay attention to what he is trying to tell you. If you can not find the problem then you should go to the vet right away.

Dogs often whine when they’re afraid or when they feel abandoned. The whine is their signal that they need to be rescued. If you try to punish a dog for whining, chances are it won’t work and will only make the problem worsen. This is where training comes into play - learning how to respond appropriately to your dog’s fears and anxiety is much more effective at curbing the whining than using punishment.

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I know that watching your dog eat poop is pretty disgusting, but usually there are some valid reasons why the dog is doing that, and its usually a cry for help.

To begin with, you may be feeding your dog an insufficient amount of nutrients or just feeding him food that is completely inappropriate. Due to the poor food he has been eating, the dog is compelled to eat more to satisfy the body’s cravings for its lacking nutrients. The stool samples smell quite similar to what the dog has been eating, so he attempts to consume it again.

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Hmm…. Dogs eating grass. I would love to give you the reason why they do it and more importantly how to get them to stop. It is kind of a mystery to most people. But let’s be honest, dogs aren’t really picky eaters. They’ll pretty much put anything in their mouths.

As long as you don’t have any pesticides in your grass, it really isn’t that unhealthy, and something you should be really concerned with. But lets examine the reasons why some dogs eat grass.

I know this may sound funny but some dogs actually like the taste of grass. Weird, but true. Remember out in the wild, dogs are scavengers that eat both meat and plants, so its really not that unnatural.

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To stop dog licking, you are going to have to get to the root of the problem. It’s usually one of two things. It’s either a medical problem or a behavioral problem.

If its a medical problem, it’s usually due to the fact that the dog may have some allergies. This could be caused by where the dog sleeps, the kind of soap that you use when you bathe him, or some kind of odor in your home that he is not reacting well to.

Go take him to the vet to have the dog checked and see if its based on a medical problem such as an allergy. If that is the case, the vet will prescribe something for the dog and that should take care of that problem.

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Dog separation anxiety can be really heartbreaking to watch. As you may have noticed, if you’ve had a dog for a while, that dogs don’t really have the best sense of time. This is especially true if you have a dog that suffers from separation anxiety. It doesn’t matter if you are walking to the mailbox or going to work. To the dog, 5 minutes or 8 hours feels the same to him.

He is scared that you left him all alone, and he gets stressed out about it.

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I know there are a lot of readers of my blog that have children and I just wanted to go over some things that all children should know about dogs. So, here is just some basic dog training information for those people that have kids which might encounter new dogs. I know that some of this may seem like common sense, but I always want to make sure I am covering my bases.

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In this post, I just want to go over a couple of dog training tips that many people forget about, but it should be really important to you, and of course your dog.

The first one is you could never have too much ID for your dog.

At the beginning of your dog training, lets face it, your dog is going to have his moments. Something is going to grab his attention, and while your looking the other way, he’ll take off on you. He might have seen a squirrel he wanted to chase after or something else that caught his eye, It doesn’t matter. The point is you have to be prepared for that.

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Bringing a new dog home will bring in new routines and schedules which are very important and will help to reinforce what is expected of him. You are also going to want to dog-proof your house, remember dogs love to chew on things, so if there is anything you do not want chewed on, you should put them away or off of the ground so he can not get to them.

When your new dog comes home for the first time, put him on a leash and let him get used to the smells of the grass to take a pee. Select a certain place on the grass and train him to use only that spot when he needs to go. Patience is important; it may take up to 15 minutes for him to do it but when he does, make sure you give him plenty of praise so he will continue to use that spot only.

Your next step is to take the dog inside the house while on the leash, walk around with him until he attempts to go take a pee. If and when he does lift his leg, yank on the leash and release it right away while giving him a very stern “NO”. Take him immediately outside and let him go on the designated area. As soon as he has relieved himself in the correct place, reward him with a treat.

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Every year, huge numbers of dogs arrive at animal shelters for refuge only to be put down when they show aggressive behavior towards people. Unfortunately, this behavior can become fatal when an adult or a child suffers a painful vicious attack. Immediately correct your aggressive dog’s behavior at the first warning signs rather than waiting for some of the threatening behavior begins to escalate before you act upon it.

First, you need to understand how to judge your dog’s aggressive behavior, especially if you own certain breeds which are known to be more on the aggressive side. Aggressive dogs seem to have an attitude and bark excessively, growl, snarl, they show their teeth, and like to lunge against a leash or barrier. Aggressive dogs are almost always territorial and will do their best effort to intimidate people by herding them into a corner or out of a door.

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Puppies are just generally curious. They obviously don’t have the ability to grasp things with their hands, as we humans do, so they have to use their mouths to cure the curious intentions. This is what they use to explore their surrounding environment. Obviously, when they do that, they also take little bites.

Normally a puppy knows to stop biting when he is surrounded by other puppies. What usually happens is the puppies will play around as they tend to do. They’ll wrestle, bark, and yes, bite. But what happens is, when one puppy bites a little too hard on another puppy. The other puppy will let out a big cry. Automatically the biter knows that he is biting down too hard, and he begins to realize the power of his teeth. However, if you’ve got a puppy alone in a house with not other dogs, he’s gonna be practicing his biting on you. That’s when its your job to stop puppy biting.

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Crate Training can be one of the best ways to train a puppy. It teaches him about what can and can’t be done inside the home. But there are some things you have to know first before you decide to crate train your puppy.

First things first, make sure the puppy does not have too much room. It shouldn’t be tight in there, but the puppy shouldn’t have enough room to completely eliminate one end of the crate and stay on the other side. Choose a crate that has enough room for the puppy to be able to lie down as well as the ability to turn around. That’s more than sufficient.

Also DO NOT use any kind of harnesses when the puppy is in the crate. This means no collars or leashes. That only comes on when he is out of the crate.

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There are so many people that let their dogs walk all over them. As the owner of the dog YOU have to be his leader. Remember that dogs have a pack mentality. They will always follow the leader. If you don’t take that job, the dog (even unwillingly) will take that responsibility from you. So instead of giving you some dog, here are some dog trainer training tips for you.

Now, obviously some breeds of dogs are naturally more dominant, while others are naturally more submissive. It doesn’t matter what kind of dog you have. If they don’t have leadership, they will become an alpha dog.

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It is basically the essential “get your dog in control” command. It is good for just about anything, Start off with this important command first before you move onto anything else.

But of course, just saying it isn’t going to mean a whole lot. You are going to have to express it in a firm tone and manner. I’ve seen people that plead to their dogs in a wimpy voice to sit. That’s just not going to cut it. You have to say SIT!!!! The dog will eventually get used to the word and it will become like second nature after a while.

These short, direct words will always grab the dog’s attention. He has gotten used to the way you naturally speak, that he knows when you are just casually talking to him and when you mean business like when you say SIT!!!! He can distinguish between the two.

Then, later on you can get to the other more common dog training commands, like STAY, which is perfect for the dog that likes to trample you over when you first get back from work.

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A dog’s most natural instincts are usually the toughest to try to correct. One of these kind of instincts is digging. There are literally dozens of reason why a dog would dig, ranging from him wanting to bury something all the way to trying to get a bug that’s buried in the ground, and everything else in between. Hopefully with these dog training techniques, you can begin to alleviate this problem.

Since the majority of dogs don’t like feces on their paws, take some of his dog poop, and bury it in the holes. It may not completely discourage him from digging in new areas, but at least he’ll stay away from that area.

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You may have a dog who is just generally a nervous Nelly. I know that the natural feeling you may have is to coddle him, but I strongly recommend that you try these dog obedience tips for your scared dog.

For starters, you should only give him a treat or show him his favorite toy when he is really stressed out and you are having a hard time controlling his panic. His treats and toys shouldn’t be used as a crutch for every little anxious moment that he has.

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A puppies training begins the instant he steps foot in your home. When I say this, I don’t mean to sound like the training should be extreme or severe. All I mean, is you should start to prepare short, little 5 minute lessons, and repeat them over and over until the puppy starts understanding what it is you want from him.

You have to remember that every single thing is brand new to the puppy, so there is a bit of a learning curve, here. Hopefully you got your puppy from a reputable and reliable breeder so the dog has a strong foundation from which you can teach him all the lessons he has to learn.

In many ways, its kind of like raising a child, although obviously in a much a shorter time span (hence the doggy years). But how you go about raising the puppy teaches it a lot more than just the basic sit down and kneel, it provides how he responds to outside factors.

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