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September 19th, 2009 by Tom Clark

Pets are terrific in all sorts of ways. Most pet owners love there pets as family. We will discuss a way to bring you and your pet closer even while training. Remember your pet is extremely loyal to you and your family.

One of the most important things for you to understand is, the commands and rules must be constant. We tend to get upset with our animals because they stop being obedient after a certain period of time.

Whatever route you decide to take in training your pet, do it yourself or hire a trainer, you must be consistent. Once the pet has a clear understanding of what the rules are they will happily follow them.

The true key in training your animal, specifically your dog, is training yourself. When you give certain commmands to your dog, keep your tone constant. For example, when you are telling Spot to sit while you are in a good mood, don’t change it from when you are in a bad mood. Do not let it go from “O sit baby” to “SIT YOU STUPID DOG!!!

This sort of action only confuses the animal, and then we tend to think they are being disobedient. The truth is that as much as your dog loves you, you are starting to confuse and irritate them.

Even with the many many conversations we have with our pets, they really don’t know what we are talking about. They only know tones and sounds, which is why our commands have to be consistent. Please do not stop talking your pet though. The animal always knows when we are being loving and compassionate to them by the sound of our voice.

Once you make up your mind you want a well trained pet, remember it all starts with training yorself first. Never begin the habit of repeating commands, or they will be less effective. For example if you say “down down down” your pet will think if you do not say it three times you are not serious.

The main objective of this article was to get you to understand consistency is key! However you decide to go about training, stick with it and you and your pet will be happy as ever!

For more info and to get a complimentary Dog Training Course visit tclarkpetsolutions.com

July 2nd, 2009 by Ian Brown

You can set things up in a controlled way so you can use sound for training purposes. This lets you get the exact result you want.

Taken to it’s extreme, these four repetitions should be performed in four different places, or with different people, dogs, or whatever the “props” involved may be. Understanding how dogs think, learn, and process information is a stretch of the imagination for most of us. It is obvious that they know more about psychology than we do.

A good dog owner, already knows that dogs think and communicate, but not at all like humans. So it is up to us to make the effort if we want good results.

Be consistent. Dogs get confused if you’re not consistent. Now that you are getting familiar with teaching a command through conditioned reflex, you can use similar techniques to stop or break any behavior whatsoever.

Using a set of cans, or any other source of sound, so long as it is brief, and so long as it can be presented from different directions on each consecutive instance, are all that you need to do to break any behavior. Simply create the sound, and follow through with praise! It’s that simple. Any behavior can be stopped or broken, simply by creating a sound, and praising immediately. The secret is, to allow the undesired behavior to begin again, and simply present the sound from another direction, and follow through with praise. Of course you have to understand how your dog thinks and learns in order to successfully achieve this.

Each time you create a sound to stop or break a behavior, you must praise him for as long as he refrains from continuing such behavior (at least until he no longer thinks about that instance, usually ten or fifteen seconds), and be prepared to create your sound distraction and praise as soon as the behavior begins again. This is the sticking point with so many trainers. “Why should I praise this critter if he’s not even doing what I want?” Remember, dogs do not think in human terms. Most behavior problems are simply a failure to clearly communicate.

Now that you have the technique you can continue for ever to use it to condition him. In future if he makes a mistake in any of the training you have conditioned, it is probably more of a challenge to you as the boss.

Because the process is so enjoyable many people use it forever. Part of that comes from the satisfaction of successfully training our dog. Bear in mind, these are corrections and not the teaching of new behaviors.

May 29th, 2009 by Ted Johnson

Are you bothered by your dog’s constant barking? Learning to control your dog’s barking is challenging, regardless of the breed you own. Different breeds have different reasons for starting to fuss. If you can determine the reason your dog’s barking is out of control it will help you teach your dog to control the barking and to bark when necessary, not at every little thing they see or hear.

Some dogs just seem to bark far too often without any reason. That is just the way they are. While some people can handle the constant barking, others cannot. However, it is important to keep in mind that dogs use their vocal skills like people. They bark to communicate with you or other members of their pack. Never try to stop your dog from barking altogether. Teach your dog when it is okay to bark and when they must stop barking.

First, research the type of dog you want before you get a dog. Knowing the purpose of a dog breed will give you a lot of information about how much the dog may bark. Don’t choose a dog bred for hunting or for stopping intruders.

Sometimes, dogs are better at training us than we are at training them. Don’t jump up and respond to your dogs commands when he or she barks. If they want to go outside and play, allow them to bark to signal, but do not let them out if they continue to bark. Teach them to get quiet first. Don’t respond until the dog is quiet, the dog will learn that to stop barking is a good behavior which brings rewards.

When your dog starts to bark, give him a few seconds to get it out of his system. If the barking persists clasp your hand firmly, but gently around your dog’s muzzle. If the dog tries to escape your grasp and continue barking reach out with your other hand and hold her by the collar.

Hopefully, you can figure out why your dog barks non-stop. Sometimes, it is too difficult to figure out and you may need some outside help to stop annoying barking behavior. A barking problem can be helped, with assistance I was able to stop my two dogs from barking at every little noise or movement.

May 21st, 2009 by Trevor

A joyful pup and its mistress once passed me on their walk in the park. The joy in the puppy’s half step half hop was quite evident. To it, every moving blade of grass was an investigative sherlock holmes mystery to be unraveled.

The high pitched yip yip yip repeated stops you in your tracks and like everyone else in the park, you turn to see what has happened to the joyful puppy. But your turn isn’t quite finished before you hear the deeper growl of another dog. Instinctively, you wish the puppy well and hope that the situation can be brough under control. You might even move towards the fracas in an effort to help calm the situation down.

In many parts of North America that problem dog is actually a dog that has inherent anger problems perhaps due to an owner who wasn’t loving and caring or problems due to inbreeding and or its part of its gene makeup.

My neighbor tells the story of his dog which is actually half dog and half Northern wolf.

Sometime last year he tied his dog to the back bumper of his vehicle and gave it a 5 meter length ( about 15 feet ) to play with. He remembers hearing a ruckus outside and running out to his front door to find the following scenario.

A pitbull was running full out at highspeed with its owner running behind holding an empty leash. The pitbull crossed his front lawn in the blink of an eye and was airborne before anyone could as much as move a few feet. His own puppy backed up against the vehicle and waited silent and expectently for the rushing pitBull.

In less than a blink the PitBull was high in the air and reaching for his puppy’s jugular. However, his puppy was no longer there at all. Launching itself a split second earlier it was also in the air and much higher than the pitBull. The pitBull attempted to twist before it even hit the ground, but the wolf puppy was faster yet and by then had a grip on the throat of the pitBull.

A very low wolf like growl emitted from my neighbors dog. For a moment the pitBull went slack and the half wolf tossed it about 2 meters.

I am told that the angry pitbull didn’t have 3 feet properly on the ground before it promptly launched itself yet again at the half puppy. This time meaning to surprise it. However, everyone was surprised when the puppy itself met the pitBull midway and without ado simply snapped its neck. There was a kind of silence that one hears when everyone is holding their breath.

No one knew how long this had all taken. It seemed to simultaneously happen so fast and then suddenly slow down as if time had been holding its breath. My neighbors big puppy, backed to the beginning of its leash and sat itself down gently, almost as if, all in a days work.

I don’t wish any animal ill, but we were later told that that pitbull was already under probation for having attacked a child the year before. In ontario, a dog can be put down for that behavior but apparently this happened weeks before some law was passed and the witnesses had differing stories so the pitbull was in its owners care while the case was being decided.

Who knows, sometimes nature itself is the great equalizer. Everyone there was certain as they told the story afterwards, that the puppy was a goner. No one had thought that there was quite that much quickness or wolf like strength and self preservation in that quiet puppy.

April 13th, 2009 by John Michaels

Dogs are actually really clean animals. They won’t soil close to where they eat, or where they sleep. The thing is, a house is a completely different story. Living in a house is unnatural for an animal whose instincts would be to roam wherever she wants to go, so this part of animal behavior needs to be tailored to living in a home.

The sooner you can train your dog or puppy proper potty expectations the better. Trying to break the habit of a dog is quite difficult and it can be very frustrating. You need to use guidance and encouragement to help the pet. Animal behaviorists have some helpful tips that you can use to help with the housebreaking of your pet.

As we talked about, a dog is really sanitary. If a dog does soil accidentally in the wrong place, to him, it is going to be far away from where he eats. This is true for the place where the dog sleeps as well. But, unless you find a good place for her to go and train her in that manner, the rest of your house is okay to them.

The process for housebreaking a dog is the same if he is a puppy or an adult dog new to your home. Youll need to take him outside every few hours and also 30 minutes after he eats. Take your pet to the designated bathroom spot. Stay with the pet until she goes, and then praise her when she does. If she does not go, bring her back inside and try again in fifteen minutes. Watch her though. If the dog starts sniffing and circling take them out right away as this is a sign that she is about to go. Pay attention to her signs and take her out. Soon, she will relate to going outside to going to the bathroom.

Some dogs are housebroken much faster than others. Some dogs personality will cause her to go one way or the other. But, if you take her outside at the right time, it will go smoother. A puppy of less than four months old will need to go out during the night. Older puppies can hold it that long. A dog that cries to be let out has an urgent need. Get up and take her out, she needs every chance to succeed that she can get. Positive reinforcement is necessary for success.

Your approach and how you treat your dog will greatly affect the learning ability. If you catch your dog going in the act, distract her with a clap or call her name. Take her outside calmly at that time and praise her for finishing outside. Clean up any accident that you find on the floor. If the dog approaches during this time, ignore her. Dont talk to or punish her at this point. The worst thing that you can do is to yell at her or physically punish her. This will cause her to fear you and to not bond as well to you. She wont connect it to the accident at all. Ignoring her is the best course of action here.