DogTrainster.Com

Article Source: examiner.com
Article by: Jeff Millman

I frequently get calls from potential clients that have young puppies. Many people know the importance of using a crate, but don’t use it properly.

The benefits of using a crate are many:

* You can prevent destruction
* You can speed up housetraining
* You can decrease the chances for separation anxiety

So many people use the crate when they are at work, but keep the puppy out of the crate all night when they are home.

This is a mistake.

If your puppy is only in the crate during the day when you are at work, you run the risk of having an older dog that is not used to being away from you. At the worst he could get separation anxiety, or he might just be a frustrated older dog, or frustrated puppy.

What happens if you have a few friends over and your puppy has never been in the crate in the evening, especially with the commotion of guests? If you put your puppy in the crate without without prior practice, he might bark or whine and be a big distraction to you and your guests.

It is important that you are able to get a break from your puppy for real life activities. If your puppy never learns to be in the crate in the evening, you are limiting your ability to lower the inevitable stress associated with having a puppy.

It is also impossible to watch a puppy every moment when you are home. If you don’t use the crate, he might learn to be destructive when you are out of the room. The more bad habits your puppy learns now, the more work for you later to “unteach” those bad habits.

Puppies can be wonderful, fun, cute little furballs that are nothing but fun. But, they can also be (and usually are) a tremendous amount of work. Put yourself and your puppy in a situation where he learns to be  calm and comfortable in the crate at all times during the day. If you spend “quality time” with your puppy when he is out of the crate and train him, exercise him and work with him, he will most likely be tired and sleepy in the crate anyway.

Article Source: examiner.com
Article by: Jeff Millman

I always joke that I “think about dog training 36 hours per day.” This is not far off. Whether I am working with my dogs or working with a client, there are frequent times that I will explain something a bit differently than I have in the past, or I will try something just a little bit different and get an “Ah Hah!” moment.

They are not necessarily profound, “Wake the children” ideas, but still might be helpful to you.

I had one of those moments tonight. I try and do a few training sessions throughout the day with my dogs and today was no exception. I planned on training them for a few minutes and then giving them their dinner. I worked with them for bit and then asked them for a “Down Stay” in another room while I loaded the dishwasher from our dinner and then fixed their dinner as well.

I set the timer on the stove for 10 minutes instead of just guessing how long they were in their stay. It is amazing how time seems to  go faster than it actually does. If I thought they were staying for 10 minutes without the timer, I probably would have released them after only 5 or 6. The timer kept me on track. 10 minutes is just an arbitrary time, sometimes I will do more or less. I think the longest I have asked them to stay is 30 minutes.

I  sometimes also set the timer when I am doing training to keep track of how long the session lasts. I try and do at least 5 minute sessions a few times a day.

I hope this is helpful to you and your pooch.

Article Source: examiner.com
Article by: Emily Randolph

One of the most valuable things I learned about dog training when I ‘studied’ under Dima Yeremenko in London is how to be a good teacher to your dog. Many of you are likely paw-deep in training right now, as the weather conditions are perfect! Yeah for living in Scottsdale, where the sun is always shining! (For those of your reading in cooler climes, sorry for gloating…) Grab those leashes, get out there and have some fun!

Here are the golden rules of being a good teacher as taken from Dima’s Dog School: The Foolproof New Way to Train Your Dog.

* Use Your Dog’s Name. It is important to ‘condition-use’ your dog’s name to the required task. There is no point in trying to come up with some other name or nickname if he’s never heard it before in training. If you are calling your dog ‘Suzy,’ don’t call her ‘Suz,’ or Sweetie-pie, or anything else. Stick to one name only. Much later you can start adding in variations as her vocabulary expands. But in the beginning, keep it simple.
* Follow Your Dog’s Name With a Command. It is also important to follow your dog’s name with a command or suitable gesture. It sounds obvious but many of us call our dogs without actually asking them to do something, and then we get frustrated that they didn’t read our minds and do it! So do you and your dog a favor and ask him properly for the command you wish. ‘Barney, roll over!’
* Be Consistent in Your Commands and Signals. Don’t make up different words and signals for the same thing. Your gesture and command for ‘sit’ for instance, should always be the same. It doesn’t matter what they are, as long as you use them consistently. ‘Burt, down!’ Will be far more effective than ‘Burt, dear, please lie down for mommy.’
* Be Consistent in Giving Rewards. Especially in the early stages, you’ll need to give your dog a reward for every correct response he gives, and sometimes just for half a response or even an intention to do it. Only later, when he has a firm grasp of your commands, can you begin to treat less often.
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Be Proactive, Not Reactive. The more organized and knowledgeable you are about the behavior of dogs, the problems that arise, and the solutions that are available to you, the better prepared you will be to handle new training issues. Dogs change over time, especially while they are growing. Males, for instance, often begin to show domineering behavior. But if you are aware of this and know beforehand what to do when you see such behavior, you will be better equipped to tackle the problem swiftly.

The key is to prevent bad habits from forming is to get on top of them early.

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It is much harder to break a dog of a bad habit than to stop it from happening in the first place, before it has become a learned behavior/response.
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Watch Your Body Language. When you are asking your dog to do something, make sure your body language makes sense. For instance, when you are first teaching your dog to sit-stay, don’t go play with another dog. Wait until he knows how to sit-stay and then you can use such tricks later for distraction training.
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Be Persistent in Your Training. It’s not good enough to ask your dog to do something one day and mean it, and then another day, not to mean it. You aren’t communicating to him well if you do this. ‘Harry, stay!’ should always mean ‘Harry, stay’ and not Harry can ignore you and go drink from his water bowl. If you aren’t going to be able to follow through on a command, then don’t ask!
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Be Precise in Your Timing. Immediately after your dog responds in some way to your command, you must be ready to deliver an appropriate response to educate him how best to respond to the command in the future.

You’ll probably achieve a 99% success rate if you react in the first couple of seconds after he responds; 50-60% if you acknowledge his actions three to five seconds later; and somewhere between 0-20% if you react ten seconds afterward.

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Command with Confidence.  Just as we don’t respect a weak boss, so we must not appear weak or unconfident to our dogs. A strong voice is always helpful, but it doesn’t have to be loud to be commanding. Your dog won’t learn better just because you are saying it louder.
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Never Give Up! Sometimes we get frustrated because our dogs might not pick up on a new command right away – or he understands, just doesn’t want to do it. Be patient and search for creative solutions. Training dogs is about teaching. Find a way to encourage and motivate him.
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Be Kind at All Times. Never EVER loose your temper with your dog. Training by fear is no way to treat your best friend. It is cruel, abusive and not conducive to establishing a wonderful loving bond between the two of you.  Don’t do it, end of conversation. Instead…
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Make Training Fun. If it’s all work, work, work, where’s the pleasure and motivation for you and your dog? Training is about building a positive relationship between the two of you. Doing endless drills will not endear him to you. Break up training with games, which can be instructional, too, of course.  Hide-and-seek is a great game to play to teach the ‘come’ command. While your dog isn’t looking, go hide somewhere (someplace not too difficult to start with) and call your dog, ‘Harvey, come!’ When Harvey finds you, give him a big reward! Make a huge fuss over him! Make it a party. He will love it and be learning at the same time. Fun for you and him.

Happy Training!

Article Source: buzzle.com

Owning a dog provides a great deal of personal satisfaction and whether you are the most hardened character or not, you are going to experience a great deal of love and companionship with your dog. Dogs are social animals by nature and they want to please who they are with as well as providing companionship and attention, dogs are great protectors of family and property not because they think these are your things but precisely because they feel this is their family and their home.

Training a dog benefits everyone and even if it is the most basic of behavior that is being taught, it will hep immensely with how a dog behaves and its own happiness and well-being. Dogs are hierarchical animals, they believe in everyone in their place and want to know constantly where they are in the pecking order and will seek reassurance in this; this is dog behavior and perfectly natural and when this is disrupted the dog will inevitably become stressed which may manifest itself in unwanted behavior.

Training your dog is a process and this will not produce immediate and instant results from just an initial session; training is part of a lifelong process which underpins the relationship you will have with your dog and them with you and your family as well as the world around them.

Training never stops.

Use these tips to help you with training:

Tip #1 Be Patient

Be patient; your dog will not always understand what you are trying to get it to do and will have to work it out but they will instinctively try to please you. They will quickly learn but so will you and losing your temper will harm the relationship you have with your dog and create adverse consequences down the road which will slow more advanced training.

Tip #2 Act Like a Team

Dog training is a misnomer to describe what we are doing here; in truth we are training the dog and the owner as you are a team and this is exactly how the animal is viewing the activity. Professional trainers rarely undertake training a dog directly when they are consulted; watch the TV programs which are popular at the moment and you will see that the professionals are actually training the owners in how to train their animals.

Tip #3 Be Gentle

Losing your temper, shouting at the dog and being angry, hitting or humiliating the animal are very big “No’s!” for owners. Negative reinforcement may produce a short term impact in stopping unwanted behavior but the effect tends not to be lasting and severely damages the way the dog views the relationship with the owner. Dogs are pack animals and look to the pack leader for guidance and protection; they do not react well to a pack leader which hurts them and you will see this in the wild with lots of friendly licking and play between members of the pack, including the leader.

These three pieces of training advice are all essential to forming a positive and constructive relationship where the dog understands its place in the family hierarchy and learns very quickly what is expected of it. A well trained dog is a credit to the owner but also a source of a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment for years to come.