DogTrainster.Com

Source from: wnrmag.com

Training leads to happier pets and a more comfortable home. Dogs, like most people, view relationships as a social hierarchy. If you are continually at your dog’s beck and call whenever he wants a treat, affection or play time, he will soon believe he is in charge. Training sets some ground rules so you can have fun with your dog without worrying about aggressive behavior.

Training also requires time, but it’s an investment that pays dividends over your long-term commitment. It strengthens your bond by providing both of you with the tools to communicate effectively with each other. An obedient dog is also a safer dog. A dog that knows to come immediately when called is in much less danger if he escapes onto a busy street or gets into a fight than one who doesn’t.

By training your dog, you take on the role of teacher. Just as with a child starting kindergarten, the teacher’s attitude determines the student’s success. During training sessions, it’s imperative that you maintain a positive attitude. If you’re grumpy, your dog will pick up on that and won’t learn to trust you. Obedience training is an exchange—good behavior for love and affection. If you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, neither will he.

Make sure to be patient and consistent. If you only enforce commands some of the time, you will only confuse him. If your actions teach him that you’re only serious about commands when it’s convenient for you, he will only follow them when it’s convenient for him!

Start training when your puppy is young. Just like people, this is when dogs’ minds are ripe for absorbing information and they want your approval. Also, teaching your dog good habits before he’s had time to learn bad ones is much more effective than shaping ingrained bad behaviors.

Here are some tips for resolving common behavioral problems

* Chewing

Although the difference between your leather recliner and your dog’s squeaky toy may be obvious to you, your pet can’t distinguish his toys from your possessions without training. To make matters more obvious to your pet, don’t dote on your dog by providing tons of toys. Too many toys makes it more complicated for your dog to remember what is and isn’t ok to chew. Keep it simple.

* Jumping on people

As much as you may love that your dog is excited when you come home, jumping on people is a problem, especially when your dog shows the same enthusiasm for people who may be afraid of dogs, or jumps on small children or seniors who are not tall enough or strong enough to withstand it. Dogs naturally jump to establish dominance, hierarchy and submission. The key to preventing this behavior lies in gently but clearly establishing that people are the boss. You need to react consistently and promptly. If you return your dog’s enthusiasm when he jumps on you, he’ll never understand the behavior is unacceptable. Instead, teach your dog to sit using treats as positive reinforcement. Every time he starts to jump, tell him firmly to sit, provide hand signals and give him a treat if he obeys. Slowly phase out the treats until sitting at your command becomes automatic.

* Constant barking

Dogs bark when they feel isolated, lonely, territorial or fearful. Don’t reinforce this behavior by giving him the attention he seeks. Instead, distract your dog from barking by dropping a few coins into an empty can and shaking it gently. This will surprise your dog and temporarily stop the barking. Then, reward him with affection and a treat for being quiet. React consistently because you make or break your dog’s behavior.

Source from: mydesert.com

By Michael Gagarine and Ken Whistler

According to research from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, many of the pets brought to shelters are surrendered because of behavior problems that their owners believe to be permanent. Approximately 70 percent of these animals end up being “put to sleep,” making death from behavior problems the leading cause of pet mortality, ahead of trauma and disease. This means thousands of dogs are euthanized every year, the vast majority unnecessarily.

Many dog owners buy a dog with the intention that he will be a member of the family, only to discover that the dog becomes the de facto head of the household. A dog’s instinctual behavior is to challenge the pack member above him and in turn be challenged by the dog below. Within the mixed human-dog pack, dogs behave the same. This can lead to undesirable behaviors such as charging the door when the doorbell rings, barking, jumping, pulling on the leash and even biting, which are top reasons dogs are mistreated and euthanized.

Bark Busters, the world’s largest dog training company, was started in Australia in 1989 by Sylvia and Danny Wilson, expert dog trainers and authors of several dog training books. Sylvia was head of an RSPCA shelter and studied the behavior and communication methods of dogs for years. She was saddened by the number of dogs she saw being maltreated, abandoned and euthanized for behavioral problems, which she knew was due to a lack of consistent leadership. This became the basis for creating the unique, natural training techniques that teach owners how to train their dogs through the use of voice tones and body language, all geared toward putting the owner in control through effective leadership. These techniques have propelled Bark Busters’ phenomenal growth ñ now with more than 330 offices in 10 countries, including 230+ offices in the United States.

With more than one of every three households owning a dog in the U.S., thousands of people are looking for help to solve their dog’s behavior problems. Understanding the keys to pack behavior and following a few simple guidelines can help owners establish leadership and begin controlling a dog’s behavior:

* Because dogs crave strong leadership, if they don’t get it from their owners, they’ll try to take charge. That leads to bad behavior such as barking, jumping, aggression and pulling on the leash—each examples of the dog taking charge. The owner needs to win all challenges to demonstrate leadership.

* There are several ways to establish leadership. First, ignore all requests from the dog, such as nudges to be petted or played with. To do so, break eye contact. Then, when the dog has “given up,” call him back to you to be petted or to play. When he responds to you, versus you to him, he sees you as the leader. If he misbehaves, such as chewing on a child’s toy, correct his behavior with a forceful, low-toned growl (“BAH”). As soon as it stops, offer pleasant, high-toned praise. The dog will understand its mistake and respect you as the pack leader.

* In the wild the leader always leads the pack—literally. Establish your leadership by always leading your dog—up and down stairs, through doorways, and especially on walks. Remember, the leader always leads.

Most dog owners simply accept the disruptive or aggressive behavior of their dogs because they think it’s normal or don’t know how to change it. Learning about pack leadership and canine communication is incredibly interesting for most dog-lovers. Gaining a better understanding of the dog psyche strengthens the human-canine connection, and learning how to communicate effectively with your dog in a language it understands, voice control and body language, is a critical step in establishing leadership and control, which can eliminate many behavioral issues. Through effective training, many dogs can be saved from being abandoned or unnecessarily euthanized.

All dog owners, at some point of time or the other, have to administer dog behavior or dog obedience training. Most dogs suffer from behavior problems at some time in their lives. It is important for the owners to understand these problems and the techniques that can be used to correct these problems. Let us take a look at some of the general principles of dog training:

• A large number of dog behavior problems occur due to separation anxiety.

• Dog aggression and problem behavior like biting, digging or barking comes from the lack of communication between the dog and its owner.

• Dog behavior problems can be corrected by applying dog obedience training in the early stages.

• Set clear-cut boundaries of unacceptable and acceptable conduct for your dog and make it clear to them.

• Whenever your dog suffers from a behavioral problem, there is some cause or trigger behind it. Therefore, it is vital to identify these triggers in order to solve the problem.

Some of the common behavioral problems faced by dogs include aggression, biting, baking and chewing. Though it is all natural behavior for dogs, but it can prove to be extremely expensive and annoying for its owners. Some of the ways in which stop dog biting include:

1. Make your dog undergo both mental as well as physical exercise.

2. Provide tasty dog chews to your dog. Make it clear that if your dog wants to chew something, it should be his toys only.

3. If there is some particular thing like a furniture leg which your dog likes to chew, then you can coat is which a substance with a foul taste such as cayenne pepper or bitter apple, so that your dog doesn´t chew it.

It is quite sad that most of the dogs who suffer from behavioral problems end up in different animal shelters. If you do not want to bid farewell to your beloved pet, then you have to manage their aggression or destructive behavior with the help of appropriate dog behavior training. Combining proper techniques of dog training along with some patience and commitment, you can surely achieve great results with your pet dog. Dog training can make a huge difference to the life of your dog.

Article Source: articlebiz.com

By: Oscar Jones

For someone new to owning a dog being able to handle the excessively loud barking of a new puppy can take its toll and be quite an experience. The majority of new owners are not really ready to cope with the intense amounts of yelping and barking that a perfectly normal puppy will enter in to as soon as it arrives at its new home. Although usual sometimes the puppy will not even give the new owner the pleasure of a quiet night.

Reaction To Fear

One of its biggest hurdles to overcome in its young life will be to get over the fear of being alone. This does not mean being away from you when you leave the house but going “off the deep end” as soon as you isolate them from you i.e. going to a different room. Just remember when and where you got your puppy from. They are used to being surrounded by their brothers and sisters and having their mum there all the while.

How Do You Deal With The Barking Problem?

If you decide that you are going to go running to your puppy as soon as its starts to cry and/or bark then you are in affect training a reaction. Unfortunately what you are training and rewarding is the behavior of barking/crying and you end up with a spoiled dog. Alternatively you can just leave your puppy until it cant physically bark anymore, in which case the rest of your family will probably have something to say about it!!

Do you feel as if you are therefore in a no win situation? Well, don’t panic I do have some useful tips on how to get your dog to stop barking:

No. 1. First thing you should try is to try and ignore your puppy’s action(s) i.e. barking, if you can. Don’t be tempted to keep shouted “quiet” are anything harsher as this will just scare him/her, the puppy will not want to then come near you, anxiety levels will increase and, you guessed it, the barking will increase.

No. 2. You can try using a “teaching lead”. This is a product which will allow your puppy to be around you all the while whilst in the house. Using this type of tool will give your puppy some independence while keeping you close enough to not build anxiety.

No. 3. If, as invariably you will, you have to go out, try to ensure that you are not gone too long. I totally understand that on leaving the house you will want to cuddle your cute puppy and say goodbye but bewarned, this will only go towards creating stress within your new little friend as it will begin to associate this type of behavior with you about to leave the house. If you think about this it will make sense to you.

No. 4. There are various different training aids which can be used to quiten your puppy when barking. A quick jet of water, or a streaming spray can do the trick if used immediately when barking commences. Using a tin filled up with metallic objects can be used to make a startling noise if barking commences as you leave your puppy’s side. It will probably make them jump and divert their attention from the action of barking.