DogTrainster.Com

Article Source: examiner.com
By: Jeff Millman

This is always a concern with dog guardians. Over-treating can lead to an overweight dog or intestinal difficulties if your dog is especially sensitive. Here are some tips to get your worries under control and avoid over-treating your pooch.

Calorie Bowl
This is a term that I coined in my dog training videos. This is a strategy that you can implement instantly and use daily.

1. Portion out your dog’s daily food intake into a bowl. For instance, let’s assume your dog gets two cups of dry food per day.
2. Instead of the full two cups, put 1.5 cups of food into the bowl and .5 cups of high quality treats (see Treat Suggestions below)
3. Throughout the day, grab handfuls of the contents of the Calorie Bowl and do short training sessions with your dog, or put portions of the food into Kongs or other stuffable toys
4. At the end of the day, if there is any food left, put the rest into your dog’s bowl

Use “Life Rewards”
Now that you are using the Calorie Bowl, you can also incorporate “Life Rewards” into your routine. Life rewards consist of using a variety of rewards throughout the day that you would provide for your dog anyway. If you shift your thinking a bit, you can do quick training sessions before all good things and your dog will benefit from more training. Here are some suggestions for using Life Rewards with your dog. Don’t forget a mentally stimulated dog is a happy dog!

1. Toys. If your dog loves toys, put them away until you are doing training sessions. If you keep them out all the time, your dog can quickly become bored with them and then they are less interesting and rewarding.
2. A game of tug. Dogs that love to play tug can be rewarded with this activity. Do a quick training session, play a game of tug, ask for a “drop”, do more training and then reward with another quick game of tug. Put the toy away when you are done so it is interesting the next time you use it as a reward.
3. Walk. Do a quick training session before you take your pooch for a walk.
4. Chew Toys. Giving your dog an occasional chew toy? Do a 5-minute session before he gets his chew toy.
5. Frisbee. If your dog loves to play Frisbee or chase a tennis ball or other toy, do training while you are playing. Suggestions include Drop, Sit, Down, Stay, Come, and Stop. Ask for more behaviors each time you throw the toy.
6. Running. Dogs love movement. While you are walking your dog, reward him with running or other fast movements when he performs behaviors that you ask for. For example, walk a bit, ask for a Sit, say, “Yes” and then run a bit, ask for a Stop and gently put the brakes on. Say, “Easy” walk slowly while you give praise, “Good, good, good” and then run a bit more. See my Intermediate Leash Walking Video for step-by-step instructions.

Treat Suggestions
When you are using treats, you should only use high-quality treats. “Treat” does not mean junk food. Avoid food coloring, sugar and by-products. I use mainly meat-based treats and other high-quality food items and use very small treats. As long as your dog’s system can handle the food item, you can be very creative with your food offerings. If you are not sure if your dog can handle something, give a small quantity for a few days in a row with no other changes in his diet and monitor his ability to digest the new treat.

Premium treats may seem more expensive, but usually if you calculate the cost they can be similar in price to the unhealthy well-advertised treats with the cute names and shapes that make them look like bacon, sausages or other meat products. Use small pieces of the high-quality treats and they will last a long time.

Kong You can use a variety of food items including dried liver, pasta, cheese (not every dog can process dairy), sweet potato treats, steamed chicken, dried chicken, venison jerkey, duck meat, lunchmeat (watch the salt), oyster crackers, peanut butter, etc.

As mentioned above, stuffing Kongs can be a wonderful way of making food and treats last longer and provide more mental stimulation. My new favorite Kong stuffing recipe:

1. Pasta
2. Cheese
3. Dried chicken
4. Melt cheese in microwave
5. Put in freezer overnight

Last night it took my dogs 2 hours to work their way through their frozen Kongs and then they were exhausted! Do not make the Kong too difficult for a new dog or he will get frustrated and ignore it, no matter the quality of the stuffing. Allow food to fall out easily at the beginning until he is really motivated to interact with the Kong.

Just remember, dogs need mental stimulation. If you only provide physical exercise, your dog can still be bored and possibly destructive.

Article Source: articlebiz.com

By: Scott Williams

As we all know,training dogs has never been easy. If not for the tools that we use in dog training we may have gone nowhere and probably rats became man’s best friend. As a dog lover, I actually shudder at the thought. And if that were the case, then there would never have been a domesticated dog and they would all be in the wilderness living like wolves. Thank God for the training tools.

One of these tools happens to be the Dog Training Treats, also known as doggie treats but for this purpose, are to be used as a training tool. Using dog training treats is also known as the reward method in dog training. Training treats are very effective in the learning phase of the training.

A pat on the head may be sufficient for some dogs who has shown good behavior, other dogs may need a little incentive to consistently respond to our commands. Treats thus become an excellent way to reinforce desired behavior if they are used properly.

Using dog training treats is one of the most positive and encouraging ways to train your dog to behave in an acceptable manner. This is a better alternative to other training methods that use violence and physical punishment. The dog training treats method is used together with a lot of praising for something the dog has learned and done well.

Using training treats also gives your dog something to look forward to during these training sessions. They are always happy to receive these treats from you and they don’t even know it’s a learning process.

It is important to note that in using training treats the reward must be given to the dog immediately. Otherwise the dog might believe that it is being rewarded for another thing that he has done rather than the behavior that we want rewarded.

Consistency should also be practiced by the owner and all members of the family that interact with the dog. The same commands should be used by all so as not to cause the dog some confusion. It also means that we should reward the desired behavior and not the unwanted ones.

For the dog training treats to be fully effective, always use treats that your dog really likes. Something enticing and irresistible to him. It should be small and soft, something that he could gulp down immediately. Something from your refrigerator can be used as treats like small pieces of hotdog, cheese, cooked chicken and beef have proven effective. While others prefer to purchase small soft commercial dog treats that are readily available.

Most dogs prefer the food treats but some of them respond to toy treats rather than the former. In the same way, give your dog their favorite toy every time he has done good in the training process.

There are two ways in using training treats. First as a reward for a desired behavior, and second as a motivator, in the class of the carrot and stick method, to induce a certain behavior.

Using training treats is an enjoyable learning experience for the dog and his owner/trainer. But full knowledge of using training treats is essential. If used in an improper way, the dog might develop some unwanted traits like always expecting treats before doing something desirable or even begging.

Dog Training Treats is an important tool in training. It also strengthens the bond between the owner and pet more than any other training method because it is not based on fear. Trust and respect grows between them and the experience is something that cannot be forgotten easily. Training treats make the training process fun for both dog and owner simply because the dog gets a reward and the owner gets so much satisfaction in getting the desired behavior from the pet.

As pet lovers, we all know that, that feeling is priceless.