The Relevance Of Dog Training Advice For New Dog Owners
February 15, 2011 by Karen Bellamy · Comments Off
Many people give dog training advice, but not all of them are giving accurate information. People who love animals may have good intentions, but lack the knowledge and experience needed to guide a dog in the right direction.
Although most people don’t beat the tar out of their pets, many people still believe that physical punishment is the way to go when it comes to disciplining their animals. Housebreaking is one are of training that can be pretty difficult to master, for both human and dog. Beating your dog with anything because they’ve gone to the bathroom on the floor, is never conducive to training a well adjusted dog.
Hitting a dog with rolled up newspaper, your hand or anything else, can lead to the dog becoming afraid of not only the thing he or she is being struck with, but is also likely to make them afraid of your hands. This can result in biting hands out of fear, or a dog who cowers every time someone tries to pet him.
When a dog uses the bathroom inside the house and you find it hours later, scolding the dog over the mess does little good. The dog doesn’t understand what it is being scolded for. He may see the mess on the floor and know that he’s in trouble, but he doesn’t understand that peeing and pooping inside the house is the problem. He may think that you’re angry because he’s not supposed to relieve himself at all.
If you’re an angry person and you lose your temper easily, training a dog might not be the right job for you. However, knowing that in order to create a well behaved member of the family depends on how successful you are at keeping your cool, might be just the thing to help you keep yourself calm. Getting angry, hitting, kicking, and screaming at a dog teaches nothing but fear. This can lead to dangerous situations in the future, for both of you.
Coming home from work, after a long, hard, stressful day and beating your children to vent some frustration is something you would never do. Losing your temper when a child does something wrong, teaches them fear the same way it does in a dog. Discipline should always be dealt out with a cool head and soft hands. Your tone of voice is often all it takes to convey your message.
Simple commands such as “sit” and “lay down” can be taught relatively quickly. Most dogs pick up on these commands within a week of daily training. Short sessions of five to ten minutes, several times a day are best, due to short attention spans. Pushing on the backside of the dog while saying “sit” is all you need to do to teach this command. When the dog sits for a few seconds, a treat can be given.
Training a dog to lay down is done using the same method. Doing things over and over again until the dog “gets it” is what you’ll be spending your time doing. There is much dog training advice out there. It can be overwhelming, but if you stick to it, don’t get angry or show frustration when you’re teaching your dog, eventually you will reach your desired goals.
Get inside information on great dog training advice now in our guide to everything you need to know about effective dog training online .
Advice On Dog Aggression Training
November 14, 2008 by Andy Austim · 1 Comment
Aggression in a dog is something, which an owner should not tolerate and should be dealt with as soon as the problem arises. However, in order for an owner to find the right kind of dog aggression training they should be using to control this problem they need to understand the kinds of aggression that dogs suffer from.
In this article, we look at the various kinds of aggressive behavior, which dogs of different ages, breeds and genders may well suffer from. Also, what one should also remember is that a dog may actually show more than one type of aggression towards others at any time.
1. Dominance – This kind of aggression will occur in a dog who thinks that they are in fact the alpha member (leader of the pack) and will use this as a way of asserting their dominance over the others in the pack (you and your family). Most commonly, you will find that male dogs and certain dog breeds are likely to suffer from this kind of aggressive behavior more. But in order for you to control the situation, you need to quickly and fairly establish that you and your family are the leaders in the group and they are at the bottom of the pack hierarchy.
2. Fear – This type of aggression will manifest in your dog when they feel either insecure or frightened by something that they are unsure of. For some dogs, their aggression may manifest when they hear a noise or when they are being approached by someone or something that they feel uncomfortable with. Generally, they will either bark, growl, bare their teeth or snap at what is causing them discomfort. But if left unchecked and the problem allowed to continue, it could result in the animal actually biting someone or attacking another animal.
3. Over Protective/Territorial – A dog who suffers from this form of aggressive behavior is actually a danger to anyone who they come into contact with. Along with feeling territorial about the place in which they leave, this if left to continue will also become an issue for dog and owner when they are away from the home as well.
4. Possessive – This can make a real Jekyll and Hyde out of your dog, one minute they can loving and playful the next they are baring their teeth or snapping at you. This will normally occur when you approach something that they consider to be theirs. In many cases, a major trigger for this type of aggression is when you approach them when they are eating. If you want to stop this problem, you need to react as soon as you notice it occurring.
5. Punishment – This kind of aggressive behavior occurs more often in those animals where punishment has been used excessively by their owners. Although initially when being punished the dog may not respond aggressively towards their owner, if over time the punishments become more severe then the chances of the dog responding in such a way is greatly increased.
In this article, we have looked at just a few of the kinds of aggressive behavior that dogs may suffer from. It is only once the owner has identified what kind of behavior it is they can then find the right kind of dog aggression training to use. As you will soon find when you search the internet there is plenty of advice and tips on ways of dealing with an aggressive dog.
Dog Training Hand Commands
November 12, 2008 by Andy Austim · Comments Off
If an owner wishes along with using verbal commands to control their animal, they can also use hand commands as well. When it comes to teaching your dog the various different kinds of dog-training hand commands, you will in the beginning need to use verbal commands also. In this article, we look at just one of the ways in which a dog owner can teach such commands to their dog.
Certainly, teaching your dog hand signals is very simple and most dogs will find them very easy to understand. But in order to get started on training them you will need a few treats, which you can provide to your dog as a reward for getting what, you have asked (signalled) of them right.
It is important that in the beginning when you are teaching your dog to react to hand commands is that you use the words as well. Therefore, you will need to decide which hand signals relate to which commands you will be giving to your dog. Only once you have made a decision on which verbal commands go with which hand signals can you then start your dogs training.
When you first start teaching your dog how to respond to hand commands rather than just your voice you should say each word very clearly and make the hand movement in conjunction with it. You will then need to spend time just repeating the word and the hand signal over a period of time until the dog actually understands what it is you require of them. Once you notice that your dog is responding as soon as you begin the movement and say the word then you should reward them.
As you continually repeat the commands and signals you should very slowly you should start to eliminate the verbal commands. However, you should still use the rewards of food and praise for your dog when they respond to your hand signals only. For a while as you begin to slowly eliminate the verbal commands you should when carrying out the training, use them half of the time, and the other half of the time just hand signals.
Then when you start to notice that your dog is reacting purely to your hand commands only then this is the stage when you start to stop giving them food as a reward. However, you should never eliminate the rewards immediately from the training and if you want praise, them slightly for doing as commanded instead of offering them food.
When teaching your dog to react to hand signals it is best to start of with the most basic commands that you would normally teach them. So it is best to start with sit, down and stay. Then when you feel able to and when you feel that your dog is capable you can move on to much more elaborate ones if you wish.
Actually getting advice on the right way dog training hand commands should be done is easy. There are plenty of sites on the internet today that can offer lots of practical advice and tips. Plus there are plenty of books and videos, which can help you with training your dog to respond to such hand signals.
