Dogs are a lot like children. They need stimulation or they will get bored and we all know the trouble children can be when they get bored.
Bored dogs are generally unhappy dogs and they are also the dogs that are most likely to get into trouble with other animals and humans. The happiest dogs are often the working dogs as they not only have a purpose in life but they also get the praise and regular attention of their owners.
Even simply getting your dog some toys of it’s own to play with can add a lot of fun and happiness to it’s life, but more importantly getting the dog involved in family activities will have a positive effect on it’s mental state and happiness. Dogs love to be taken for walks or a run along the beach. They get to look at a different environment and interact with strangers and other dogs.
This social interaction is very important for the overall well being of your dog and it is something that needs to be done on a regular basis. One of the benefits of dog training schools is the fact that your dog will get to interact with other dogs, however training your dog at home also has it’s benefits as you will be learning each others personalities when working closely together and your dog will still get the opportunity to socialize with other dogs when you take it for walks in the park and similar activities.
Any time spent with your dog, whether it is training or just enjoying playtime, is great for building a long and happy relationship.
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 7th, 2010. 
Preventing Unwanted Urination. There are a number of reasons why dogs have problems with inappropriate urination and in some cases defecation. Unfortunately most dog owners don’t understand why this happens and are unsure what to do.
It can even happen to dogs that have been trained and housebroken. Many dog owners who are unable to address the problem simply take their dog to the pound as they assume there is no alternative to the problem that they are unable to solve.
Unwanted urination is a very common problem that many dog owners face and is more common than most people would assume. You will need to eliminate any medical reasons first, as there could be bladder infections that are causing the urination, but aside from that there are other reasons why dogs will urinate.
One of the most common reasons for a dog to lose control of it’s bladder is from excitement and you will generally see this happen a lot more with puppies. With puppies this is a lack of bladder control that will generally stop, as they get older.
Puppies are often unaware that they are urinating when they get excited and to reprimand them for doing this will cause confusion. To get angry with your dog for excitement urination can lead to other problems where the dog will begin to urinate from submissiveness rather than excitement thereby creating another problem that will need to be addressed.
With excitement urination the best cure is prevention and that is achieved by not allowing your dog to get overly excited. And the best way to stop your dog getting over excited in certain circumstances is to expose him/her to those situations more often until they no longer get excited to the extent that they urinate.
Puppies will eventually grow out of excitement urination as they develop better bladder control. Submissive urination is something that is common in the wild, where dogs, being pack animals, show their submissiveness to the leader of the pack by lowering themselves and urinating.
Where a dog is showing signs of submissive urination this is effectively a sign of insecurity and is very often associated with dogs that have been abused. It can be difficult to correct submissive urination and quite often the best method is to ignore what is happening and focus on developing a better relationship with your pet and help to build it’s self confidence.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Submissive Urination by on Jul 7th, 2010.
If you are elderly or incapacitated in some way then you might need to look at getting someone to assist with taking your dog for a walk or run so they get sufficient exercise.
If you work long hours and don’t have the time to take your dog for a walk or you don’t prefer to go out after hours then getting someone to walk your dog during the day might be your only alternative. A well exercised dog will not only be healthier but it will also be a happier pet and if the dog knows that there will be someone there to take it for a walk during the day it will be less likely to get bored and all the corresponding negative factors that go hand in hand with a bored dog.
These days this process is made a lot easier by the professional dog walking services that are available in most of the major cities and towns. These services will ensure that your dog will be getting it’s needed exercise and you will be arriving home each day to a happier pet.
The cost of these services is relatively inexpensive and the people that operate them are well trained to handle all sorts of dogs and their different personalities and behavior. You might just find that using such a service allows you to have a more well trained dog as many of the people who run these services are also involved in dog training.
If you do decide to hire a dog walking service it is wise to go with the handler at least once to see how they handle your pet and how your pet responds to them to ensure that your dog will be happy when you are not there.
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 1st, 2010.
Many people are unaware that separation anxiety even exists with their dog. There are many different traits that can be seen in a dog due to separation anxiety.
When we leave home for work each day, most people are unaware of what their dog is experiencing, and for many of them it is separation anxiety. We assume that because the dog appears to be happy when we arrive home at the end of the day, that it has been happy all day long.
In many instances, the dog could have had quite a traumatic day. Many dogs are concerned that when their owner leaves, they might not be coming back. They have no way of knowing that we will be back in eight or nine hours. The stress that this causes for a dog can lead to destructive behavior where they will chew everything in sight.
Other dogs might express their stress by soiling the house. Either way, if you come home from work and find that your well-trained dog has done something out of the ordinary you need to consider whether it has had a stressful day or not, and certainly not reprimand it until you know what the circumstances have been.
If you sense your dog has been stressed during the day, you might like to consider giving it more toys to stop it from becoming bored, or better still, have somebody call in and visit at some stage throughout the day so it knows that it is not alone. Exercising your dog in the morning before you leave is a good idea because it is more likely to sleep during the day.
Another method to reassure your dog that you will be coming back when you leave, is to do several smaller trips in the course of a few days or weeks, where the dog becomes more and more accustomed to you leaving and returning at different intervals. By slowly extending these hours of separation, your dog will become accustomed to it, thereby eliminating separation anxiety.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Behavior by on Jul 1st, 2010.
Puppies love to bite. They do it naturally but it is something that they must be taught not to do. This needs to be addressed while they are young because dog bites can lead to all sorts of problems including legal action.
It may seem fun and funny to have a puppy biting but a full-grown dog can do a lot of damage, particularly to children if they are in the habit of biting. Dogs have immense strength in their jaws and even a playful nip can do permanent damage to a child.
Generally, puppies are taught to control their biting from their mothers but in most cases we get puppies as pets that have been taken from their mothers at a very young age and it is up to us to teach them as puppies not to bite.
By letting your dog socialize with other dogs from a young age they will quickly learn from their elders, provided they have been taught well, that the desire to bite needs to be curbed to avoid retaliation and an ensuing fight. The sooner the puppy is taught not to bite by the owner or by interaction with other dogs, the less aggressive they will become as they grow older and the more pleasant they will be to live with.
Taking a puppy to a dog training school will allow it to interact with other dogs where it will quickly be corrected for any misbehavior. Puppies should generally learn to interact with other dogs within the first three months of their life. The longer this is left the more difficult it becomes for your dog to socialize correctly and they can become dangerous later in life. As with children, the sooner your puppy can learn correct behavior patterns the better they will be in the long term.
It is also wise to get the puppy to behave correctly in the presence of other animals including cats and any other pets that they might come in contact with over their life. There are many items that are available from the pet stores and vets that can give your puppy suitable satisfaction to chew and bite upon. This will allow your puppy to learn what is right and what is not right to bite.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Puppy Training by on Jul 1st, 2010.
So you have a problem with a whining dog? It is not unusual for people to have problems, particularly with puppies whining all day long. Most puppies will outgrow this behavior.
They generally whine for two reasons: For attention and when they are anxious. If they want attention, they will continue to whine if that attention attracts a reward. It is better just to give your dog attention in the form of eye contact rather than a reward to stop it from whining, as a reward will only encourage it to whine all the more.
Often the best solution is to ignore the dog completely until the whining stops no matter how long it might take. When the dog realizes that it is not getting the reward it expects from whining it will tend to stop. An alternative method is to blow a whistle when your dog is whining and when it stops you stop.
Often this method works faster than simply ignoring it. Another reason why dogs whine is because they are anxious. Particularly when nobody is around and they have separation anxiety. This can be more difficult, if you are unable to find somebody to mind the dog when you’re away. Leaving your dog with suitable toys to play with, fresh food and water can assist, and also getting it used to you being away by starting off with shorter periods apart as discussed in a previous newsletter.
Another method to stop your dog from whining is to buy a clicker from a pet store and ignore the whining until it stops. Once the dog stops whining, wait for a few seconds and then click the clicker, and then reward it in some manner. The dog will soon learn that the reward comes from its silence.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Behavior by on Jul 1st, 2010.
It is always a lot easier to teach a puppy the right things to do when they are young, but it is not impossible to eliminate the bad habits of an older dog.
The first step obviously is the need to make sure the dog understands that you are the master so you can gain it’s respect and then you can start the process of training the dog so that it no longer performs the unwanted actions.
It is important to address only one thing at a time and not try to change the way your dog responds to different things all at once. The way you will get an old dog to change is to show it that there is a better outcome from the new behavior pattern than the old one.
This is easiest to do if the dog learns that it will get a reward for making any behavioral changes. The clicker technique works well with old dogs and is not something that is restricted to the training of puppies alone. Be prepared for any training to take longer than it would if you were working with a puppy, however there are other benefits in that an older dog will generally have a longer attention span than a puppy and if you have had the dog for many years they will be more likely to want to please you.
Be assertive but always remain positive and encourage the dog to change.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Tricks by on Jul 1st, 2010.
The Best Dog Food It is important that you select the correct food for your dog. With all the fancy packaging and advertising that is available these days it can be difficult determining what food is best for your dog.
The manufacturers prepare food based on the age of your dog, and the food you buy for an elderly dog might not be suitable for a puppy. Proper nutrition is vital to the health of your dog and its happiness, and it is essential that your pet get all the vitamins and minerals that it needs for a healthy diet.
Here is a list of some of the vitamins and minerals that your dog should have in its diet…
Vitamins A, D, E, B-complex, Biotin, Calcium, Choline, Copper, Folic Acid, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Niacin, Manganese, Pantothenic Acid, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Sodium Chloride and Zinc.
Of course, that is not all but they are certainly ingredients that you should be looking to find in your dogs diet. Giving your dog fresh meat with some vegetables and grain included is a healthy natural diet that many people believe is better than anything you can buy from the store.
There are also some excellent books on creating your own dog food where you can be assured that your dog will get all the best ingredients needed for all-around nutrition. This can be quite a cost effective method of feeding your dog without being concerned that the dog might not be receiving all the ingredients it should for a healthy happy life.
If your dog has any specific health problems, this needs to be addressed when determining what food you should be feeding it. A consultation with your vet would be wise to see if there are any special requirements or problems that certain foods might create for your pet.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
-Adam
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 1st, 2010.
One of the most basic and important commands that you will need to teach your dog is to come when called. No matter what else happens, if you have taught your dog this command you will always be able to maintain control whether at home or in public.
Should your dog ever get off it’s leash or escape from your property you will know that when you call it that it will come back and this certainly makes life a lot easier for the dog owner. For working dogs, this is a vital skill as a handler needs to know that at any time they can get the dog back beside them and ready for their next command.
When you are comfortable that your dog knows the commands of ‘stay’ and ‘come’ you no longer have to be as concerned that it needs to be kept on a leash at all times. This allows both the owner and the dog to have a lot more freedom. Generally, this command of ‘come’ is incorporated when teaching the dog to stay, as these two lessons work hand-in-hand with one another.
The dog is first taught to stay and then the owner will teach the dog to come, while still on an xtended leash. After gaining success in getting the dog to come, while still on a leash, the owner can then teach it to do so without the leash. Obviously for an untrained animal this would be better taught in an enclosed area until the dog has learned to respond to that command.
-Adam
Filed under Come On Command by on Jul 1st, 2010.
One of the first and most important steps in dog training is to get the respect and confidence of your dog. As mentioned in previous newsletters, dogs are pack animals, and there always must be a leader of the pack.
You need to ensure that your dog understands that you are his or her leader. Once you’ve done that you will have gained the respect and confidence of your dog. Having done this will make dog training a whole lot easier for you and a far more pleasurable experience.
Failure to gain the respect of your dog will result in a disobedient animal, as they will not look to you as the lead dog, and it is only the lead dog that they will look to for direction. While most new puppy owners love to give their animal love and affection, they also need to be aware that leadership and respect are equally important.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that leadership and respect are more important, because it is only when you get that from your dog that you can truly enjoy the benefits of having a dog in the family. And the sooner you get your respect and leadership the more enjoyable life will be for both you and your dog, and the sooner and easier it will be to have your dog fully trained.
The longer you leave the process of training your dog the more difficult it will become, as habits of old dogs are harder to break.
-Adam
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 1st, 2010.
