Dog Training

All dogs will need some training as without training, a dog will be a dog and do what dogs typically do. A dog training collar can help reinforce commands and signals and help the dog not only alter its natural behavior but also learn what the owner wants it to do.

Usually a dog training collar will emit a small shock when the person offering the training presses a button on the remote control. When the dog feels the shock, applied usually to the throat, and hears the negative command, chances are they will stop the behavior that resulted in slight pain. Once the dog understands that a firm no means a shock is coming, the dog training collar may not be needed.

If your dog barks a lot a dog training collar can shock the dog everytime the dog barks. Normally the dog will learn pretty quickly that if it barks it will be shocked and will decide that barking is not worth the pain. For those who shy away from shocking their animal, a no-bark dog training collar has been developed that emits a short spray of a lemon scented mist towards the dog’s nose. Its unpleasant odor will remind the dog not to bark, without the electric shock.

Shocks Can Help Guide Your Dog

Some dog owners and professional trainers are using electric dog training collars as part of a training regimen to help the dog learn new tricks, and not just to stay off the furniture and not to jump up on people. Usually if you slap your leg and tell the dog to come, you will probably get a dumb look. If you tell him to come and he gets a slight unpleasant shock, he may listen a little better.

If you are using a radio fence containment system you must make sure it is installed correctly and there is no threat of serious injury to your pet. Keep in mind that once your dog when wearing its dog training collar knows where its boundaries are even if you shut off the power to the underground fence, the dog will be reluctant to cross that line, even at your urging.

You should also keep in mind that a dog training collar is not something the dog needs to wear its entire life. Once their behavior can be changed by the issuance of verbal commands, the collar has done its job.

Benjamin Brook
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-training-collar-supplements-voice-commands-109614.html

Let’s face it, for many people training their dog is a struggle that sooner or later leads them to just give up and let their dog do whatever he pleases. Then they ask themselves why they have such a disobedient dog. More experienced dog owners know that dog training is something that is always going on. Whenever they are with their dog they are always training him. Going for walks, playing in the park, even just relaxing around the house are all opportunities to teach.

Dogs by nature are curious creatures who get easily bored. If there is not a proper outlet for this boredom they will find something to do. And to a dog who doesn’t know the difference chewing up a shoe or digging holes in the yard is neither good nor bad. It’s just something to do. The more a dog learns to please himself and do whatever he wants the less control his owner will have. A disobedient dog does not just happen; by ignoring, mistreating or being lackadaisical about training him he will learn all sorts of bad behaviors all by himself.

Dogs love to please their owners but without feedback they have no idea if they are doing right or wrong. Everything is the same to them. This is why it is important to praise a dog when they are being obedient. Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful dog training tools a dog owner can use.

Many people do not realize the amount of work needed to train some of the more amazing dogs they see on TV or here about in news reports. Police dogs, seeing eye dogs, military dogs can take a good year of intense training to get them to the point where they can even start working in that capacity. And their training never stops. Dogs do not come trained and they will not learn simply because they inhabit the same space as their owners. Dogs have no inborn sense of right and wrong; everything is the same to them, unless they are taught.

Dog training is all about teaching a dog good behavior. Repetition is the name of the game when it comes to having an obedient dog. Combined with praise for a job well done a dog will soon learn what its boundaries are and who is actually in charge. The first thing every dog should learn is their name. This is what gets their attention and simply saying it should stop them dead in their tracks from whatever they are doing. From there on a dogs training should be a daily routine; housetraining, sitting, staying, not barking or jumping up on people, these are things that will make life with a dog easier and much more enjoyable.

Andrew Bicknell
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-training-tips-for-the-new-dog-owner-137486.html

Let’s face it, for many people training their dog is a struggle that sooner or later leads them to just give up and let their dog do whatever he pleases. Then they ask themselves why they have such a disobedient dog. More experienced dog owners know that dog training is something that is always going on. Whenever they are with their dog they are always training him. Going for walks, playing in the park, even just relaxing around the house are all opportunities to teach.

Dogs by nature are curious creatures who get easily bored. If there is not a proper outlet for this boredom they will find something to do. And to a dog who doesn’t know the difference chewing up a shoe or digging holes in the yard is neither good nor bad. It’s just something to do. The more a dog learns to please himself and do whatever he wants the less control his owner will have. A disobedient dog does not just happen; by ignoring, mistreating or being lackadaisical about training him he will learn all sorts of bad behaviors all by himself.

Dogs love to please their owners but without feedback they have no idea if they are doing right or wrong. Everything is the same to them. This is why it is important to praise a dog when they are being obedient. Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful dog training tools a dog owner can use.

Many people do not realize the amount of work needed to train some of the more amazing dogs they see on TV or here about in news reports. Police dogs, seeing eye dogs, military dogs can take a good year of intense training to get them to the point where they can even start working in that capacity. And their training never stops. Dogs do not come trained and they will not learn simply because they inhabit the same space as their owners. Dogs have no inborn sense of right and wrong; everything is the same to them, unless they are taught.

Dog training is all about teaching a dog good behavior. Repetition is the name of the game when it comes to having an obedient dog. Combined with praise for a job well done a dog will soon learn what its boundaries are and who is actually in charge. The first thing every dog should learn is their name. This is what gets their attention and simply saying it should stop them dead in their tracks from whatever they are doing. From there on a dogs training should be a daily routine; housetraining, sitting, staying, not barking or jumping up on people, these are things that will make life with a dog easier and much more enjoyable.

Andrew Bicknell
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-training-tips-for-the-new-dog-owner-137486.html

I currently have my 5 month old in puppy class. I was going to go through all 4 classes at Petsmart, but now I’m thinking I could save about $300.00 and teach my dog the same things (and probably more), if I invest in a good book or DVD. Any suggestions? I’d prefer a DVD, but books are fine too. That way I can also apply the training to our other two dogs at the same time.
I do have a clicker… I was very impressed with how easy and quickly she responded to it. I take my dogs to the dog park so they do a lot of socializing there. I’m just not very impressed with the training I’m getting. Asking questions is hard, because I think the trainer is more distracted than the dogs.

The ‘for dummies’ series are always good. But, please ask your vet for listings of other local obedience clubs (surely some are cheaper) & do take your pup to a formal class. The benefits are as much about socializing your pup as is about teaching manners. That is something you can’t get with home schooling.

There is new evidence everyday that points to the soothing effects of pet ownership. Many studies have shown that you can actually lower your blood pressure simply by petting a cat or dog. If you have kids a dog or cat can help them learn responsibility and help them learn to care about the needs of others as well as their own. But if your adult dog makes frequent messes in the house that can create an enormous amount of stress. How can you stop their bad habits? Is house training an adult dog possible?

There are a few things about dogs that are important to remember. For one thing, dogs are very clean by nature. They are den animals and don’t like to soil their den. They will try very hard to not relieve themselves near their bed, food or water. Dogs are also very intelligent. Most of them can be easily trained. They really do love you and want to please you. It’s just a matter of finding the right way to ‘communicate’ with your best friend so house training an adult dog can be frustration and confusion free.

House training an adult dog may not even be about a lack of training. If you have an un- neutered or un- spayed dog the urinating in the house could be more an element of marking their territory than lack of training. This is especially likely if you have a male dog, more than one dog in the household and your dog isn’t neutered.

Obviously the first thing you should try is to get your dog spayed or neutered. This will very likely take care of the problem right away since neutered and spayed dogs are less interested in marketing their territory. This may be all the house training you need.

If the dog has been marking it’s territory for a fairly long time getting them ‘fixed’ may not help right away. The marking behavior may have become more of a habit and it might take a little more effort to get them to break that habit.

Clean the spots they have marked with a non ammonia solution. Ammonia smells like pee and might encourage them to re-mark the spot. Once the spot has been cleaned put their food bowl there. This will make that area seem like their den and they will be unwilling to soil it.

This should stop the territory marking habit fairly quickly. If you want more tips on house training an adult dog you should get a copy of ‘The Ultimate House Training Guide’. Written by a dog trainer with the assistance of veterinarians this guide can make house training an adult dog much easier.

You and your dog share a very wonderful and unique bond. Don’t let bad habits ruin the time you spend together. House training an adult dog is easy if you have the right tools and know what to do and what not to do.

Anne Barrett
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/house-training-an-adult-dog-755503.html

I am 25 and do voluntary work at a local animal shelter and have been there for 8 years and have unofficially re-trained a lot of rescue dogs and rehomed them successfully, but my friends believe i should do dog training professionally, how can i go about this?

* Offer in-home services for the adoptive families of dogs you’ve been working with. If you’re more comfortable, you can start by offering this for free and move up to charging an hourly rate for in-home visits

* Get out and meet local trainers in your area. Tell them that you’re interested in transitioning to being a professional trainer. Many trainers offer apprenticeship programs. Even if a trainer doesn’t offer apprenticeship, forming a relationship with lots of trainers gives you a chance that they will refer business opportunities to you. I’m currently building a part-time training business and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many referrals I’m getting from my own trainers and instructors.

* Take classes locally, or watch classes. As part of the above bullet, talk to lots of trainers and tell them you’re looking for opportunities to be assistant trainer in Basic or other classes.

* Join APDT (American Pet Dog Trainers). They have a great email list network of trainers and a monthly training journal called "APDT Chronicle of the Dog" as well as annual conferences and discounts on training seminars (http://www.apdt.com). They will also list you in their directory of trainers.

* Don’t miss any opportunity to watch and learn from other trainers. Even if a trainer does not use a training style you particularly care for, pay a lot of attention to what works and what doesn’t work and why

* Read, read, read. There are a wealth of fabulous books out there on training, behaviorism, dog psychology, physiology, and more. Become as familiar as possible with behavioral terms and concepts and with various training styles and trends. Learn how behavior can be affected by physical factors. Read case studies of the many, many different causes (and therefore solutions) for nuisance barking or destructiveness or house training issues or reactive behavior, etc. Subscribe to training magazines and journals. Use the library if you don’t have the money to stock your own bookshelves, but don’t spare the written word.

* If you don’t currently participate in any dog sports like agility or obedience or Rally obedience (or a host of others), that can be a great way to hone your training skills while getting out to meet like-minded people. I have found that practice sessions and trials are a fantastic way to network, far more so than classes, because you have quite a bit of time to relax and socialize while waiting for your turn.

* Have a little resume of dog experience handy that you can share with prospective clients or trainers. This gives you a chance ahead of time to think about your strengths and perhaps also to notice some weak areas where you might want to try to get more experience.

Good luck! Training can be tough but also very rewarding!

I am 25 and do voluntary work at a local animal shelter and have been there for 8 years and have unofficially re-trained a lot of rescue dogs and rehomed them successfully, but my friends believe i should do dog training professionally, how can i go about this?

* Offer in-home services for the adoptive families of dogs you’ve been working with. If you’re more comfortable, you can start by offering this for free and move up to charging an hourly rate for in-home visits

* Get out and meet local trainers in your area. Tell them that you’re interested in transitioning to being a professional trainer. Many trainers offer apprenticeship programs. Even if a trainer doesn’t offer apprenticeship, forming a relationship with lots of trainers gives you a chance that they will refer business opportunities to you. I’m currently building a part-time training business and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many referrals I’m getting from my own trainers and instructors.

* Take classes locally, or watch classes. As part of the above bullet, talk to lots of trainers and tell them you’re looking for opportunities to be assistant trainer in Basic or other classes.

* Join APDT (American Pet Dog Trainers). They have a great email list network of trainers and a monthly training journal called "APDT Chronicle of the Dog" as well as annual conferences and discounts on training seminars (http://www.apdt.com). They will also list you in their directory of trainers.

* Don’t miss any opportunity to watch and learn from other trainers. Even if a trainer does not use a training style you particularly care for, pay a lot of attention to what works and what doesn’t work and why

* Read, read, read. There are a wealth of fabulous books out there on training, behaviorism, dog psychology, physiology, and more. Become as familiar as possible with behavioral terms and concepts and with various training styles and trends. Learn how behavior can be affected by physical factors. Read case studies of the many, many different causes (and therefore solutions) for nuisance barking or destructiveness or house training issues or reactive behavior, etc. Subscribe to training magazines and journals. Use the library if you don’t have the money to stock your own bookshelves, but don’t spare the written word.

* If you don’t currently participate in any dog sports like agility or obedience or Rally obedience (or a host of others), that can be a great way to hone your training skills while getting out to meet like-minded people. I have found that practice sessions and trials are a fantastic way to network, far more so than classes, because you have quite a bit of time to relax and socialize while waiting for your turn.

* Have a little resume of dog experience handy that you can share with prospective clients or trainers. This gives you a chance ahead of time to think about your strengths and perhaps also to notice some weak areas where you might want to try to get more experience.

Good luck! Training can be tough but also very rewarding!

Hello fellow dog trainers and people alike. Now, a lot of people have contacted me recently to ask me to cut down my detailed articles on dog training and to just give the main key points that they need to get going with dog behaviour training in a relatively quick period of time. It should still be noted that successful dog behaviour training requires some time and patience at the best of times, but all the same you should find the following definitve list useful, it contains the top 5 tips to any successful dog training that you ideally need for maximum success. Please take some time to read this article and you should find it makes a huge difference to your dog behaviour training success. Here we go:

1. Get your dog’s attention

Before you can start training your dog you first need to get its attention, this may sound like teaching grandma to suck eggs to you but you would be surprised how many people overlook this and just carry on trying to train a dog who isn’t really even paying attention to them in the first place! There are some easy ways to get your dogs attention such as simply talking to him and offering him a small treat in reward for his attention – dogs soon get to know and catch on quickly to this and you will notice this working very quickly.

2. Give praise

Time and time again it is the simplest and most obvious things that people neglect to do when training their dog, and surprisingly one of the most common (and most essential of the lot) is to give your dog praise when he does something right,as this helps to complete his association between your voice pattern and whether he has done good or bad. Whenever your dog obeys you and does something correct, make sure you give him plenty of praise and you will soon notice a change in his behaviour, even over just a short period of time, it’s that effective!

3. Reprimanding

When it comes to successful and effective dog behaviour training, giving a stern reprimand is just as important as offering plenty of praise as both are required to complete your dog’s association between your tone of voice and his behaviour. People come to me all the time with the issue that they just feel too horrible when they tell their dog off and they shy away from it. This is not good as if a dog is not told when he has done something wrong, then he will continue to do it knowing no different. You need to reprimand when needed to make all this work.Now, just to clear something up that is not always understood so well, to reprimand does not mean hitting your dog! This is totally wrong and will not help your dog behaviour training at all. Instead., any time your dog is engaging in bad behavior, use the opportunity to teach him the ‘stop!’ or ‘no!’ command. Using the ‘stay!’ command can also be effective in these situations and is good to use.

4. Use the right dog behavoiur training tools

There is no good trying to train your dog if you don’t have the necessary tools and supplies to do the job, you wouldn’t really try to train a dog to obey your ‘sit’ commands without taking him out on a lead for a while would you? No, of course you wouldn’t and it’s another key factor in any successful dog behaviour training program. If you have a well behaved dog, then a 6 ft lead and a regular collar will easily suffice and will do the job nicely. However if you have a dog that is slightly more uncontrollable and unpredictable, then you should use a special training collar. You also need to make sure the collar is the right size (an uncomfortable dog is much less likely to play ball!) which you can do by measuring the dogs’ neck and adding about 2 inches, this should give a pretty good estimate of which collar you need to buy for your dog.

5. Do a little dog behaviour training every day

Don’t rush dog training. Trying to fill a dog’s head with too much information will more than likely end up working against you just in the same way a child would trying to learn the entirety of a subject in just one lesson, it doesn’t work. Teach your dog one command at a time and don’t move on until he gets it, keep at it and persistence will pay off.

Well there we go, I have listed the 5 most important and most essential tips you will probably ever learn when it comes to successful dog behaviour training. So please take them on board and make sure they are a firm part of your dog behaviour training program today and you will see dramatic improvement in your dog’s behaviour and how quickly your dog’s behaviour training improves. Please check back soon as I post regular dog training updates and articles that should really make a difference to you and your dog, or you can easily subscribe to my RSS feed at: dog behaviour training RSS feed.

Steven James
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/the-essential-5-dog-behaviour-training-tips-92964.html

When it comes to dog training, there are several factors that will affect whether or not your approach is successful. In addition to being comfortable with the environment and the person handling the training, your puppy or dog must become familiar with a schedule. As the trainer, you must consider a number of factors that will help you to provide the proper training that your dog needs to get him/her started on the road to discipline and good behavior.

Convenience. Although some dogs can be professionally trained as rescue or medical respondents, the majority of pet owners simply want their animals to respond to common commands. Therefore, a convenient and easy to understand approach at dog training will be the most effective. Most pets respond to positive reinforcement, which involves rewarding them with a treat, praise and strokes when they have done something right. If a training program is too complicated, it may require the help of a professional trainer. For standard training, a convenient approach is more likely to produce results.

Cost. When you add up the cost of food, supplies and veterinarian expenses, the cost of a pet is anything but cheap. Unless it involves specialized rescue or medical purposes, training your pet shouldn’t be something that costs a fortune. Enrolling your four-legged friend in dog training classes can be pricey, which is why many pet owner opt for training their puppies and dogs at home with a little help from books, videos and/or training programs. These methods often provide valuable insight and allow pet owners to receive the same results as a trainer could furnish, but at a fraction of the cost.

Training methods. When it comes to dog training, the approach that you use will ultimately determine whether or not your attempt is a success or failure. Dog or puppy training should always involve gentle treatment and never include physically or verbally harming your animal. Pets respond to the tone of your voice and positive reinforcement but, during no time, will instilling fear in an animal ever improve your training results. The best and most effective method will include rewards when your pet obeys and ignoring them when they refuse.

Persistence. As with most things in life, results take time. Successful dog training will not occur overnight but, given time, will prove to be a valuable asset to both you and your dog. In order to achieve the best results, you must be willing to spend time working with your pet on a daily basis and continually train your pet even if the task takes more time than you originally thought. In the beginning, responses may be slow or even non-existent. With persistence, you will start to notice a change in your pet that will last a lifetime.

Patience. When it comes to dog training, patience is truly a virtue. Because your puppy or dog doesn’t have the ability to communicate in a verbal way, it will take time to teach him/her how to respond to your voiced commands and tone. When you initially start to train your dog, he/she may not respond at all or may even become anxious if they sense that you have treats in your hand or pocket. The key is to have patience with your pet as he/she tries to learn what you desire of them and how best to achieve it.

Brian Dolezal
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/top-5-characteristics-of-successful-dog-training-techniques-95523.html

i recently ordered pit bulls for dummies, and will soon acquire a copy of dog training for dummies.

the lady that lives downstairs from me gave me a book titled ‘Smarter than you Think’ and it tells you to throw things at your dog to teach it to come, and to stick a match in its butt to poop, and not trust dog food companies, and all this weird stuff, not too sure about that book.

any other suggestions? or tips?

When I had just got my APBT I went to my local library’s site and in the keyword box i put Pit Bull and it came up with alot of good books that were really useful so try looking up your library. They have alot of info on APBTs. Good luck