Aug 19 2010

How To Prevent Your Dog Or Puppy From Embarrassing You With Others

There are many ways you could learn How to prevent your dog or puppy from embarrassing you. The biggest way to help your puppy or dog is through some basic training and obedience classes.

If you have a puppy, beginning obedience training classes as soon as they are part of your family is recommended. The sooner they realize that you are the leader of the pack and that they need to listen to what you are saying and commanding them to do, the better it will be for both you and the puppy.

Just as children need love, attention and boundaries, so do puppies; they need to know they are loved and cared for as well as where their boundaries are. Training a puppy can be rewarding and frustrating at the same time but well worth the efforts when they begin to grow into well behaved dogs.

A good dog or puppy full of energy could be most embarrassing when someone comes to your house for a visit and the animal bounds around the corner and jumps up on the guest, practically knocking them to the ground. What is more difficult is if the person visiting does not particularly care for dogs.

To prevent your puppy or dog from jumping on visitors, even family members like grandma, it is important to teach them a simple command like a sit stay or a down stay which you can put them in before answering the door. A dog that can master this basic command will stay in this position no matter what is going on around them.

Learning good dog behavior is important for puppies and dog and they can get this type of learning experience through a dog school. They can also learn how to control excess energy that could cause their owners embarrassment. It will depend on the amount of effort an owner puts into the dogs training as well as the dog’s breed as to how long it will take them to understand the many commands it takes to lean to be a well behaved dog.

There is another command that is important to the control of a dog or puppy and that is the command ‘leave it’. This tells the dog not to sniff, touch or go after something they want. For example if you and your dog are going for a walk and another individual with their puppy are approaching and are going to pass you and your dog, you would want to say leave it as you pass the other dog because your dog will want to sniff or investigate the other animal. This could be embarrassing if the dogs begin to sniff each other in the proper manor which is sniffing each others back side. Proper dog etiquette is to sniff the bottom, not the face because some dogs will bite or growl if approached in the face.

An exercise that dogs and their owners will practice as dog school is the ‘greet and meet’. These workouts have the class split into two groups and then stand on either side of the room. The groups walk up to each other and stop about a foot or so apart and place their dogs on a sit stay while they greet each other with a handshake. The dogs must remain clam and not bark or jump up or run away. The second part of this exercise is to have each person swing their arm out and over the dogs head and pat the person on the shoulder.

Learning How to prevent your dog or puppy from embarassing you takes a lot of effort and time on the part of the owner but it will be worth it to have a dog that is well behaved at all times. A commitment to practice with your dog is also needed and to follow through with that commitment so that you and your dog are working towards a goal of no more embarrassing moments either in the house or in public.

Puppy training can be frustrating. Training a dog requires discipline and consistancy. When experiencing problems, consult a professional.

Jan 16 2010

Dog Training Shows How Much An Owner Loves A Pet

One of the things that really angers most dog lovers is when they see an animal whose dog training has clearly been neglected. While some people may think dog training oppresses their animals, in fact it’s just the opposite. A truly loving pet owner will see that his or her animal gets the best training possible.

Skeptics might think this is nonsense, but recent research shows otherwise. Thanks to ultrasound machines, which can take pictures of puppies in their mother’s womb, researchers have found that puppies will respond to touch or pressure on their mother’s abdomen as early as four weeks into pregnancy. This amazing discovery has shown that petting a pregnant dog will produce a litter of puppies that are more docile and have a well-developed sense of touch. This in turn helps with relaxation, emotional attachment and most importantly, socialization with people, according to dog experts.

About three weeks after they’re born, puppies entertain into a behavioral period known as socialization. Between three and 12 weeks, the main task of puppies is social play. The investigate, they “play-fight, ” and they mimic sexual behaviors. Their subsequent behavior is shaped by the puppies interaction with their mother and littermates.

Unfortunately for dogs, humans for centuries had an attitude that it was necessary to “break a dog’s spirit” in order to train them properly. This attitude resulted from humans’ sense that they had to dominate their animals in order to control them properly. Thankfully over the last century or so, animal experts have learned much about the natural instincts and behaviors of dogs so that puppy training has advance from this earlier, more cruel attitude.

Without proper training, life with a dog can turn disastrous. It’s not right to blame an untrained dog when it chews up an owner’s belongings, does its “business” in the house, digs house in the garden, fights with other dogs or even bites the hands that feed it. These are all natural behaviors among canines, but without training a dog has no way or knowing when these activities are inappropriate for the time or place.

Dogs that are petted and cuddle by people frequently during their first eight weeks of life tend to be better suited to living in a household as a family pet. Ideally puppies should be situated in their owners’ homes between eight and 10 weeks. By 10 to 12 weeks, puppies can be more fearful or new things and new situations, which can impede their adaptation to their new homes.

Group training classes for puppies may not be available until the pup has had all its vaccinations, which occurs around three to four months of age. However sometimes a kennel or trainer will offer puppy socialization classes, in which the dog can be used to getting along with other puppies. This can be a good first step toward a more structure dog training class in the future.

One thing that is never, never, never appropriate in dog training is to strike, hit or physically abuse a dog in any way. Dogs, especially puppies, quickly become devoted to their owners and physical abuse will destroy that relationship. Always train a dog with firmness, but with patience and lots of love.

Dogs can become more loyal, obedient, and affectionate towards their owners through vigorous puppy training. Enroll your canine companion in some dog training Kelowna today!