There is no doubt about the importance of training your dog well, especially if you are looking for a long lasting and healthy relationship with the pet living in your house. This means that the basic rules must be lived by and training your dog to do certain things is important. More important however is the way you go about training your dog.

A dog is incredibly sensitive and learns quickly who the boss is in your home. If a dog is trained with harsh words, yelling and hitting then he will learn to fear you instead of love you. You want to establish a bond with your dog, so that your dog will trust you as a loving caregiver. If the dog expects you to react with anger and physical punishment then you cannot expect to have a loving relationship with a dog who wants to be your companion.

So negative attitudes will make your dog afraid and shy, but doing the complete opposite, training your dog with positive reinforcement will not only speed up the training process but it will also make it so much easier and pleasant. Once your dog is encouraged in a positive way, it will try and start pleasing you and work hard at doing anything you ask of him.

Positive reinforcement means that you will take extra care to praise your dog for actions you require of him and not focusing on those slip up and mistakes he makes.

A good example is your dog having an “accident” around the house. Instead of yelling at him for being a bad boy, just dont give it any attention at all. Not getting any attention from you at all is already a punishment in itself since your dog will always try to get your approval.

However, if you see your dog doing something you approve of and want him to do, make sure you give him a lot of affection and love for doing the right thing. This way your dog will start relating different actions with happy feelings and will start choosing to do those things that will get him that praise.

When training your dog using the positive reinforcement technique, make sure you set your dog up to succeed and not fail.

Teaching your dog to stay stationary and not perform any form of action is a difficult task for an animal to understand. Because you are not asking for your dog to actually ‘do’ something, such as ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’, they have to comprehend how to remain still and hold its current position.

So how do we go about teaching our dog to “stay”?

Using an already known action will make it easier on your dog to learn how to “stay” so ask your dog to sit. Now, instead of going ahead and praising him like you would normally do, this time you will want to add the command “stay” in the same way you asked him to sit. As soon as a few seconds have passed and your dog staying in his position, go ahead and praise him or give a small treat.

You can help him stay in position by staying close to him and make sure there are no distractions that could get his attention. By using your body language you can ensure he will stay still.

If your dog decides to get up and leave before having praised him, repeat the steps by first telling him to sit, and then to stay. Try to praise him before moving on his own so that he can start relating the “stay” command with not doing anything but to stay in position. Gradually you can build up the time your dog needs to stay.

The next step is to start making it a little more complicated by asking your dog to stay and move away a little bit without him moving.

Having a well trained dog is an excellent addition to your family and will give you much pleasure. The first thing is to establish rules and make sure they are always clear to your dog. But apart from teaching your dog what to do and what not, the way you go about it is important to ensure a long and healthy relationship with your pet.

Shouting and yelling at your dog might get the instant result of your dog obeying you, but seeing that dogs are very intelligent and sensitive, this way of “training” them will only make them afraid of you. As a caregiver you are the person they should be able to trust in, in order to have a loving relationship with your companion.

So negative attitudes will make your dog afraid and shy, but doing the complete opposite, training your dog with positive reinforcement will not only speed up the training process but it will also make it so much easier and pleasant. Once your dog is encouraged in a positive way, it will try and start pleasing you and work hard at doing anything you ask of him.

Training your dog with positive reinforcement means that instead of punishing your dog when he does something wrong, you shower your dog with love and affection when he does something right.

Dogs perceive the lack of attention as a punishment in itself so whenever something does go wrong, just dont react to it. During training there are a lot of things that could go wrong, so instead of yelling or punishing your dog, you just dont pay attention to that mistake.

But when you see your dog go to the bathroom where hes supposed to, then shower him with love and affection. He will soon learn that doing his business outside pleases you and he will go out of his way to make it outside whenever possible.

When training your dog using the positive reinforcement technique, make sure you set your dog up to succeed and not fail.

You might have found to be easy to train your dog with all sorts of commands that ask him to perform a certain action but when it comes to teaching your dog to stay, things can be a bit more complicated. After all, we are asking our dog not to move, not to do anything at all.

So how do we go about teaching our dog to “stay”?

The first thing you need to do is make sure your dog already knows the command “sit”. This way you can starting combining an action you require of him, sitting down, with the passive composure we are trying to get from him. So tell your dog to sit and once he is sitting use the same tone in telling him to “stay”. After a few seconds of staying in his position reward you dog with praise or a treat.

Stand close to your dog, as this will help them stay in the position as you are near to them, and they won’t make as much of an attempt to try to get to you. Encourage your dog with body language.

It is very well possible that your dog wont understand what you are asking from him and he will get up. Just go back to the first step and tell him to sit, immediately followed by “stay”. Make sure this time you are not asking him to stay too long so that you can use the praise technique for your dog doing something right, and gradually build up on the amount of time.

The next step is to start making it a little more complicated by asking your dog to stay and move away a little bit without him moving.

Dog separation anxiety is probably one of the most common problems you can encounter with your dog. Dogs are very social animals heavily relying on companion, whether that be the companion of another dog or their human, for their happiness and health they need to engage in plenty social interaction.

In order to solve dog separation anxiety you will need to first understand this anxiety disorder that brings on a state of extreme panic in your dog. The main cause of the distress is the separation or isolation from their owner.

You can normally easily recognize the signs of this problem even though many people think their dog has just been naughty or is asking for attention after having been left alone. Also it is important to understand that some dogs dont mind as much while others go completely out of control.

Springer Spaniels, German Shephards, Airedales and similar dog breeds dont do very well when being left alone, so even before buying a dog you really need to look into the particular type of dog to ensure yourself your dog will be happy in your home.

Shelter dogs also have the fame of being dog separation anxiety prone, not because of their genes but because of the possible traumatic experiences they have been through before ending up in the shelter. Once they are taking in by a loving owner and start building trust it will become very hard for them to left home alone.

Another class of dogs with a higher risk of developing dog separation anxiety are the pups being taken away from their mother too early on in life. This is particularly common in the puppies you can buy in pet stores. They are separated well before the minimum age of 8 weeks and then left in cages waiting for their new owner to come along, which causes feeling of insecurity and anxiety.

So now that you know the particular case in which dog separation anxiety is more prevalent, lets look at why your dog can develop this behavior disorder.

The number one reason for your dog to develop anxiety is neglect. Now this might sound harsh but I am referring to the type of neglect like leaving your dog alone for longer periods of time without having him prepared properly for you absence. Your dog needs a lot of attention, love and company to become a happy and content pet.

Being left alone, your dog will start looking for you and when unable to find you or unable to get to you, all sorts of anxiety symptoms will appear.

Some signs are dogs becoming nervous the moment you are leaving the house (or even as soon as they notice you are preparing to go) and in the extreme cases your dog will completely trash your house while you are away.

Great improvement can be seen when using the right tools and training methods, but completely solving your dogs behavior problem can be a tedious process in this case. Be prepared to properly deal with it the moment you find your dog becoming stressed when you arent around, that will save you a lot of time and effort.

I am happy to let you know that there are very effective ways to deal with your dogs anxiety problems, even if you already have “tried it all”.

As a dog owner myself and having dealt with dog separation anxiety on several occasions already, I know how hard it can be, coming home each time and find that your dog has been chewing on furniture, peeing everywhere and basically trashing the house, not to mention the number of angry calls from the neighbors.