Dog Training Basics

Archive for May 12th, 2009

Probably one of the biggest headaches involved in having dogs for pets is potty training puppies. Puppies do not have a switch you can flip to have them go potty and they can't understand any verbal command unless they were trained to. Getting a puppy to do its business where and when you want it to does not involve rocket science. The one major requirement one needs to complete this task is a large amount of patience. Just as long as you stay consistent with your dog training, you'll have no problems potty training a puppy.

Getting them to go by understanding their nature

Animals act instinctively and they don't consider the pros or cons of a situation before deciding about it. Knowing this can really help you in learning how to potty train them. Puppies are like blank slates, they posses the instincts but they're still in the trial and error phase of discovering how to satisify certain drives. Urinating and defecating is a drive but, contrary to what most people think, puppies don't just stop whatever they are doing and do their business. Keep your eye on them when they get the urge, puppies often run around looking and sniffing until they find a good spot and then do what they need to do.

This is where the training in potty training puppies comes in. You have to teach your puppy to decide on a specific location to do their business so each time that they get the urge to go potty they go precisely where you want them to go. You do it this way? You'll need to use something that has an earthy or musky scent, something that is distinctive so that that, when they smell it, they can easily associate the smell with doing its business. You can purchasecommercially manufactured potty training sprays in pet stores or you can go hands-on and put a small amount of your pet's urine in a spray bottle when it does its business.

Whether you decide on the commercial spray or the hands-on method, the conditioning phase remains the same: when your puppy shows signs of needing to go potty, prepare a large pile of newspapers and keep your god within the area of the newspaper. Spray a small amount of the scent agent on the news paper. Let the puppy move around there and get comfortable. Once the puppy does its business gently hold its head near the spot you sprayed the agent close enough for the puppy to sniff the scent. Duplicate this for about 12 weeks each and every time the dog needs to do its business.

By doing the previous steps, you can get either of the two results or both. The puppy can associate doing its business to a newspaper or the scent, this means that whenever the puppy needs to go potty, it will either search for a newspaper or sniff around for a scent, either result leads to a properly potty trained puppy and worry free maintenance for you.

As mentioned earlier potty training puppies requires a generous amount of patience but aside from that it is actually a pretty easy thing to do.

Excessive barking is the plague of dog owners everywhere. It is in a dog’s genes to start barking in certain situations, different types of dog are more inclined to bark than others. It is extremely sad and one of the main reasons that alot of dogs get left along at animal shelters.

Stopping bad barking behaviors is actually quite easy to accomplish. The first thing to remember is that it is paramount to remember that you will not prevent your dog from stopping barking forever. Nature has already harwired your dog so that this comes naturally. If it is a quiet life you are after, away form dogs barking, then you should be looking elsewhere for a pet. A dog will bark if fearful, worried, trapped or when seeing another dog. These types of behaviors should not be discouraged.

Some owners attempt this through the use of shock or spray collars. Devices such as t. They deliver an electric shock each time the dog barks. The makers of such collars would have you believe that the shock they provide is no more that what you would get from static in your car, this is simply untrue. Collars such as these do fail, they do have faults and can end up shocking your dog without the dog doing anything whatsover.

A much more effective way to stop bad barking behaviors is through simple distraction. For instance, if a strange person is invited in to your house and your dog constantly barks at them, state the command “no” in an assertive tone and distract their mind by giving them something. Avoid shouting at or hitting your dog for barking. This can be very confusing for them. Any dog training is achieved through being consistent. At every occurrence of your dog barking when you do not want it to you should give the same reprimand following by the same distraction.

Praise them when they play with their toy instead of barking, in a light and excited tone of voice. As it is genetically implanted for your dog to want to please you they will begin to understand what is required of them and keep quiet in anticipation of making you happy. Repetition is the key, as with all training. Treat and reprimand enough times so that your dog gets what is expected of it.