Dog Training Basics

Archive for October 13th, 2009

If you have adopted an older dog only to learn it has some behavior problems, don’t worry-you can teach an old dog new tricks. Sometimes people adopt dogs that they haven’t had a chance to check out first. The older dog that you are adopting may bring some behavior problems with him. Your new adopted pet may have problems such as aggression, too much barking or even potty training issues. Whichever problem the adopted dog may have, by using the right training techniques with your new pet, you can train him to be a welcome addition to the family.

When first adopting an older dog, be sure to really check it out for any behavior issues. You should check to see if your new pet has aggression issues over his food or territory, or towards other people or dogs. If you do see signs of aggression, you will need to learn how to deal with those issues immediately-and avoid any chance of a biting incident occurring.  In addition to checking for aggression, try to find any other behavior issues needing correction, and whether the dog has previously been trained or not. Check out his previous training by giving him some commands and checking his responses. By his reaction to the commands you will be able to see if he had previous training or not. If your dog reacts with fear to your commands, you may have a dog that was trained with harsh negative techniques. Make sure he is totally house trained to avoid nasty surprises. It is smart to check out your dog thoroughly to find out whether it has problems, so you know what behaviors need solutions first.

The best way to get started training an older dog is to take the advice of the best  professional dog trainers, by using a step by step program that takes you from basic obedience training exercises right  on through more advanced training. By using the step by step techniques of a proven training system, you can avoid making the mistakes that keep you from having good results with your dog’s training. All of the best training programs use only positive training techniques. With positive training you give your dog reward for doing his exercises correctly, and this quickly teaches him how to behave. A good training program will also teach you how to communicate with your dog using body language and vocal tones your dog will best understand. By using the right boy language and voice, you can train your dog much more effectively.

It is important that you learn how to be your dog’s Alpha leader. Once he recognizes you as the pack leader, he will be eager and happy to follow your lead. That is because it is a dog’s essential nature to try to please the superior members of his “pack”-that’s you and your family.

Unless everyone in the household follows the same training regimen, your dog will be confused, and fast training results won’t be as easy to attain. If you use the right training methods, it won’t be long before your new pet has become well behaved, and fits in with his new pack-you and your family. By establishing yourself as the Alpha dog, the pack leader, you will be able to get good results with solving behavior problems your dog may have brought with him.

By training your older dog to be well behaved, he will be a welcome family member, you can rely on to always behave his best in any situation. You adopted your new pet to be a fun new member of your family, so don’t let any behavior issues stop that from happening. So, take the initiative and obedience train that older dog some new tricks, and teach him how to be the best pet he can be.

Please click here for more helpful articles on dog obedience training and solving your dog”s behavior problems.

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During my routine early walk in the morning with my dog, we came across a dog running loose. Normally, that in itself is no reason for alarm. Because I have lots of experience recognizing aggressive body language in dogs, I could tell from a distance that something about this dog was wrong. The approaching dog definitely looked like he could pose a problem to us. Instead of looking friendly, his appearance was quite  aggressive-and he was heading straight for us. Although he wasn’t yet barking and growling,  even before this dog got close to us, it was easy to tell by his aggressive body language that his intentions were not friendly ones. Because I was forewarned, I had a chance to change directions to avoid having to a problem with that dog.

You should also be able to recognize aggressive behavior in dogs, so you can avoid potential dog fights. You have probably noticed how dogs will usually demonstrate to each other who is the dominant dog and who is the submissive dog.  A dog fight normally only occurs when one of the dogs refuses to become submissive to the other dog and when both want to assert their own dominance.

Use the following tips to help learn how to recognize an aggressive dog before any problems can occur. If you see these signs of aggression,  with your own or another dog, you should be ready to defuse what could turn into a dangerous situation by taking immediate action. That may be as simple as  calming and controlling your own pet, or finding a way to avoid a close encounter with the other dog by leaving the area.

• We have all witnessed the body language of aggressive dogs many times. The more dominant dog may hold his head above the other dog’s head, and perhaps might jump up and put his paws over the other dog’s shoulders. Sometimes the dog that is most dominant may try to mount the other dog to prove his point (not because he is looking for a good time).  These dominance displays can cause some problems if one of the dogs does not feel like being submissive .

• When the dominant dog starts to snarl and displays some teeth while doing this, (perhaps even snapping his jaws) it means he is now in a very aggressive mode (not just demonstrating dominance) and this can become  a very real problem. Make sure you control the situation and avoid any chance of the two dogs fighting.

• Another of the ways an aggressive dog  can be recognized is by noticing the strong tension in his body posture-his tail will not be wagging like it should be on a happy dog, and his eyes will be staring straight at his target, while the ears may be held back. The aggressive dogs tail will be held up (but it will not be wagging, unfortunately) and his ears will be held back. Even from a distance you can easily tell this dog is not a happy camper.

• Of the various types of aggressive body language dogs use, one of the easiest to see  is when a dog puts its hackles (the hair on his back) up. For instance the aggressive dog I ran into this morning had his hackles up even before he got close to where we were walking.

When you think about it, you can see that you have observed aggressive body language lots of times, even if you didn’t always recognize what it meant. Since now know what to look for to recognize aggressive body language, you can actively take steps to avoid encounters.

With my own aggressive dogs, until I finally got serious and trained them better, I could  never take them out in public without a leash on them for fear of one of my dogs starting a fight. If you take an aggressive dog of your own with you to a public place, you must be responsible for making sure he doesn’t cause any problems.

The good news is that once you can easily recognize and pay attention to aggressive body language a dog is displaying, you will be able to avoid potential problems. If there is another dog in the area that is acting aggressively, because you recognize the aggressive dog’s body language in advance you can prevent your own dog from  coming in to close contact with that uptight dog. By going in a different direction you can probably avoid having to go through a potentially problematic situation with the other dog. If it is your own dog that is the aggressive dog of the two, you  can take action by really doing a good job of obedience training your dog. You won’t be able to control your dog’s aggressive actions until he recognizes you as the boss of the relationship, and will listen to you when you want him to calm down and not be aggressive.

If you are interested in learning lots of great techniques for training you dog at home read my review of  the best on line dog training program. Using these tips and positive reinforcement techniques, training my own dogs is much easier and effective than it used to be.

For more free helpful advice for dog obedience training and solving your dog’s behavior problems, please click here to visit www.BehaveDoggy.com.