The Walk - Walking a Dog

The Walk - Walking a Dog

The proper way to walk your dog on a leash: pack walks


Walk your dog, do not let your dog walk you. If you allow your dog to walk in front of you while on a lead you are reinforcing in the dog's mind that the dog is alpha over you because the leader always goes first. This can lead to many behavioral issues that some regard as a "breed trait" or "personality," when actually it is your dog being in charge of its humans. When a dog walks in front, it does not drain its mental energy. The dog is not relaxed, as it has the big responsibility of leading the pack. This mental anguish can build up inside of a dog. When a dog is hyper or high-strung it means the dog is not getting the proper amount and/or type of exercise. If your dog runs laps around your yard or house, this is an indication that it is not getting enough exercise.

How to stop Puppy Biting Problem

How To Stop Puppy Biting Problems
There a lots of proven training methods to help correct your puppy's behavioral problems. Before I get into the specific techniques you can use to stop your puppy from biting, always keep these general dog behavior training rules in mind:

    Puppy socialization and bite inhibition training go hand in hand.

    Never slap or hit your puppy in the face. This does not work! Your puppy will just think you are playing or could become afraid of you. This may even lead to some much bigger problems than simple puppy nipping.

    The general rule to stop puppy biting problems is to always encourage acceptable behavior and always discourage unacceptable behavior. To learn more about this fundamental rule of dog obedience training (including how to stop biting problems) visit Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.

    While you are trying to stop your puppies from biting, never play tug of war, wrestling or chase type games with them. This only encourages the biting and nipping.

    Whichever method you choose to train your puppy the golden rule is be consistent. This means that you and anyone else who comes into contact with your puppy must enforce your chosen strategy every time your pup takes a nip.

    If you don't clearly communicate to your dog that the biting is unacceptable, he will not know he is doing anything wrong. It's up to you to show him what is acceptable behavior, don't just expect your puppy to know this! (You are really taking on the role of his littermates for this task).

    Another (extreme) reason puppies can bite is if they are trying to assert their dominance over you. If this is the case with your puppy, it must be stopped immediately. When you have a dominant puppy his biting will only be the beginning of many behavioral problems. To learn how to establish your position as the dominant one or leader in your owner-dog relationship

Puppy House Training

Puppy House Training - General Rules

    Owning a puppy is a big commitment for all family members, especially in the first few days and weeks.

    Puppy potty training is not a race, the key is to prevent mistakes and establish good habits early - dogs are creatures of habit. puppy house training

    From your dogs point of view there is no right or wrong place to go to the toilet, they feel like going and just do it. It is our job to clearly communicate and reinforce where it is acceptable to eliminate and also where it is not acceptable.

    Opening your back door every couple of hours to let your puppy out will not house train your puppy.

    A puppy's natural instinct is to keep their bedding/sleeping area clean - the potty training method outlined below utilizes this knowledge to our advantage.

    No matter how attentive and diligent you are in the house training process there is bound to be the odd slip up. Don't worry about it just ensure that you clean mistakes up thoroughly, including the use of an odor neutralizer to take away any lingering smell.

    My puppy house training strategy involves close supervision and confinement to start with but only so we can allow our puppies greater freedom and much sooner.

    Understand your puppy's capabilities and be realistic, keep in mind you are dealing with a very young animal. Young puppies can only hold on for so long before they need to go, they don't have much control early on. As a general rule a puppy can hold on an hour for every month of his/her age, plus another hour. This means that a 2 month old puppy can be expected to hold on for three hours and at 3 months old this same pup could be expected to hold on for four hours at a time.

    Develop a dog food and water schedule. Each day feed at the same time (never close to bed time) and take away your dogs water bowl before you go to bed (don't forget to put it back first thing in the morning!). You'll develop a routine this way and "what goes in on schedule comes out on schedule", if you know what I mean...