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Showing posts with label Leash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leash. Show all posts

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Dec 13, Dog or Puppy Obedience Training Tips - Crate, Potty, Leash Training a Puppy

When you are looking for puppy obedience training tips, I am sure that you are looking for reliable, proven and easy to apply techniques.

Dog behavior

I believe that you want to learn the dog training techniques that has been used by many professional dog trainers throughout the years.


So, here I will share what I know through reading articles by professional dog trainers and most importantly from my own experience on applying the techniques on my own dogs.


This guide should give you a very good start up right away.

Your dog will come when you call.
Your dog will sit when you give a trained command.
Your dog will not jump on people.
Your dog will not beg at the table.
Your dog will not act too excited when meeting new people.
Your dog will heel on leash and then later walk without leash.Your dog might whine (See: Stop Dog Whining) and beg for food.
Your dog might develop undesired behavior such as biting (See: Stop Puppy Biting) your furniture, shoes or even your hands.
Your dog might develop aggressive behavior later in life and could be dangerous to small kids.
Your dog could become dominate or possessive of certain things such as toys, bed, coach, food bowl and etc.
Your dog might have dog to dog aggression issue.
Your dog might develop separation anxiety.
Your dog might dominant over people, have excessive barking or issue like food aggression.Puppy Obedience Training Command


If you know the possible behavior problems your puppy might develop in future, you know that puppy obedience training is a MUST for your dog.


When you mention about puppy obedience training, most people will think it is about teaching a dog how to listen to your commands. Well, they are partially right because there are actually many types of puppy obedience training.


For example:

Before you start the puppy obedience training, you will have to prepare some dog supplies or equipments. This equipments will help you to train your dog more effectively and efficiently. You could have cut down the time to train your dog in half and use the extra free time to give affection for your dogs.

The equipments that you might need are:-
Dog crate
Dog house
Dog collar
Dog leash
Dog clicker
Dog treats
Dog obedience commands

There are many styles of puppy obedience training. Some are so-called "old schools" style, some are the new dog training techniques. I will share both the training styles so that you can choose which one that is suitable for your dog.

Generally, there are 3 styles:

Dog command training constructs the foundation to the other puppy obedience training. All these basic commands are important for a dog to learn before you move on to the other obedience trainings.

Dog Obedience Training Command

The following are a few basic dog training commands:-

If you allows your dog to be in your house, potty training is the only way to avoid him from messing around in your house. Some people keep their pet dog outside the house, potty training is still needed so that there is a specific location for the dog to release himself.


During the potty training, you will need to select a command to associate to the act of pooping. Example: "Go Potty" or "Potty Time".


Some people think that crate is cruel, and think that it is like a jail for dog. Crate Training your puppy or dog is not cruel, you have to understand that dog is different from people. It is possible to make dog thinks that crate is like his den if you know how to associate crate as a positive environment. The smaller a puppy, the less time you are allowed to put your puppy alone in the crate.


House Training Your Puppy or Dog is the combination of potty training and also crate training. To be successfully housetrain a dog, it could take time from a few weeks to a few months.


If you allow a puppy that is less than 6 months old in your house, you must always keep an eye on him. If you do not have time to look after the dog, he should be in his crate. If accident happened in the house when you are not watching, you are the only person to be blamed. We call this as "handler's problem".


Dog does not understand where he should and should not go to toilet until you teach him.


How long you will have to housetrain your puppy? It is all depends on your dog, your consistency and effort.


As you may know, there are many types of dog collar. Which one should you choose? Personally I like choke collar (during obedience training) and also buckle collar (during other time).


Choke collar is a good training collar. It gives you a better control of your dog behavior compare to other normal collar. It is also known as slip collar.


There are many types and different lengths of leashes as well. Leash training a puppy is never an easy job. Dog leash is not supposed to be pull by dog at her own will. You are the one who determine when she is able to get loose on the leash and when to stay by your side (heel).


Most dog owners conduct puppy obedience training with their voice (command) and body language. One of the problems of the dog training command is that your voice is always in use. This is especially true if you select command like "No" which you will use quite often daily. This makes dog clicker plays an important role in the dog obedience training. Clicker is a small device which will make a sound when you press it. Every time your dog or puppy has done something good, you just click. If you have train your dog with the clicker's sound for a reasonable times, your dog will do the action whenever you make a sound from the clicker.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Feb 4, Leash Training a Puppy | Dogs | Leash Training Dogs | Leather Leash

Leash training a puppy is NOT an easy task. Many dog owners DO NOT know the proper way of leash training their dogs.

Puppy Training

In general, dog leash is usually used together with dog collar (See: Puppy Training Collar and leash is NOT supposed to be pulled by dog in front of human. But, many dog owners allow their dogs pulling on leash, which is not what the leash is designed for.


When a dog is pulling on the leash (picture on the bottom), she puts tension on her neck and the boy's hand which is NOT healthy. The dog may injures herself and also the little boy.


If she is in front of you during walking, she is the alpha dog or the pack leader (Signs of Dog dominance behavior). The right way to walk with dog on leash is she is heeling with you. Heeling means your dog is walking beside you. When you stop walking, she has to stop, when you run, she has to run. You should take the pack leader role and she must listen to you.

Dog Pulls on Leash


I understand that some dog owners do not want control every movement of their loving dog. But you have to understand that dog is different than human. The major mistake of most dog owners is treating dogs like human by giving a lot of affection.


In any unfortunate event, you could cause your dog her life. Example: A dog does not listen to the human's command and she is running towards a busy road. I believe that you do not want this to happen.


Leash training a puppy has the follow benefits:-

You will lead the dog during working, instead of letting she leads you.
Your dog will NOT pull the collar which could injure her neck and also your hand.
Your dog will ignore any interest things beside her and only concentrate on her walk.
Your dog will NOT simply jump on people because she knows that you DO NOT allow that. And you will be able to stop the dog from jumping anytime you want.
Your dog will NOT show any interest in other dogs on the street as she knows that you DO NOT allow that.Dog Heel Leash Training


Many dog owners really like to give more freedom to their dogs. The best is their dogs can walk with them off leash. Well, this is possible.


But first of all, please learn the off leash rules in your area. I understand that some area has strict law on dog owners by restricting the dog owners to put their dog on leash all the time when walking outside. If your area allows you to walk with your dog off leash, you will need to train her.


The process to train a dog off leash is as below:-

Start with a 6 feet leather leash with your dog.
When you are walking your dog outside in park, learn to put the leash loose on the ground and let the dog to pull on the leash on her own.
Test some obedience command like "Come" to see if she still listens to you. If your dog starts to run on her own, you are still able to step on the leash to halt her behavior. You allow your dogs to be within 20-30 feet and still listen to your command.
Depends on how obedience is your dog, you can slowly change with a shorter leather leash (eg: 3 feet), let her walk within 20-30 feet around you.
Slowly cut or change to a shorter leather leash over time until your dog listens to you without leash.

There are a few things that you will have to understand during leash training a puppy. You MUST learn to associate dog leash as a positive thing for her. You MUST NOT associate dog leash as a punishment for her.


If your dog always runs away once she is off leash, one thing I am sure is that your dog associates dog leash as a punishment. So, she thinks that you remove the leash means that you no longer punish her and she can run free.


There are many ways you can correct this unwanted behavior.


Firstly, every time you put on leash, she MUST come to you and not chase her around to put the leash on her. After you put her on leash, you will have to understand her state of mind. If she nervous? Fearful? Or she is comfortable and acts just the same like she is not on leash.


If she acts fearful, she associates the leash as a punishment. In order to train this, every time you put her on leash, give her a treat, so that she will associate leash as a positive reinforcement.


Snap and release strategy on leash training a puppy is a good way to train the dog to listen to you. This is usually used with training collar such as choke or prong collar. Non-training collar is less effective.


Step-by-Step of using Snap and Release Strategy:-

Put on selected collar on your dog. (Training collar is recommended).
Attach a leash on the collar.
You can do any out door activity with your dog. Eg: Take a walk around your neighborhood. The dog MUST heel (walk beside) with you.

When your dog shows undesired behavior like looking at neighbor house, or looking at other dogs, just "Snap" her out from that state of mind by pulling the leash suddenly and release. I am sure that your dog will pay attention at you, and you just need to keep walking.


This can be applicable for any other undesired activities or situations like stop the dog barking at postmen or visitors.Pug Dog Leash Training


If you want buy a leash for your dog, make sure that you are applying the right techniques on how to leash train your dog. This is to avoid any unwanted injury on your dog and also possibly on yourself.

Remember that leash training a puppy takes time. Consistency and patience will pay in a long run.