Training a dog

Obedience Training for Dog

New canine owners often assume that their new dogs will automatically behave without formal training. They fail to realize that obedience training is what develops a dog into a compatible companion animal. Without obedience training, a dog may become a nuisance and a source of stress rather than a source of pride and comfort.

With a commitment of time and effort, a dog owner can train his or her dog to become more than a pet. Training will help make a dog well behaved and easy to control. It will also allow owner and dog to form a bond and learn to respect each other. Obedience training is what makes the difference.A commitment of 15 to 30 minutes a day, five days a week for about six weeks is generally required for obedience training. Both young and old dogs can be trained. The sooner the lessons begin, the sooner the owner and dog can begin developing a bonding relationship of mutual respect. However, obedience training for puppies should begin when they are 12 weeks old. Before this, they are not sufficiently mentally, emotionally, or physically developed for obedience training.

Training Your Dog, Why train?

• To teach your dog to be a good canine citizen for the pleasure of your family, neighborhood and community.
• To deepen the bond between you and your dog, and to increase the enjoyment, companionship and satisfaction of your relationship with your dog.
• To keep your dog safe and happy.
• A well-trained dog is a happy dog, and the time taken to train your dog is small considering that the manners will teach him will last the rest of his life. Your reward will be aspecial companion to share your life with.

What is training?

Training a dog is teaching it to do a job for you. Dogs, by nature, are pack animals with a well-defined social order. When you train your dog, you take the role of pack leader. It is not cruel to train a dog. It is cruel to leave a dog not knowing what he or she should or shouldn’t do. Your dog needs to know the rules of the house in order to become part of your family circle and to bond with you. Every breed was developed to do a specific job for people. In our current world the main job for most dogs is to be a good companion. While they may have other jobs such as watching your house or going jogging with you, they are friends first and workers second. All dogs have to be taught to do their jobs. Herding dogs are bred to want to chase animals but must be taught to gather and drive; terriers are bred to chase and kill small animals but have to learn what to hunt and what to leave alone; a retriever must learn to ignore rabbits and to give a fallen bird to a person instead of eating it. Companion or service dogs have to be taught how to do their jobs too. Most dogs were bred to like people but they have to learn to be a good family member and a well-behaved member of the community. No dog knows how to behave without training any more than people do.

When should training start?

Start training early. Start training as soon as you get your dog. Gentle training will help your new companion feel welcome and secure and let him know what the rules are so he won’t get in trouble. The old saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is not true. It is never too late, but it may take longer with an older dog because you may have to spend some time correcting habits he learned before you got him.

Obedience Training

It is a fact that 96% of all dogs relinquished to Animal Services Division have never had a day of obediencetraining. The owners apparently are unhappy with the way the dogs act-but never trained the dog to be agood citizen. Obedience training involves learning the basic exercises sit, stand, down, walk on leash, comeand stay. These exercises are the foundation of all training for any dog/handler activities. A companion dog has good home manners. This means that the dog must be house-trained and learn not to steal food from the table or chew his owner’s clothing. He must be taught not to jump on people, and learn what he may do to keep busy instead of destructive chewing or digging. A companion dog must be a good neighbor. He should be quiet unless there is a reason for barking, he should remain at home, out of the street and neighbor’s yards. He will walk on a leash without pulling you so that you can enjoy going out with him, will sitand stay when you want him to and will come when you call him. In obedience class you can learn how to teach your dog these basics. Your dog will have the chance to learn how to be polite around other peopleand other dogs. It’s a wonderful chance for you and your dog to enjoy each other. A number of schools, clubsand private trainers offer a variety of classes at different levels of training, instructed by trainers who love dogs and training. Most of these have experience with training all breeds, and can help solve behavior problems. Many classes allow you to observe before signing up.

• Puppy Class

House Training and Dog Nature

Dogs are instinctively clean animals. If they can avoid it, they would rather not soil themselves or their usual eating and sleeping areas. Dogs also naturally develop habits of where they would like to eliminate. For example, dogs that have a habit of eliminating on grass or dirt would rather not eliminate on concrete or gravel. You can use these natural tendencies for rapid and successful house training.

Setting Up For Successful House Training

Establish the Living Area

Give your dog a special bed; this can be anything from an open crate to a large cardboard box to a beach towel. In the beginning, she may eliminate in here but once she realizes that this is her special den, she will try to avoid soiling it.

Once your dog gets used to sleeping on her very own bed, you can move it around your house from room to room, where ever you go. Confine your dog to her bed when ever you are somewhere other than her den. If her bed is a crate, simply close the door. If her bed is a towel or blanket, place it next to a piece of furniture and leash your dog so she can’t get out of her bed.

Since you should never leave your dog unattended while leashed, it’s an even better idea to leash your dog to yourself! Tie one end of the leash around your waist or belt loop. Now your dog can accompany you around your home and you can monitor her behavior.

Establish the Toilet Area

Second, establish your dog’s toilet area (this can be on a walk, in your yard, or a specific area of the yard). Every time your dog needs to eliminate be sure she has access to this place. Until she develops a strong habit of eliminating here, it is important that you accompany her every time. If she eliminates some where else, then she’ll be establishing a habit of eliminating there.

To make things easier on both yourself and your dog, you should put your dog on a regular feeding schedule. What goes in on a regular schedule will come out on a regular schedule. If you know when your dog needs to empty out, then you’ll know when to take her to her toilet area. Healthy adult dogs should be able to control their bladder and bowels for eight hours.

It’s important that you do not confine your dog without access to her toilet area for too long. If she can’t hold it, she will be forced to soil herself, her bed or her den. If this happens, it may become a habit and will take much longer to housetrain her.

House Training: Bringing It All Together

Once your dog consistently eliminates in her toilet area and stops soiling her den, then you can start extending her den to the rest of your house. Begin by giving her access to one room at a time, but only when you know without a doubt that her bladder and bowels are completely empty. Let her eat, sleep and play in this room but only when she can be supervised. When you cannot supervise her, either confine her to her bed in that room, or put her back in her den. Once she accepts this room as an extension of her den, then go on to the next room.

Speeding Up the Natural House Training Process

If you follow the instructions so far, your dog will be house trained in due time. One way to speed up the process is to praise and reward your dog each and every time she eliminates in her toilet area. It is equally as important not to reprimand your dog for accidents and mistakes. Reprimand usually confuses the dog and slows down the house training process.

House Training Problems

* If your dog continues to soil her den, either you have left her there too long or the den may be too large an area for her. Take her to her toilet area more frequently or establish her den in an even smaller area.

* If she soils her bed, then you probably confined her there too long and she couldn’t help herself; or she doesn’t understand yet that this is her bed. Urinary tract problems and medical conditions can also cause your dog to soil her bed while she is sleeping.

* Some dogs drink excessive amounts of water out of boredom or habit and therefore have to urinate too frequently. If this is your dog, limit her water, take her to her toilet area more frequently and give her activities to do so she isn’t bored.

* If the den is not properly introduced, your dog may feel as if it is a prison and show signs of anxiety, barking, chewing, whining, etc. Make sure your dog enjoys being in her den.

* If your dog continues to have accidents, immediately take her to see a vet to eliminate an medical reasons for accidents, such as a bladder infection or intestinal parasites.
* A consistent diet of high quality premium brand dry food is recommended.  Avoid table scraps or changing brands unnecessarily.  If you must change brands, do is by mixing the old food with the new food, gradually increasing the proportion of new food over the next week.

Mistakes and Accidents During Training

If you ever find an accident in the house, just clean it up. Do not punish your dog (ie: spanking, rubbing her nose in it).  Punishment only tells the dog that you are angry. It doesn’t tell them what they did wrong or what they should have done.  All an accident means is that you have given her unsupervised access to your house too soon. Until she can be trusted, don’t give her unsupervised free run of your house. If mistakes and accidents occur, it is best to go back to the crate training. You need to more accurately predict when your dog needs to eliminate and she needs more time to develop bladder and bowel control.

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