Everything About Dogs

Training your puppy to go up and down the stairs is not difficult at all. In fact it can be time well spent together with your puppy and it definitely enjoy the session. When you puppy first encounter the stairs, it might be quite intimidating for it. So if possible, try to start your puppy training on a short flight of stairs. If you have no choice, you can try using only the first 5 to 6 steps from the bottom of the flight of stairs.

Puppies have not developed their sense of perception and depth reading in their early years. Thus navigating up and down a long stairway is frightening to the young puppies. In the beginning, it is always recommended to use a short stairway to prevent your puppy from freezing in fear and uneasiness when it is on the higher stairs. Always be positive and encouraging to your puppy and avoid rushing your puppy too fast up or down the stairs. Such impatience may result in your puppy injuring itself and it may induce an association of fear with any staircase that she may come across, even after she grow up into an adult dog.

For a start, in order to have your puppy follow you up and down a set of stairs, you have to use a motivator like a nice treat that it loves. Use only small piece of the treat at a time ( break the bigger treat into several pieces ) to motivate your puppy up and down the stairs. Using smaller amounts of treat is to prevent your puppy from getting full too quickly and lose interest.

Start by placing the treat on the step which is one step above or below where your puppy is at. Again if possible, start with your puppy at the bottom step. Then slowly help her work her way up the 5 steps before descending back down the flight of steps. For example, if you try to start your puppy from the top of the stairs, it will get extremely hard to get it to climb down. Many people find that if you can get your puppy to follow the treats up the stairs, it seemed natural for the puppy to follow the trail of treats back down.

Remember to be patient with your puppy. Every time it makes to a new step, give your puppy attention by enthusiastically petting it and giving it a lot of praise with a happy and bright tone of voice. This way your puppy will be encouraged and it will want to do it again. Repeat this puppy training on the stairs until your puppy can successfully go up and down the stairs.

Teaching your dog to heel is one of the most basic and important dog training commands you can teach. With an active and younger dog or puppy, it can be especially difficult, but with patience and consistency, it doesn’t really have to be that hard to train your dog to heel.

The best time to practice teaching your dog to heel is before you’ve begun going on walks. Your dog is easily distracted out on the street and you will need his attention to properly teach the heel command. Also, you want to be in a patient and pleasant mood. Do not begin this, or any other dog training session, if you are angry or in a testy mood. You should not train your dog in an unkind or rough manner. Furthermore, it is best to teach the heel command after your dog knows his name and the “Sit” command.

You will want to limit the heel training session, as with other dog training sessions, especially for young puppies to about 10 or 15 minutes and to 2 or 3 times in a day. Make sure they’ve gone to the bathroom and have eaten and had some water. You want their full attention for this.

For this training session, you might want to use a dog training collar, but it is not necessary. In the backyard or garden put a lead on the dog, and keep him on your left side. Hold the leash in both hands, your right hand through the loop and your left hand holding the leash with your elbow by your side and out straight.

You want to keep your dog’s neck about even with your left leg, and as you begin to move that is the signal for the dog to begin walking. Your dog or puppy will initially not understand what to do and either try to run ahead or around. Simply make gentle corrections, say “Heel” and keep them on your left side. Try to keep the lead slack and if your dog begins to tug on it either stop or gently correct with the leash and stop moving. Do not pull your dog forward or yank the leash back violently. Continue moving only as your dog is on your left side. Try not to move if the leash becomes tight as this teaches them to tug and pull on it.

You will want to vary your direction and speed, turning in circles or doing figure eights. As your dog goes in the correct direction on your left side, remember to give lots of praise. You might use a dog training clicker or a treat, but try to keep your methods consistent with other dog training commands you use. Try to end the dog training session on a positive note with something the dog has done correctly, followed by lots of praise.

Therapy dog training, while important, is something with which many people are not familiar. A therapy dog is one that is used to do animal assisted therapy and activities. Organizations train the dog to help people in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and virtually anywhere people need some sort of therapy. So, then, how do dogs become therapy dogs? It is a fairly simple process.

A Good Citizen

Though the requirements for therapy dog training vary from state to state, it is almost universal that the dog must be certified as a canine good citizen. In order to receive that, you have to train your dog to be focused and well behaved around distractions. Generally your local animal shelter or even a therapy dog training center will have classes available for you to learn how to turn your dog into a canine good citizen.

Classes for Therapy

Therapy dog training can start as soon as your dog has been certified as a canine good citizen. The training consists mainly of teaching your dog how to ignore things like hospital equipment and school noises that he or she may not be used to being around. They also train the dog to help with simple activities and therapy with those who need it. However, in many cases, the therapy is really just the presence of the dog. Those using the services of dogs trained in how to perform the therapy can be anything from walking them, to reading to them, to simply being around them.

Where to Go

If you are interested in therapy dog training for your four legged pal, then you should check out the internet or your local yellow pages. Whether you live in Virginia, California, or anywhere else, there is an organization in your area that will help you not only teach your dog how to become a therapy dog, but also get him out in the community and doing his part. Additionally, you can volunteer to help with everything from training to the therapy itself. Just get in contact with your local organization.

Therapy dog training can be incredibly rewarding. When you teach your dog how to react to the situations with which he will be presented, you are putting him in a situation to be more than just a pet. You and your dog together can be real additions to the community and help your fellow man.

Dog training hand signals are enjoyable to teach and simply to understand for most dogs. A hungry dog and several pieces of foods are the requirements to get started. First, associate a hand gesture to your dog with one of your basic command. Allowing your dog to response to the hand signal solely is a stuff of repetition.

Gradually disregard the verbal command while still applying the food reward. To continue the dog training hand signal, instantly eliminate the piece of food from the process once your dog consistently reacts to the soundless hand gestures. Soon, your dog will come, sit and lie down in just a slow movement of your hand.

Sit Start it by letting your dog to stand in front of you while holding a piece of kibble in your hands. You have to begin the dog training hand signal by having your hands at your sides, bringing it up deliberately and folding it as if you were going to throw something over. Do this gradually, delivering the kibble quickly to his nose and say “Sit” at the same time while upwardly guiding his nose. Reward him the kibble if he performs well.

Down Let your dog to sit in front of you. Raise your hand above your head while holding a piece of kibble in your fingers. Bring it down slowly by maintaining your arm straight until it is swinging freely at your side. Do these consistently, as you signal and say “Down”, allowing the kibble past his nose. Reward him the kibble when he does well.

Come This is a dog training hand signal that requires your dog to be in front of you. Begin with your arm held straight out to your side while holding a piece of kibble in your fingers. Now move your arm forward to touch your opposite shoulder and follow the rest of sit and down procedures.

Training aggressive dogs can be a challenge – This article will dispel some common myths, and show you some dog training techniques to calm your aggressive dog down, permanently.

When you’re training aggressive dogs, it’s important to realize where your dog is coming from, as opposed to lumping his behavior into “bad behavior.” Most of the time, your dog is either defending his territory or he’s afraid.

Defending territory is part of a dog’s instinct. If an unfamiliar creature invades what he believes is his space, his natural instinct would be to bark and try to scare away this invading creature.

The second reason may be your dog is afraid. A large, unknown creature three times his size (an average person) encroaches on his territory. Your dog feels scared, and instinctively starts barking madly. This is his way of saying “Don’t mess with me man. Don’t mess with me. I’m not an easy target, I’ll bite.”

The most important thing when training aggressive dogs is to understand where your dog is coming from, instead of becoming frustrated and thinking your dog is incurable or is somehow wrong.

Let’s go over some dog training techniques.

First of all, when your dog is being aggressive, make sure not to reward his behavior. Start out by just ignoring him. When the delivery man comes to deliver the mail and your dog starts barking, just completely ignore him. Make sure he realizes that his barking is not doing any good. You may even try on ignoring him for an additional 30 seconds-1 minute after the mailman leaves.

You should also make sure you or your children do not play fight with your dog. When training aggressive dogs, it’s important for them to realize aggressive behavior is not appropriate behavior.

If subtle punishments aren’t working, you can consider giving your dog a time out. Simply lock him in a room for 5 minutes whenever he’s being too aggressive, and make sure he realizes it’s inappropriate to do what he’s doing. When training aggressive dogs, it’s important to also reward him for being nice to strangers.