The Pet Lovers Library presents Training Tips for Your Pets |
12 Tips For a Well-Behaved Dog
Submitted by Member TN Angel
1) Start training your puppy early on. While old dogs can be taught new tricks, what's learned earliest, is often learned quickest and easiest. Moreover, the older the dog, the more bad habits will likely need to be "un-learned". When it comes to raising and training a dog, an ounce of problem prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure!
2) Train your dog gently and humanely, and whenever possible, teach him using positive, motivational methods. Keep obedience sessions upbeat so that the training process is enjoyable for all parties involved. If training your pooch is a drudgery, rev things up a bit, and try the "play training" approach: incorporate constructive, non-adversarial games (such as "Go Find", "Hide 'n' Seek", retrieving, etc.) into your training sessions.
3) Does your dog treat you like "hired help" at home? Does he treat you like a human gymnasium when you're sitting on the furniture? Does he beg at the table? Jump up on visitors? Demand your attention by annoying you to death? Ignore your commands? How well your dog responds to you at home affects his behavior outdoors as well. If your dog doesn't respond reliably to commands at home (where distractions are relatively minimal), he certainly won't respond to you properly outdoors where he's tempted by other dogs, pigeons, passersby, sidewalk food scraps, etc.
4) Avoid giving your dog commands that you know you cannot enforce. Every time you give a command that is neither complied with nor enforced your dog learns that commands are optional.
5) One command should equal one response, so give your dog only one command (twice max!), then gently enforce it. Repeating commands tunes your dog out (as does nagging) and teaches your dog that the first several commands are a "bluff '. For instance, telling your dog to "Sit, sit, sit, sit!", is neither an efficient nor effective way to issue commands. Simply give your dog a single "Sit" command and gently place or lure your dog into the sit position, then praise/reward.
6) Avoid giving your dog combined commands which are incompatible. Combined commands such as "sit-down" can confuse your dog. Using this example, say either "sit" or "down". The command "sit-down" simply doesn't exist.
7) When giving your dog a command, avoid using a loud voice. Even if your dog is especially independent/unresponsive, your tone of voice when issuing an obedience command such as "sit","down" or ""stay", should be calm and authoritative, rather than harsh or loud.
NOTE: Many owners complain that their dogs are "stubborn", and that they "refuse to listen" when given a command. Before blaming the dog when he doesn't respond to a command, one must determine whether or not: a) the dog knows what the owner wants, b) he knows how to comply, c) he is not simply being unresponsive due to fear, stress or confusion.
8) Whenever possible, use your dog's name positively, rather than using it in conjunction to reprimands, warnings or punishment. Your dog should trust that when it hears its name or is called to you, good things happen. His name should always be a word he responds to with enthusiasm, never hesitancy or fear.
9) Correct or, better yet, prevent the (mis)behavior, don't punish the dog. Teaching and communication is what it's all about, not getting even with your dog. If you're taking an "it's-you-against-your dog, whip 'em into shape" approach, you'll undermine your relationship, while missing out on all the fun that a motivational training approach can offer. Additionally, after-the-fact discipline does NOT work.
10) When training one's dog, whether praising or correcting, good timing is essential. Take the following example: You've prepared a platter of hors d'oeuvres for a small dinner party, which you've left on your kitchen counter. Your dog walks into the room and smells the hors d'oeuvres. He air-sniffs, then eyes the food, and is poised to jump up. This is the best, easiest and most effective time to correct your dog: before he's misbehaved, while he's thinking about jumping up to get the food.
11) Often, dog owners inadvertently reinforce their dogs' misbehavior, by giving their dogs lots of attention (albeit negative attention) when they misbehave. Needless to say, if your dog receives lots of attention and handling when he jumps up on you, that behavior is being reinforced, and is therefore likely to be repeated.
12) Keep a lid on your anger. Never train your dog when you're feeling grouchy or impatient. Earning your dog's respect is never accomplished by yelling, hitting, or handling your dog in a harsh manner. Moreover, studies have shown that fear and stress inhibit the learning process.
Copyright 1995 - 2000, Robin Kovary
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Learning Comprises Many Factors
Submitted by Member Orca
* Socialization - positive exposure to many different people, animals, environments, surfaces, situations, sounds, etc, and teaching the pup how to best react to new things
* Innate personality - there is a set type of personality all animals and people are born with.
* Environment - an enriched environment will provide positive experiences and socialization.
* In-home work with potty training, crate training, leash & collar training, teaching appropriate stuff to chew on, your household routine, words, basic home manners.
* Training classes outside the home - where you teach your puppy the essentials of obedience commands, manners, and ability to do everything with the distraction of other people and dogs.
* Serendipity - what the up learns on his own - a huge part of early learning!
At what age should training start? The answer is "RIGHT AWAY!"
When will my dog be TRAINED?
"I can't wait till my dog is TRAINED!" -- as if that is an END?!
..and when will TRAINED be?
When he sits?
When he lies down?
When he always comes?
When he doesn't jump on people?
When he doesn't get into the trash?
When he can heel off leash?
When he can do a directed retrieve?
When he can track a missing person?
When he can herd sheep into a pen?
You must decide what TRAINED means to you and your dog.
To me, TRAINED, is NOT an end - it is a lifelong journey.
Kind of like my own education - I learn new things daily. |
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Tips to Housebreak a Puppy
Submitted by Denise, Committee Leader
Perhaps the first and most important thing any puppy owner wants to do is to housebreak their new puppy. This cannot only be a very positive learning experience for the puppy, but also for the owner, particularly for first time dog owners.
When preparing to train your puppy to do what comes naturally outside, rather than inside, it's very important to understand that dog's are habit animals. Everything they do as they grow older is born from habit, the choice the dog owner has is whether the puppy is going to create it's own habits or if the habits are going to be taught.
Another important factor to keep in mind that until after three months of age a puppy cannot physically control the muscles needed to keep from going, it just happens. To overcome this in the early months, take the puppy out often or confine your puppy to an area of the house where it's easy to clean up any messes. Be sure to keep the area the puppy stays in clean; it can be very difficult to train a puppy to go outside if he or she can smell the scent of urine inside.
Once the puppy is old enough to start the housebreaking process, it is vitally important to remember one of the major keys to training a puppy is promptness. When you display your disapproval for an action the puppy has taken, the puppy relates that disapproval to whatever it is doing at that exact moment.
For instance, if you come by a few minutes after the puppy has done it's duty on the floor and do your scolding, the puppy will not relate the scolding to the duty but to either the mess itself or whatever he or she is doing when you come along. Thus, all that will happen is your puppy will become scared and not learn a thing about the housebreaking you are trying to teach.
The easiest way to handle this process is to actually catch the puppy in the act of going inside. Yes, the way is easy but doing it can be quite difficult because there is no set timing or pattern to when a puppy my have to go.
At the times you are able to catch your puppy in the act of relieving him or herself in a place you don't want this to happen, scold the puppy appropriately and take him or her to where you would like them to go. Wait there with the puppy until nature takes hold again then be prompt and very passionate with your praise.
To housebreak a puppy will take time and patience on the part of the owner. With that being said, with proper timing of the scolding and the praising it will indeed happen.
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Training a Cat
Submitted by Member, "Gummy"
I can see everyone saying, "this one is a nut, a cat cannot be trained".
Well think again, it IS possible to train a cat. They train tigers and
lions, don't they? They are member of the Feline family, also.
I know first hand, that a cat is trainable, to act in a more satisfactory
way, as a member of your household.
I will tell you about that first.
My bad boy cat, Bobtail, loves to keep me awake at night. As soon as I get
into bed, he starts his meowing, and jumping on my dresser, knocking things
to the floor. I have been putting up with this behavior for some time, then one night, I
locked him out of my bedroom.
At first he scratched the door, but finally gave up.
I did this for about a week, and then wanted to test him, so I didn't close
my bedroom door, and he came in, jumped up on the bed, and proceeded to go
to sleep on my pillow. I now get a good nights sleep, but he still wakes me early, which is okay,
because I have to get up early anyway. He is just a living alarm clock. *
LOL*
In my research, I found that you can teach a cat to stay, come, and give
paw. What I found interesting is to emphasis the SSS sound that cats make
at one another, such as SSSSSstay, to teach stay.
Put the cat on a table or bed and when the cat starts to jump down, say
SSSSstay, and put your hand up about a foot away from the cats face.
When the cat pulls back, say Good, and give him/her a little treat.
It is better to try to train a cat right before meals, this way they are
more receptive.
So I have learned, that is training any animal, you have to be firm,
consistent, patient, and above all, show the animal that you love them.
Some of this information was obtained from
http://members.aol.com/goforasail/clevercats.html
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