Dogs & Puppies Blog

Archive for the ‘Dog Behavior’ Category

Having a dog as a pet can be one of the most wonderful experiences in life but it can also be very challenging if your dog happens to have serious behavior problems. The good news is that it’s easy to learn how to control your dog’s behavior effectively with a Do It Yourself dog training book. In particular I recommend SitStayFetch Click Here!.

This has been the most popular online dog training book for many years and for very good reason. Sit Stay Fetch includes all of the information you need to go from being a novice to a real expert in dog training. It’s also affordable and can be downloaded on the web in just seconds. On top of that, it has a 100% satisfaction guarantee with a two month full money back refund period. This means there’s no real risk in trying it out.

When you download Sit Stay Fetch you will have access to all of the info you need to correct almost any dog behavior problem. The techniques in this DIY guide are so effective that you are likely to see immediate results.

This probably sounds “too good to be true” but SitStayFetch has already worked for thousands of dog owners just like yourself so there is no reason that it cannot work well for you as well. With a pro dog trainer like Daniel Stevens telling you all of his tricks you will definitely learn how to make your dog behave the way you want him to.

And remember that SitStayFetch comes with a true “no questions asked” two month total cash back refund period. This really does mean that if you are not pleased with the guide for any reason you can very easily get all of your cash back anyway.

That said, some people will want to hire a pro dog trainer to train their pet dogs for them. If you looking for a dog trainer and you happen to live in or near Austin then I recommend hiring this Austin Dog Training Pro.

A dog is an instinctively aggressive creature. In the wild, aggression came in very handy: dogs needed aggression to hunt, to defend themselves from other creatures, and to defend resources such as food, a place to sleep, and a mate. Selective breeding over the centuries has minimized and refined this trait significantly, but there’s just no getting around it: dogs are physically capable of inflicting serious harm (just look at those teeth!) because that’s how they’ve survived and evolved.

And Mother Nature is pretty wily – it’s hard to counteract the power of instinct! But that doesn’t mean that we, as dog lovers and owners, are entirely helpless when it comes to handling our dogs. There’s a lot that we can do to prevent aggression from rearing its ugly head in the first place – and even if prevention hasn’t been conceivable (for whatever reason), there are, however, steps that we can take to recognize and deal with it efficiently.

Different aggression dogs types – There are several different types of canine aggression. The two most common ones are: – Aggression towards strangers – Aggression towards household members. You may be wondering why we’re bothering categorizing this stuff: after all, aggression is aggression, and we want to stamp it out NOW, not waste time with the details – right? Well…not quite. These two different types of aggression stem from very different causes, and require different types of treatment.

– Aggression towards strangers – What is it? It’s pretty easy to tell when a dog’s overstrung around strange people. He’s jumpy and on the alert: either he can’t sit still and is constantly fidgeting, leaping at the smallest sound, and pacing around barking and whining; or he’s veerrrry still indeed, sitting rock-steady in one place, staring hard at the object of his suspicions (a visitor, the mailman, someone approaching him on the street while he’s tied up outside a store.)

Why does it happen? There’s one major reason why a dog doesn’t like strange people: he’s never had the chance to get used to them. Suppose, your dog relies 100% on you to broaden his horizons for him: without being taken on lots of outings to see the world and realize for himself, through consistent and positive experiences, that the unknown doesn’t necessarily equal bad news for him, how can he realistically be expected to relax in an unfamiliar situation?

What can I do about it? The process of accustoming your dog to the world and all the strange people (and animals) that it contains is named socialization. This is an incredibly important aspect of your dog’s upbringing: in fact, it’s pretty hard to overemphasize just how important it is. Socializing your dog is a way of exposing him from a young age (generally speaking, as soon as he’s had his vaccinations) to a wide variety of new experiences, new people, and new animals.

How does socialization prevent stranger aggression? When you socialize your aggression dogs, you’re getting him to learn through experience that new sights and sounds are fun, not scary. It’s not enough to expose an adult dog to a crowd of unfamiliar people and tell him to “Settle down”.

Click the Link Read More Dog Articles Anxiety Separation Dogs

The act of chewing seems to be a matter of individual orientation among dogs: some have an innate desire to chew as a pleasurable activity in itself, and some seem to have no need to chew whatever unless they’re driven to it out of sheer boredom.

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound redundant, because – by its very nature! – all chewing is destructive. Your dog has strong jaws full of sharp, pointy teeth: just about anything she starts to chew on is probable going to show the effects of it inside of a minute. So just to clarify, when I use the phrase “destructive chewing”, I’m referring to inappropriate chewing: the kind of chewing that’s centralized on your own possessions and household items, rather than your dog’s own designated toys and chews.

The three main rationalities why dogs chew:

- Most dogs have a raw(a) desire to chew. Its fun, it passes the time, and its a self-rewarding, self-reinforcing activity (for example, if she’s chewing on something that tastes good.)

- Chewing provides a nervous, bored, or lonely dog with an outlet for her emotions. To an anxious dog, the repetitive act of chewing is soothing – its the doggie equivalent of comfort food.

- Under exercised dogs often use chewing as a way of burning up nervous energy and giving themselves something to do.

- How to forbid destructive chewing -

Dogs are perfectly able to learn not to chew your stuff; you just have to put in a little effort first, that’s all.

It is also possibly that your dog could be suffering from Separation Anxiety; read more here Anxiety Separation Dogs

1. Take control of the situation: manage your own possessions. Your first step should be to dog-proof your home. Even if you have the best-behaved dog in the world, there’s still no reason to test her self-possession – after all, dogs search for the world with their mouths.

Dog-proofing your home means taking whatever you don’t want to end up in her mouth, and making it unavailable. Consider her size and agility when deciding whether something’s out of reach: can she jump? Can she climb, or leap onto something else to reach the desired object? How tall is she when standing on her back legs?

Common targets in the home include books, eyewear, clothing, shoes, garbage, and small crunchy appliances like cameras, cell phones, and remote controls.

It should go without saying that all food needs to be put unwaveringly away: don’t leave snacks on low tables (or even countertops – you’d be surprised how athletic she can be when there’s food at stake!), put all food into containers or the pantry. rinse off your filthy plates clean of any food scraps before leaving them by the sink.

2. Prevent her from learning the joys of illegal chewing. The more times she manages to snatch a jawful of a forbidden item – a chair-leg, a pillow, a track shoe – the more readily she’ll target those items in future. If you can prevent her from chewing your stuff in the first place, its a lot easier for her to understand what you want of her. Practically speaking, this means restricting her in a dog-proofed area until you’re sure of her understanding of the house rules.

3. Don’t set her up for failure by blurring the boundaries between her stuff (OK to chew) and your stuff (not OK to chew). Don’t move your dog cast-off clothes, shoes, or towels to be chewed and played with: realistically, you can’t possibly expect her to be able to tell the difference between your current shoes and the one she’s got in her mouth that you gave her five minutes ago.

4. Provide her with lots of tasty alternatives to your stuff. If her environment is relatively barren of attractive, appropriate chewing objects, you can barely blame her for targeting your possessions. Remember, most dogs need to chew; if she’s an adolescent (under three years) or a puppy (under one year), her needs will be even more pronounced. Go on a toy and chew shopping spree, then give her two or three to play with at a time. Rotating the available toys every few days will keep things novel and interesting for her.

5. Spend lots of time in active supervision. Yes, it might be easier for you to just keep her penned up in her crate, run, or the yard – but that’s boring and horrible for her, and hardly much fun for you either (if you wanted a pet that you don’t need to interact with, you’d have got a goldfish, right?) She can’t learn what you expect of her if she’s spending all her time boxed up in the dog-proof zone: she needs the chance to explore the boundaries of your expectations, so she can understand what’s appropriate and what’s not.

6. When you catch her chewing something inappropriate, correct her by making a loud noise: clap your hands or make an “Ah-ah-aaaah!” noise. Then, immediately hand her a tasty and dog-appropriate alternative (a rawhide bone or other chew toy); as soon as her jaws close around it, praise her lavishly. There is no better way to get your dog to understand that chewing “her” toys equals praise from you, but everything else equals fuss.

- hold a productive attitude -

Above all, remember to keep your expectations realistic. You’re not perfect, and neither is your dog: there’s likely to be at least one incident where a cherished item is damaged by her curiosity.

Particularly in the early stages of your relationship, she’s still learning the ropes: it’ll take awhile before she’s completely reliable (and even then, if she’s left by herself for too long or feels neglected, she may choose your stuff over hers to take her time and jaws with.) Remember to give her time to learn the rules, and plenty of “you-time” to help her learn faster – and don’t forget to take precautions and keep things out of reach until she’s got the hang of the chewing rules!

For more information on dog training techniques and how to deal with problem dog behavior (like chewing), check out Anxiety Separation Dogs. Its the complete manual for dog ownership and is designed to fast-track your dog’s learning.

You can visit the Anxiety Separation Dogs site by clicking on the link.