I have always wondered over the necessary of dog training classes.

I have come to the conclusion that it depends entirely on the dog and your routine with him:

If you have a puppy that does not get much socialization during walks then you should probably attend a class alongside your use of a dog training manual. On the other hand if training is going well and your dog is getting to learn through play with other dogs at the park or whilst walking then they are probably not necessary.

If you have an older dog that is causing you concern over his behavior, aggression or otherwise then you should seek the advice of a qualified trainer after you have tried to resolve the issue yourself through training.

Image by schoonman via Flickr

Handling dog aggression in the right way is very important! A stupid and obvious statement you might think but many people do not handle themselves in the right way when their dogs display aggressive behavior.

So take a step back and have a look at your reaction to your dogs behavior.

• Are you nervous?
• Are you angry?
• Are you fearful?
• Are you anxious?
• Are you avoiding the situation?

If you are dealing with your dogs aggressiona and diplaying any of the above traits or any other negative traits for that matter then you could be making matters worse and escalating your dogs aggressive behavior.

You have to take control of the situation, own it and address it in a cool, calm and efficient manner. You also need to take advice from a dog training manual or from a trainer alongside a dog training manual to ensure that you are using the right positive reinforcement methods.

It is very common for dogs to display dog aggression over food it is an instinctive reaction in wild dogs to something that they feel is going to threaten their food resource.

In your dog it simply means that he has not been trained to be accustomed to people being near him or his food whilst he eats.

It is something that is easily resolved over a short period of time with a little time, care, attention and a good dog training manual to help you with the steps that you need to take.

I’ve found that making mealtimes a family time really helps for instance if you have your dog eating in the kitchen why not have his food down whilst you are preparing a meal so that there are people coming in and out of the kitchen and making noise around him whilst he eats.

Image via Wikipedia

There are many types of aggression in dogs and in order to be able to deal with the behavioral issue you need to identify the cause of the aggression.

For example there are three main categories that the displays of agression can be classed into:

• Hunting instinct – all dogs have a natural instinct to hunt to provide themselves with food. It is a trait that was obviously very useful in the wild and was also used create hunting dogs as human companions so today this instinct is much more prevalent in some breeds of dogs than others.

• Defending themselves – dogs are naturally inclined to defend themselves against other creatures that they perceive as a threat.

• Defending their resources – they will defend their food, their territory and other pack/family members if they believe that there is danger or a threat to  that item or person.

Fig is a rescue dog that was a stray, he is also a cross breed of more than one type of terrier. The hunting instinct in him is very strong and it has been quite a challenge to get this undesirable behavior under control. Our dog training manual has been invaluable in helping us to resolve this issue (once we identified where the behavior was coming from) and I will talk about it further in future posts.

Some tips to get your dog to stop barking follow but you have to realise that your dog barking is one of the main ways that he communicates with you, so it is unreasonable to require your dog to be silent. You can however minimise these incidents, the first place to start is by implementing a consistent routine for the following areas of your dogs daily life!

You have to be consistent have a routine for feeding your dog this will stop him having to remind you to feed him.

Make sure that your dog is getting enough exercise, if he is restless and barking at what appears to be nothing to you it may be that he is bored. You have to exercise your dog for a minimum of 90 minutes a day. Be consistent with this.

Make sure that during the exercising or outside it if at all possible that quality play is built into your daily routine consistently.

Once these three tips have been implemented you should see a huge reduction in your dogs barking.

There are of course other occasions that your dog barks when you really don’t want them to and I will cover a method for dealing with these incidents in another post.

It’s amazing what you come across when you are doing research into a subject!

Barking dogs is a subject that plenty of people want to know about both because they have a dog that barks a lot and they want to solve the behavioral issues and/or because there is a dog in the neighborhood that barks a lot and they want to know what they can do about it.

From Google I found myself on barkingdogs org which wasn’t what I was looking for at all but fascinating none the less. I am always fascinated by what is going on in other places and in other cultures and this particular website charts the daily crime report of Lower Greenville!

They are running a really interesting sidebar at the moment charting the closures of local bars which I am sure resonates with a lot of communities at the moment. I know our local High Street (Main Street) looks nothing like it did a year ago.

Talk about sidetracked I had better get back to the research at hand!

The first few weeks of having a new dog in the house are generally a little surreal, everyone is on their best behavior and you tend to accomodate your new pet.

This is the wrong way to go about things, you need to stay in your usual daily routine so as to not confuse the new member of your household. If you do change your routine to stay with the dog full time this can cause major issues down the line when you are not present all the time. He may have become dependent upon your company even in such a short period of time and this could lead to dog separation anxiety.

Here are some ideas for that initial adjustments:

Try to give attention and affection to your dog at regular intervals but on your terms do not give it on his terms when he demands it.

Practice leaving him alone, get him occupied with something he enjoys a toy or something chewy in or near the vicinity of his bed and then leave the room. This is a case of rinse and repeat throughout the day in orde r to get him used to your absence.

Do not let him follow you from room to room, if necessary close doors behind you for short periods of time.

When you leave the house make sure that you leave him with enough to occupy him, interesting toys, something that he loves to chew on, access to where he likes to sleep, fresh water and some food (preferable in something that he has to work to get it out of).

This type of routine worked a treat with the all the spaniels that I have had, I cannot comment on this routine with Fig as there is nearly always someone in the house with him.

No it’s not impossible to stop my dog from barking! Although a times you might think that it is.

Having you pace shattered by constant barking can be a total nightmare; can lead to a lot of stress and frustration. This makes it very important to get a handle on it immediately.

The most common reasons for dogs barking are:

• Dog Separation Anxiety
• Excitement
• defense

Once you have identified why your dog is barking you can then work on the ways to prevent this behavioral problem.

We had quite a few problems when we first brought Fig home with barking. He would bark at people approaching the front door (poor post woman); bark at strange sounds during the night; bark when he got excited ; bark if he spotted anything strange when we were out walking (like carrier bags blowing in the wind); and of course he barked at any other animals that we encountered.

The only things that he barks at now are other animals, he doesn’t always do this and he is quite easily distracted away from this behavior so we are almost there!

There are quite a few reasons for dog aggression but firstly you have to understand that aggression for a dog is just a natural instinct which helped them survive in the wild.

With a dog like Fig, who was a stray before he was at the shelter, these instincts come to the fore to enable them to survive and you have to work hard to get them to return to the place that we want these instincts to be (at the back of your dogs mind).

The same can be said for puppies they are new to the world and everything around them is new and strange. Their natural reaction to this is fear and the defense is aggression.

The most common reasons that your dog will display aggressive behavior are:

• If he is being possessive of you.
• If he is in a strange environment.
• If he is encountering new experiences.
• If he is guarding his food
• If he is guarding his toys.
• If he is receiving unwanted physical contact.
• If he sees something as a threat.

All of these behaviors can be worked on and resolved with some effort and a bit of patience.

photo credit: tibbygirl

Training a nervous anxious dog can be fairly challenging. When you undertake training it has to be using a positive reinforcement method. If the dog is very nervous and anxious then you are going to have to spend a lot of quality time with the dog, praising him for his achievements and showing him a vast amount of patience.

Do not get frustrated or angry with your dog if he does not do what you want him to do. This is counterproductive. The likelihood is that he is not being naughty but just does not understand what you are asking of him.

There is a good dog training manual that has had success with over 67,000 dogs that is available over the internet called Secrets to Dog Training it used to be called SitFetchStay. There is a short ebook available about the top 5 dog training myths, they also do a short course as well as a longer more in depth course. You can check out the details here

photo credit: ChicagoGeek

It’s very easy as a family to be over excited by the fact that you have got a new addition to the family. There are somethings that you must do as soon as you get home to start you dog training off from the very start. The most important thing to do is to show him where he has to go to the toilet.

As soon as you get into the house take the dog to where you will want them to go to the toilet not only will this give him the opportunity to relieve himself but it will also allow him to check out his new environment by sniffing around. Once he has finished going to the toilet you should make a fuss of him by giving him lots of praise, this will positively reinforce to him that this is the place to go to the toilet. If he didn’t go to the toilet then keep taking him out to the same place at regular intervals until he does go to the toilet only praise him there once he has actually been to the toilet.

Potty training or house training your dog is very important. It is the thing that causes most friction and stress when you get a new dog. You want to avoid as much stress as you can so it is important that you take the lead nd guide your dog in this way right fro the off.

photo credit: BL1961

The journey home from the dog shelter was a very anxious one, I don’t drive out of personal preference so this meant taking Fig home on public transport.

Looking back on it the journey was fairly uneventful although it would be fair to say that Fig was frightened. His tail is curly and sits above his body but on this journey it remained under his body. He also cowered quite a bit by slinking low to the ground.

He had been in the dog shelter for a few months so I guess it is not surprising that all that strange noise and commotion made him very anxious. I thought that it was extremely important to start the relationship off right so on the way home we allowed Fig explore, experience all the new sensations and provide him with positive reinforcement/encouragement as we went along to help guide him with what was acceptable behavior and what was not.

We were fortunate in that there were no incidents of Fig making a mess on on any of the vehicles which knowing what I know about him now was a blessing and a miracle. Although were all nervous on the journey come it seemed that our relationships were getting off to a good start.

The advice in our trusty dog training manual seemed to be bearing fruits from the off but would it continue?

photo credit: jeckman

We started going to animal shelters in July 2008 to start getting familiar with rescue dogs, their temprement and surroundings/background. We had never had a rescue dog before only pedigree Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and knew that it was likely to be a huge learning curve.

Don’t what ever you do be rushed into making a decision especially if you have children who make puppy eyes at you every time they see a dog. It is very important to consider carefully what type of dog you can rehouse based on your own lifestyle. You need to consider things like:

• The amount of space that you have for the dog at home.
• What access the dog will have to outside space.
• How much you can afford for buying the dog.
• How much you can afford for upkeep and care of the dog.
• How much you can set aside for insurance and/vets bills.
• Most important of all how much time you have to actually spend with the dog, quality time, playing; walking; training and so on.

Once you have some idea of the above you will be able to narrow your choice of breeds down and then your search can start in earnest. We finally met our match and brought him home in January 2009.

photo credit: salsaboy

Not all dogs chew but when they do it can cause a lot of stress in the household. You can stop dogs chewing but first we have to understand the act of chewing. Destructive chewing seems to be a weakness among some dogs; there seem to be a couple of reasons for this:

•    They find it a pleasurable activity

•    They turn to it out of desperation when they are very bored

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound a little odd because, of course by its very nature, all chewing is destructive. Dogs have strong jaws full of razor-sharp teeth: just about anything they start to chew on is in all probability going to show the effects of it inside of it almost immediately. When using the term “destructive chewing” we are referring to chewing of an inappropriate nature. This usually means: the kind of chewing that is focused on your possessions rather than your dogs designated toys and chews.