Puppy training tips

Puppy jumping

As a little bundle of fur, there's not a lot of harm that your puppy can do to you when he jumps up on you in excitement as soon as you walk in the door. Reward him when he stops jumping on you by offering him a treat or praising him. To nip this habit in the bud, ignore your pup as soon as he begins the jumping action.  Of course, the "sit-stay" method will work only if these commands have been firmly established in your pup. Try going out the back door and entering the house again, and practice curbing his jumping tendencies.

Even if your dog is a small sized breed that will probably not be able to injure you the way, say a Labrador or German Shepherd jumping on you could, he could still injure a child. You're preparing your pup to grow into a healthy and well adjusted dog that's completely accepted in society.This will take practice.
Not to mention that he can dirty your clothes and mess up your hair, when you're all ready to go out.

Use the "sit" and "stay" commands to get him to stop the jumping action. It can be hard to do, but think of it this way. He can't jump if he is sitting. In short, you're doing it for his own good. A year from now, however it could be a different story altogether. Eventually, he will understand that being on all fours equals "reward" while standing on his hind legs equals "punishment. Shouting also doesn't help - again, he assumes you're playing with him. You might be saying "No, "no" but all he hears is praise for his jumping. Besides, your puppy can actually lose balance and fall over, injuring himself if you don't break this habit.

Don't reward him when he's in the jumping act - this is extremely important. Remember, every time you smile, and pat him as he is jumping, you only establish his jumping actions as desirable and acceptable behavior. Don't shout at him as he is jumping - he doesn't understand what you're saying. It will take some practice, but if you keep at it, you'll soon see your pup preferring to stay grounded on all fours, instead of flailing in the air as you walk in!

Jumping, in a puppy, no matter what the breed, is never a good habit. No patting, no words, just ignore him. Have them enter the house again (you might want to try this only with your closest friends) and practice getting him to sit instead of jump. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done! It's hard not to enjoy the attention, and not feel flattered when your pup is yelping and jumping excitedly all over you!

There aren't too many humans who would get that excited when you walk in the door! Turn right around, and refuse to look at him. All he understands is that you are reacting to him and playing with him. If you find he's jumping on guests, practice the "sit-stay" method with them. The key to breaking your pup's jumping habit is to show him you don't approve.

For more information on training your puppeis Click Here

Puppy Proofing Your House

The process of preparing your house for your new bundle of joy will begin before he arrives. If you use fertilizers or pest repellents on your lawn or in your garden, leave a gap of 48 hours before you allow your pet access to the area. Drawstrings hanging from draperies can choke your puppy if he manages to get it tangled around his neck. Until your pup is house trained, keep all knick knacks, ash trays, curios and crystal out of his reach. Make sure cabinet doors have locks, or purchase cabinet locks for these. 

Get down on your hands and knees, and begin looking at your house the way a pup would. What would he find interesting enough to chew or put in his mouth? Remember, a puppy is attracted to most of the same things a toddler or a crawling baby is. But you can keep them away from the sources of decaying organic matter .Keep your basements off limits for your puppy .Keep medicines away from doggy level. Take time to make your house a safe and comfortable environment for your little pup. The basement or garage is home to a lot of junk and is full of potentially harmful things that can harm your pet. Keep you garbage can closed with a lid at all times .
Eating rotting food can cause food poisoning and other serious illnesses.

Puppy Proofing Outside the House 

If your garden is full of exotic plants, it's probably best if you keep it off limits to your pup. Keep your bathroom door latched at all times from the outside when not in use. Pills, bottles and strips - make sure all are safely locked away in cabinets. Keep your children's pencils, erasers, crayons and other stationery off limits by putting these in a large bin, and placing on a table so he can't reach it.

Puppy Proofing Inside the House

Before you bring your new pup home, take a look at your house through his eyes. Keep your pet away from your garage - there are too many old paint cans and tools there for it be safe for him. Even if you confine him to a crate, there will be times when he's allowed to roam the house and yard free. If you have cabinets in your house with loosely hinged doors, would he be able to accidentally enter one and lock himself in? Are there electrical switches or plugs installed at floor level? It's a part of the wild instinct that remains in them and there isn't a lot you can do to curb this urge.

Your puppy might have difficulty navigating your stairs.Which corners would he be attracted to? Pups are notoriously fond of rummaging in garbage, even when there's good fresh food available at home. Puppies and shoes have an unspoken bond between them. Purchase baby gates and use these to seal off the staircase. Tuck these away, and duct tape electrical switch outlets that are at his level. Electrical cords dangling temptingly within reach of your pup can be too alluring to ignore.

Plants like cactus and mushroom are potentially dangerous for a pup. Remove your children's toys from the floor, small toys like cars or blocks can be swallowed, and can lead to perforation of the abdomen. Make sure your fence is secure especially near the ground, to prevent the possibility of your pup sneaking out through to the other side. Consult your vet about the types of plants that could cause him harm .Remember, unlike a newborn baby, your pup will be old enough to walk around and explore on his own.

Keep your shoes in a shoe rack with doors. Keep your cosmetics and make up off your dressing table, and safely tucked away in drawers and locked cabinets. You might not know it, but your puppy could swallow shoelaces as he chews on your shoes. Use this logic to figure out what other potential dangers could be lurking in your home and garden. Most of the time house cleaners, solvents, bleach and other potentially dangerous chemicals are stored in these cabinets, and these can prove a poison hazard to your puppy.

House Training Puppies

 Have time to train

If you can't spare time for house training, you should seriously reconsider your decision to get a dog. Being confined to the crate will help your dog learn to retain his urine and feces for longer periods of time. A dog who needs to urinate will walk round and round in circles, sniffing. Your puppy has a smaller bladder and bowels, and will need to eliminate more often than an adult dog. When there are accidents, show your disapproval immediately. When he exhibits this kind of behavior, stop whatever you're doing and take him outside.

Get your dog a small wire mesh crate that is the perfect size for your little pet. Prepare to invest some amount of time and effort into house training your puppy. House training a puppy is easier than house training an adult dog. Make sure that the crate is big enough to accommodate increases in size over the next few weeks, and small enough that he doesn't find a small corner of the crate to relieve himself in.

This can be one of the hardest things to teach a dog, and a little patience and perseverance will go a long way. Expect house training to continue over a period of time. Good dog training involves not punishing any accident, however. All dogs have accidents along the way, and swatting his head with a newspaper or rubbing his nose in his own mess only makes your dog frightened to eliminate in your presence, which brings you back to square one, as far as potty training is concerned.

Don't keep him confined for too long, however. When there is an accident, clean it up, and make a note of the time. If he was drinking water from his bowl, and you barge in angry at his accident, he connects your disapproval to his drinking water. If your pup grows into adulthood without being trained, you're relegating him to a life chained in your backyard, which is unfair to the dog. So, if you find a mess in the house, and go looking for him to reproach him 10 minutes after he's actually done the deed, all angry at him and flustered, he has no idea what you're mad about because he just does not remember. If he does, lavish him with praise and giver him a reward.

The best training tool to begin the house training process is a crate.

As an owner, its your responsibility to train your dog to behave the way you want him to. This is the part where you will need to invest time in - removing him from his crate at regular intervals, and taking him to the yard. Always remember to reward any elimination. Take heart, though. Pups need to eliminate as many as as six times a day, and the sooner you begin the house training process, the less damage your carpets and furnishings will suffer!

When they eliminate inside the house, they forget what they have done almost immediately. Make a midnight potty run with your dog to establish elimination habits at night. If he relieves himself in the crate, it might set your training back by a few weeks. Continue house training even at night.

So, now he's completely clueless about what you want!

When your dog is out of the crate, watch out for tell tale signs of potty time. Continue with this till you can see a pattern emerging. Have a toilet schedule in which you can write down the times in the days during which your dog urinated or defecated, so you'll have a better idea of what to expect. Dogs don't have long term memory when it comes to their daily routine. If you've just become the owner of a brand new pup, the first item on your agenda is, no doubt, house training.

House training will require conditioning techniques, and will call for some effort on your part. Initially, keep your dog in the crate for short periods of time, taking him out to the yard at regular intervals to get him to eliminate. Your dog doesn't have accidents to annoy you - on the contrary, dogs exist to make their owners happy. Over a period of days, your dog's toilet schedule will become clear.

For more information on how to potty train your puppy Click Here

Getting a pet dog

Some things you must consider before getting a pet dog

The new dog must fit the current physical capabilities of his keepers with an eye toward what the next 10-15 years will bring.The price to obtain a dog runs the gamut from free-to-a-good-home to several thousand dollars.No aging hips or wrists are safe from these yahoos.

Who Will Be the Dog's Primary Caretaker?

Selecting the family dog should be a well-researched and carefully soul-searched activity.Various breeds and ages of dog make different demands on our precious spare time.Make selecting your new family dog a life-affirming act.It does not always hold true that you get what you pay for.

Things to Consider Before You Adopt a Dog 

Select is defined in the dictionary by such phrases as "a preferred choice" or "carefully chosen".Let's pose some of the questions family members should discuss before obtaining a dog. This leaves the family dog to be sandwiched in between lessons and sports and household chores and so on. Most families these days do not have that option. If the youngsters in your household are under seven years old, they are usually not developmentally suited for puppies 5 months old and under or toy-sized (under 15 pounds) dogs of any age. Choose wisely, for when the bond breaks, everybody concerned suffers.

The truth of the matter is, during the 10 - 15 year lifespan of the average dog, your children will be growing in and out of various life stages and the family dog's importance in their lives will wax and wain like the Moon.Your puppy eats a battery or pair of pantyhose, your fine-boned toy breaks a leg, your big boy has bad hips, your dog gets hit by a car or beaten/bitten by the neighborhood bully.You cannot saddle a child with total responsibility for the family dog and threaten to get rid of it if the child is not providing that care.

Unless your children are unusually sensitive, low-key, respectful individuals, a medium-to-large sized dog over 5 months old is usually the safer choice.Toy dogs are fine-boned, touch-sensitive creatures that do not weather rough or clumsy handling well.

How much time and energy can you spend on a new dog?

Doesn't your family dog deserve better?And the first year with any new dog regardless of age or breed type will put more demands on the owner than any other time, for this is when you are setting up house rules and routines which will last for the lifetime of your dog. Too many folks spend all their available cash on a pet shop purchase and then have no money left for initial veterinary care, a training crate or obedience classes--all necessary expenses.One parent should be designated Primary Caretaker to make sure the dog does not get lost in the shuffle.Puppies have ultra sharp "milk teeth" and toenails and often teethe on and scratch children, resulting in unintentional injury to the child.

How Old Are the Members of My Family?

It is not fair to child or dog. Some parents bow to the pressure their children put on them to get a dog.

How Much Can I Spend?

Remember, the purchase price of a dog is a very small part of what the dog will actually cost. Regardless of size, all interactions between small children and dogs should be monitored by a responsible adult. If so, strong vigorous adolescent dogs are not a wise idea. At the opposite end of the spectrum, are there frail elderly or physically challenged individuals in the household? Books like Daniel Tortora's THE RIGHT DOG FOR YOU or The ASPCA Complete Guide to Dogs can be tremendously helpful and can warn you away from unsuitable choices for your family's circumstances.

America has become a nation of disposable pet owners.The family dog should not be a gift from one family member to all the others.Thus need to be clipped every 4 to 6 weeks), chew toys (the vigorous chewers like a Bull Terrier or Mastiff can work their way through a rawhide bone in a single sitting), outerwear (short-coated breeds like Greyhounds, Chihuahuas, and Whippets must have sweaters and coats in the winter or in lavishly air conditioned interiors), and miscellaneous supplies (bowls, beds, brushes, shampoos, flea products, odor neutralizers for accidents, baby gates, leashes, collars, heartworm preventative etc. A puppy or adolescent will need more exercise, training, and supervision than will an adult dog.

In general, the Sporting, Hounds, Herding, and Terrier breeds will demand more time in training and daily exercise than will the Guardian or Companion breeds. She stayed home and cooked, cleaned and raised the family dog. When there is no one to watch over them, they should be separated.

The selection experience is one the entire family can share.

Unlike our children, most of our dogs are not covered by health insurance. A decade or so back, this was an easy question to answer. They break relatively easily and are quicker to bite than their larger boned, mellower relatives. The puppy becomes something to be feared rather than loved. The kids promise with tears in their eyes that they will religiously take care of this soon-to-be best friend. The price you pay in a pet shop is usually 2 to 3 times higher than what you pay a reputable breeder for a puppy of similar (or usually better) quality. These surprises can cost $500 or more.

Choosing the family dog should include input from all family members with the cooler-headed, more experienced family members' opinions carrying a bit more weight.Very few dogs live their entire lives without at least one accident. People who were one-breed fans throughout their lives may one day find that their favorite breed demands more than they can physically handle. Doing some research and polling each family member about what is important to them in a dog will help pin down what you will be looking for.

Are you and your family willing to make a 10 - 15 year commitment to this sentient being in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, for as long as all shall live?All adults have to go to work and the kids head off to school.And then, there is the veterinary emergency!