Training

• An Essential List of Dog Commands Plus Descriptions-

  As we mentioned in our basic dog commands article, basic dog training commands aren’t just for tricks. They can be life savers when you or your dog encounters a dangerous situation. Your dog's ability to obey the sit or stay command for example, could prevent it from running out into a dangerous street or getting wrangled up in a dangerous fight with a strange aggressive dog. Obedience training also creates an amicable living environment. Here's a basic list of dog commands your dog need to learn - and learn now.

• Avoid the Human Dog Syndrome - Be Your Dog's Boss-

  Regarding your canine like a member of the family is one thing, but treating it like another human or a human dog is an entirely different thing altogether. Its okay to love your pet, but you must set boundaries and establish yourself as its leader or boss. That’s not cruel, it is instead (believe it or not), what your dog expects from you.

• Basic Dog Commands - When and Where to Use Them-

  Basic dog commands aren’t just for tricks. They can be life savers when you or your dog encounters a dangerous situation. Your dog's ability to obey the sit or stay command for example, could prevent it from running out into a dangerous street or getting wrangled up in a dangerous fight with a strange aggressive dog. Obedience training also creates an amicable living environment. Here's a quick list of convincing reasons why you need to train your dog - and train it now.

• Jumping Dog? Learn How to Stop Your Dog from Jumping on People-

  Dogs jump when they’re excited. They’ll jump all over another dominant dog out of respect and they’ll jump all over you out of glee. But while dog jumping on people is generally a clear message of affection, it isn’t always appropriate. A large jumping dog can overwhelm and scare small children for instance, or it can make bringing in the groceries an even harder chore than what it already is. Here’s how to stop your dog from jumping without hurting its feelings.

• How to Choose a Qualified Dog Trainer-

  As mentioned in our article about dog obedience training, a dog trainer works with a dog suffering from a specific behavior problem in the environment that it’s most comfortable in: its own home. This article expands on the topic of dog trainers in more detail.

  In addition to training dogs, a dog trainer also teaches owners how to handle a problematic pet. But because these lessons take place at the owner’s home, they’re much more expensive than classroom lessons.

• Yorkie Training Specificts that Fit This Breed's Personality- Everything is easier when you already know something about it - Yorkies included! By understanding your Yorkies' personality and inborn traits, you can facilitate your Yorkie training efforts. This article will introduce some of the traits that are specific to Yorkies in general, and then suggest how you can work with those traits to train your dog faster (or at least, with less difficulty).
• How to Teach Your Dog the "Leave It" Command-

  To teach your dog or puppy the "leave it" command is to teach it boundaries. A dog that can differentiate appropriate property from inappropriate property is a dog that’s safer since many of the things we interact with are just too dangerous for dogs. Here’s how to teach your dog this command.

• Guide to Dog Crate Training-

  Dog crate training is an essential tool in keeping your dog in line. A lot of people equate crates to cages, and thus regard them as inhumane. The truth is that crate training dogs is a necessity for a variety of reasons, whether it’s used as a time-out tool or as a seat on an airplane. You might be surprised to learn that dogs actually crave small spaces all of their own because they satisfy their instincts to sleep in the same out in nature. All dogs retrieve to a small quite place when they’re tired or nervous, so a crate can provide the security that dogs need from time to time.

• Guide to House Training Dogs-

  After bringing your dog home, one of your first tasks is to potty train it. And depending on the breed, house training dogs can be a fairly easy task, or it can be an extremely difficult and long task. Success requires your patience and persistence. Here are some excellent tips on how to achieve such success.

• Dog Training Methods Overview-

  In a good number of our other articles, we’ve introduced a few techniques you can use to train your dog. This article describes how the positive reinforcement, correction-based, or clicker dog training method works with all of those techniques.

• Door Dashing Dog Behaviors and How to Stop Them-

  For whatever reason, dogs love to dash out of any door that leads to the outside. Whether it’s the front door, the back door, the garage door, or the doggy door, all dogs try to run to the other side of them without much warning at all. As you can guess, this is extremely dangerous – especially if the door opens to a busy street. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest dog behaviors to correct.

• The Dog Come Command and How to Teach It-

  It’s very important that your pet respond to the dog come command. Yes, life threatening circumstances may necessitate such obedience, but an additional perk of this obedience is some off-leash time (provided that the dog is in a safe area). Here are two ways to get your dog to respond no matter what the situation.

• The Dog Down Command and How to Teach It-

  The dog down command comes in handy when you’re dealing with an anxious dog that refuses to relax when you’re trying to watch TV or have a conversation with company. And just like with the stay command, the sit command helps the dog learn the down command rather quickly. Here’s how:

• The Dog Stay Command and How to Teach It-

  The dog stay command is a lifesaver. Literally. There will be times when a leash just isn’t appropriate for a dog, but the ability to control the dog is. Here’s how to teach your dog to stay, whether you’re out in public, in the backyard, or inside the home.

• The Dog Sit Command and How to Teach It-

  The dog sit command is by far, one of the easiest to teach. It’s also one of the most common and important. Without the sit command, teaching the stay and down command would be more difficult than what it already is. Here are two ways you can teach your dog to sit on command:

• The Dog Release Command and How to Teach It-

  The dog release command is the start and the end of every other command that you give your dog. If you tell your dog to sit and the dog complies for example, you must release it so that it can go on to do other things. In an effort to please you or convey that it fully understands your command, the poor thing might continue to follow a command when it isn’t appropriate to do so.

• The Heel Command - How to Teach Your Dog to Heel-

  The heel command positions your dog to walk alongside your left leg and it requires that the dog maintain that position no matter if you slow your pace, increase your pace, run, or zigzag. This is an extremely important command whether you’re simply taking your dog on a walk around the neighborhood or walking your dog through an agility course. A dog that freely trots about an undisciplined course for example, opens itself and its handler to any number of accidents – in particular, tripping. Here's how to teach your dog to heel.

• Litter Box Training a Dog-

  Your lifestyle may necessitate litter box training or paper training – especially if you live in an environment that doesn’t provide a safe or secure outdoor yard. Here’s how to get your dog to use something that’s normally used by cats!

  Housebreaking With a Litter Box

  1. Buy a litter box that’s about the same width and length as your dog’s crate. The box should provide ample room for the dog to comfortably turn around in.

• Teaching Dog Kissing-

  Teaching a dog to kiss may sound a bit strange since (1) dog kissing is really licking, and (2) dogs naturally lick anyway. But this article doesn’t suggest ways to teach a dog how to kiss per se. It instead, suggests ways to teach a dog when to kiss! A few kisses are fine for many of us, but some dogs take it beyond a comfortable level and continue to kiss until they’re forced to stop. Here’s how to teach your dog to kiss on command so you’re not inundated with canine loving unless you want to be.

• The Canine Good Citizen Certificate-

  Have you ever heard of the Canine Good Citizen Certificate? Also known as the CGC, this credential is given to dogs that have passed a temperament and training test. It’s also an AKC sponsored award that’s given to both purebred and mixed breed dogs. The end result is a proud certificate and tag that bears the CGC logo. But the rewards aren’t just for show. A CGC certified canine can get a career in a therapy dog training program! Here’s what’s required:

• Basic Dog Training Principles that Lead to Success- If you can just remember three key components of basic dog training, your efforts will be well rewarded tenfold. Training your dog works best when you’re (1) positive, (2) consistent, and (3) preventative. Here’s how and why these components work better than any others.
• Dog Collars and Training-

  Dog collars are important components of training and the types vary with the different forms of training in addition to a dog’s age and personality. The following describes the types of dog training collars you’re most likely to encounter.

• Training Adult Dogs-

  When we adopt a dog from an animal shelter or dog rescue group, we take a tremendous chance. Most likely, an adopted adult dog is going to need a lot of training for two important reasons: (1) it's already grown and set in its habits and personality, and (2) it probably never received the quality training that it needed and deserved. You might be surprised in fact, at what an adopted adult dog doesn't know or can't do.

• Dog Agility Training-

  Agility dog training produces dogs that competitively race through obstacle courses containing A-Frames, dog walks, jumps, pause tables, teeters, tunnels and weave poles. What makes these courses particularly challenging is that they change in every event. No two obstacle courses are ever the same. Fortunately, participating dogs have a handler to guide them through. The winning dog is the canine that gets through the course with the least amount of faults – a feat that’s accomplished through quality dog agility training.

• How to Interpret Dog Sounds-

  If you ask any dog owner for the one thing she wishes she could do with her dog, the answer would probably be to understand what it’s trying to say. Just think about it – If there were a way to finally understand what all the dog barking sounds, growls, and whining truly meant! Consider this article your best bet toward interpreting dog sounds. It might not be perfect, but it’s the closest thing you’ll probably find. Enjoy!

• Having Dog Behavioral Problem? Learn When You Must Seek Professional Help-

  There may come a time when you can’t correct a dog behavioral problem yourself. That doesn’t mean that you’ve failed with your training – it simply means that it’s time to call in a pro. It’s no different from seeking a professional to fix your taxes, car, or plumbing. After all, we all can’t be experts at everything! Professional trainers have the expertise to correct problems we can’t. So the following describes situations that may warrant the need for a professional. If you recognize these situations within your dog, consult the services of a certified trainer or behavioral therapist.

• A Dog Health Problem May Be the Cause of Bad Behavior - How Can You Tell?-

  Often times, what may seem as a dog's bad behavior is actually caused by a health problem. The best way to tell if a dog's behavioral problem stems from a dog health problem is to note when the behavior began. Is the problem new and sudden? Or is it a problem that was never corrected when the dog was a puppy? If the problem is new and sudden, chances are the dog has a health issue. A good example is when a well housetrained dog suddenly starts to eliminate inside the home, or when an otherwise friendly sociable dog suddenly turns aggressive. When these behaviors seemingly erupt out of nowhere, it’s time to schedule an appointment with the vet.

• Dog Obedience Training Explained-

  Several of our articles explain how to train a dog at home, but we don’t want to commercialize this material in a way that suggests dog training is "so easy it can be all done at home!" Dog obedience training is demanding, and it’s best achieved inside a professional dog obedience school. Obedience class provides the perfect environment for training a dog for several reasons. This article explains those reasons in detail.

• House Training Poodles- After bringing your Poodle home, one of your first tasks is to potty train it. Fortunately, Poodles are smart dogs, so house training Poodles isn’t that difficult of a task. All it requires is your patience and persistence. Here’s how to potty train your Poodle using the paper method.
• How To Make Dog Treats a Thing of the Past-

  Although some people advise against it, dog treats work wonders when they’re used as a training incentive. Dog training treats just have a way of making the impossible reaction almost instant. You won’t be able to treat your dog every time it does something that you want it to, and that’s what this article is about: weaning your dog of the tool that helped train it for so long.

• How to Stop Puppy Biting-

  In some ways, puppies are like human toddlers. Both use their mouths to interpret the world around them. Like toddlers, puppies too chew on toys, food, furniture, and anything else they can wrap their jaws around. But unlike toddlers, puppies like to chew people too. They don’t chew to be mean – they chew because their curious. Puppies learn about the human smell, the human taste, and the human texture though biting.

• Puppy Leash Training-

  One of first lessons you need to teach a puppy is how to walk alongside you and how to walk while wearing a leash. This may at first sound silly since puppies already know how to walk. The problem is that an untrained puppy will run, pull, resist, and zigzag its way from point A to point B, and turn a simple walk into a hazardous situation if you don’t get control of the situation. Here’s how to use puppy leash training to make walking easier and safer.

• Characteristic Poodle Behavior and Personality-

  The Poodle’s innate intelligence, friendly personality, and natural disposition makes this dog one of the most versatile known. It has consistently made history by fulfilling some rather interesting roles ranging from the retriever to the status symbol -- from the circus act to the doted companion. In any size, the Poodle has an undisputable character to admire. The following text will introduce the most common characteristics of Poodle behavior so that you can better understand the animal that you’ve fallen in love with. Enjoy!

• Poodle Training Tips-

  Ask any dog professional about Poodle pup training and you’ll get the same answer every time. Poodles are some of the easiest dogs to train. They’re even easier to train when you have a few training skills of your own! Here are a few Poodle training tips to make the training process a smoother one.