Dog Training Basic Commands

All positive commands should be spoken sharply and distinctly during training. Make sure you also use a positive tone. Your dog will recognize your moods and associate them to their behavior by your tone of voice.

The first word the puppy should learn is their name. They actually learn the sound of their name and associate that as a directive towards them for their attention. This will come naturally over time since the family will be calling the pup by its name the day it arrives in your home.

I suggest that before you start training verbal commands that you understand your puppy’s personality. Ask yourself if they are timid, aggressive, quiet, sensitive, playful, etc? These traits will affect the type and speed of the training with your dog. Understanding the dog that is being trained is a vitally important talent of a good trainer.

As soon as you are able to touch and feel the puppy, call them by their name. Constantly give them affection and praise with the tone of your voice. Keep repeating their name over and over and over until the pup understands that when they hear their name, it is addressing them. When you prepare meals for them, call them by name and then distinctly say the word “come.” This is probably the simplest and easiest commands to teach because it is associated with something the puppy wants or gets excited when they hear that command. This theory and type of training is used in all the generic commands. Remember to always keep praising them when they obey a command and make sure they feel rewarded.

House breaking a puppy is probably the most stressful for a new trainer. However, the good news is that most dogs are generally clean in nature and sense that the house is not the place to do their thing. Knowing that canines tend to have their bowel movements in the same place that they or some other dogs have previously defecated, you need to understand that the sent left behind from previous mistakes will signal to the pup that is where they are supposed to be defecating. So when you do catch them doing something in the house that you do not want, scold them in a simple command such as “shame.” The puppy will hear your tone of voice and feel bad. Usher them outside as fast as you can. Praise them when they defecate outside. Do not use the command “no” since that is a command to have the puppy stop the current act. “Shame” is used after you have found the evidence of the unwanted act. This is a common mistake a lot of armature dog trainers have.

If you have a pup that will not heed to the command “come,” do not chance them. This will only make your puppy runaway farther. Instead, when they look at you, call their name and immediately you run away from them. Soon they will be chasing you and will associate the command “come” as intended. They will come to you.

Remember this always, a puppy should only be scolded when they are caught in the act of doing something they should not be doing. Never scold a puppy when you have not caught them in the act. Use the command “shame” when looking at the evidence but do not look at the dog when vocalizing this. Over time, they will associate the command “shame” with your disapproval mood. They may never associate it to their act unless you catch them in it. Leave it at that. No other scolding will help, in fact it will do just the opposite. It will make the puppy loose trust in you rather than want to correct their error because they do not associate the act with your mood and commands.

Dog Toilet Training

Unless you have a sixth sense you can't predict when and where your dog is going to do the toilet, that is why dog toilet training is necessary. Dogs need to learn to "hold it" and go where he is supposed to as they don't know any different. In the wild dogs can go when and where they please, but this is not the wild and they need to be taught the difference.

Dog toilet training can be something of a difficult task. Every day needs to be the same and you need to give him constant attention when you can; this will make the toilet training procedure a lot easier. Your training process will take longer if you are working out of the house quite often as your dog will need to go and the house is the only place that he can.

When you start out dog toilet training you need to give him a place of his own, maybe a corner of your back room. That should be where you put his food and his bed and his toys and cover the whole floor in newspaper. When you leave the house make sure he is in that room and can't get out.

When you are gone he will obviously need the toilet and will go where he is standing, but over time he will pick a place and start to do his business in the one place, when he starts to do that you can then start to remove the paper from the area furthest away from his chosen spot. Gradually continue this until it is only a small space available for him to go, if he misses the paper then you are moving a little bit too fast and need to go back a step or two until you get to as little papers as possible. When he gets older he will be able to control his bladder movements a lot easier.

When you are at home spend as much time with your dog as possible. Dog toilet training will be much easier if you do. Every 45 minutes or so take your dog outside and whenever he does the toilet outside make sure he is praised very happily and excitedly with lots of enthusiasm, and do this everytime that he "goes" outside. He will realise that this is where he needs to go to the toilet and when he can control his bladder a little better he will wait until you come to let him out. It does take a lot of time and patience though.

Never scold your dog for doing the toilet in the house as he does not know any better. We did the toilet in our nappies until we were potty trained because there was nothing else we could do about it, when we needed we went, well dogs are the same. No dog is properly toilet trained until he is about 6 months old so it is a lengthy procedure but a great one when the end results start to show!

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I fed my Dog Chocolate over Christmas

There are always dog owners, vets and pet enthusiasts alike who claim you should not feed your dog Chocolate.  I hear the stories of dogs becoming violently ill, having the runs and even dying. Well over the holidays I committed a sin, and fed both our dogs chocolate.  I must tell you there were serious side effects,but first let me explain what I fed them.  I gave them approximately a small human bite of pure milk chocolate.

Here is the side effects I noticed when feeding my dogs chocolate:
1. While preparing it, they barked, jumped and ran the kitchen in excitement.
2. They tried to climb the counter as it smelled so good.
3. They ate it in less than 2 seconds! Garbled it right up.
4.  Once done they were very happy! Wagging their little tails and asking for more!
5. They did not get sick!
6.  No runs, no sickness.

Nothing but mmmmm!!   The dogs loved it and I do not understand how anyone could deprive their dog of just a little chocolate in their lifetime.  How would you feel?

Now I did a little research into the topic and have learned the following;

1. Do not over do it, the chocolate won't necessary kill your dog but if given too much it can be hard on their digestive system causing unwanted side effects ie) runs and vomit.
2.  If your dog has an underlying condition such as heart trouble etc, you may want to give your dog very little chocolate.
3.  I spoke to a vet and they advise NOT to feed your dog dark chocolate.  Apparently  dogs react to coco and it is very high in it and CAN be lethal. 
4.  Remember when feeding your dog anything always keep an eye on then after in case they have a weird reaction.
5.  Any doubts contact your vet.. I am not a vet just a dog lover.

Has anyone else ever fed their dog chocolate?  what is your opinion on this matter?