Raising Healthy Dogs

One of the best things you can do for a new puppy is provide him with as many social opportunities as possible. Even if you have a very quiet lifestyle the act of showing your dog the world in a positive way will help to prevent any fear behaviors developing if his life changes later on.

A puppy will be learning about the world constantly within the first few months of his life. This learning will shape him into the dog that he is going to become so by making his experiences varied and fun you will be doing him a huge favor.

Any dog that isn’t well socialized can develop fear issues towards other dogs, people, children and even cars. These issues take a lot of working through and can even stay with the dog forever. So as a good and responsible puppy owner it’s your job to get socializing.

A dog is generally a social creature with other canines. They gravitate towards each other and a puppy learns much of his canine manners, play and interaction lessons from other older dogs. Therefore it is extremely unfair to keep a puppy away from other dogs and can result in substantial behavior problems including aggression.

Puppy classes are a great idea and many veterinary surgeries run these and puppy playgroups in order to get young dogs social time and play with others of their species. It’s also great for you as an owner to share your worries with others new puppy parents. Otherwise get down to your local dog park and meet as many friendly dogs as possible, as often as you can.

Other experiences that your young dog will benefit from are car travel, meeting people of all ages, time spent with animals other than dogs and, in fact, everything you can think of which will introduce puppy to something new in a positive manner.

Reward based and motivational dog training is one of the biggest breakthroughs of modern times. For too long dog owners and trainers have underestimated the power of reward in the learning process. Now though, with the success of clicker training and positive reinforcement based activities, we are gradually learning the importance of motivation.

It is unsurprising that dogs need motivation isn’t it? After all we would be far less likely work hard on anything if it contained little incentive therefore why would our dogs?

To get the very best from your dog during training sessions you will benefit from learning what motivates him the most. You might actually be surprised by what you discover. Dogs will learn and work better when they can see a worthwhile reward at the end, for this reward will sharpen their concentration and enthusiasm. Your job as dog trainer is to work out which reward, or combination of rewards, will work best for your own dog. This is pretty easy to find out by testing a variety of rewards and observing your dog’s reaction towards them.

If you are using treats in order to motivate your dog then you will benefit from beginning with the least tasty variety and only increasing the temptation to give your dog a motivation boost. Use the smallest amount of food as possible for each reward, so that your dog just gets a taste, to spur him on in order to earn more of the same. By using the blandest reward possible you have plenty of room to move through the scale of taste towards further motivation.

Interestingly although food rewards work well for many dogs not all are motivated by treats. Some dogs prefer a ball or squeaky toy and others will happily perform for a hug and a rub behind the ears. Some canines in training like noisy toys such as a squeaky ball or even a quacking duck or honking pig.

When your dog likes toys you don’t have to spend a fortune to keep them motivated. Charity and thrift shops often have a wonderful array of soft and plush toys for sale. Many are baby orientated with rattles and all sorts of sounds in them at far less expense than pet store supplies. It’s important to watch out for chewing.

When you have sorted out the best way to motivate your pet, and are employing the techniques effectively, you will almost instantly see an improvement in his performance.

Do you ever wonder why your dog continues to carry out the most annoying of actions even when you are trying to teach him something far more useful? Well I am going to let you into a little secret, something that all positive and professional dog trainers already know, your dog is repeating the action because he is somehow being rewarded for it.

When I say that your dog is being rewarded I don’t necessarily mean by the type of reward which you would expect. A canine friend can find an incentive in many actions and does not even need a treat or cuddle to see an action as something worth repeating.

An example of this is the canine that jumps up on greeting. This is quite a common act which many dog owners can struggle with. No matter how many times they push the enthusiastic dog off with their hands, and scold vocally, he still jumps up. The owner cannot understand why the dog is being disobedient and the dog, very simply, adores the attention. In this instance the attention is the reward and therefore reinforcing the dog’s unhelpful behavior.

Dogs, as a general rule, love attention and it does not matter whether the focus on him is positive, such as praise and cuddle, or negative for example pushing him off and telling him how naughty he is. To most dogs all attention is rewarding because they love to interact with their owners. The only exception to this is a dog that has fear issues and cannot cope with direct interaction as it may seem like confrontation to him.

When you look at the interaction between your dog and you as his owner, as he is doing something unhelpful, you can actually see whether you are keeping the bad habit alive by reinforcing it with attention. If you find that this is the case then changing your response will most certainly change the behavior of your dog.  For instance if he is jumping up and you completely ignore him you are taking away the reward. Then if you offer positive attention whilst all four of his paws are on the ground he will soon learn that this position is far more worthwhile to him.

The idea of reinforcement can be difficult to grasp initially but with some effort and understanding it will most certainly improve your relationship with, and understanding of, your dog.