Dog Training Tip #4
4 Easy Steps to Potty Training Your Puppy!
Dog Training Tip #3 – Use food to train
Use food like a pay cheque for training
Dogs are bred to work! 90% of pet dogs live an unfulfilled life as they are never given a job. We do everything for them without them ever having to earn anything. No different than people who are handed everything to them, dogs who live an unfulfilled life are usually bratty, entitled and pushy. An easy way to have your dog work is to work for their meals. Your dog will still be getting the same amount of food, and will appreciate their new job! You can use food for obedience, while walking, to work on the place command, in a food toy like a Kong Wobbler or using the “Feeding the Chickens” method (see second picture below – kibble scattered through the grass). By providing your dog with purpose he will naturally be happier and better behaved! So give it a try! Try for at least one whole week to get rid of the food bowl and have your dog earn their pay cheque! I guarantee you will see a difference in your dog’s behaviour for the better!
“Don’t worry he’s friendly”!
What to do if a dog runs up off leash
We’ve all been there…walking our dog, minding our own business….and all of 
a sudden there is an off leash dog bee-lining it straight towards us. The owner is somewhere, only to be heard yelling “don’t worry, he’s friendly”!
What do you do?
A) Allow the rude dog to rush up to your dog, and hope for the best?
B) If you have a small enough dog, pick him up?
C) Run the other way and hope the dog loses interest?
D) Advocate for your dog and do whatever it takes to make sure that dog does not end up face to face with yours?
95% of the time option A is happening. 99% of the time option D is what needs to happen. So how do we do this?
First, know the other person will likely be offended. I live in Stoney Creek, and we have a lot of old school European families in our area. Many of them don’t walk their dogs but allow them off leash on the front lawn. One time a Boston Terrier ran across the street barking and growling at us…I got in front of my dog and yelled “GET” while swinging my legs (NEVER made contact, the dog was a good 5-10 ft from me the whole time…but even if I did make contact, would be better than the dog fight that could have happened had I not). The dog’s owner was PISSED, and told me not to kick his dog. Well I was even more pissed that he allowed his dog who clearly had no manners as well as zero listening skills, off leash on a busy road and running up barking at us. After giving him a piece of my mind we went on our way. I haven’t seen the dog out off leash since!
As your dog’s person, you need to advocate for him. If you don’t know the dog approaching assume he is NOT friendly (even if the person claims he is). Get a walking stick, Pet Corrector, umbrella or just swing your legs and yell like I do! I promise you, it is not worth the risk allowing strange dogs to run up barking at your dog. If you want to socialize your dog, do it off leash with dogs you know. While you are walking, on leash is not the place to socialize! Even so called friendly dogs can end up in a bad situation if on leash.
And to those who allow their dogs to run up to other dogs…stop, just STOP. It’s rude and you are putting the person and other dog in a very stressful situation. Too many people are scared to walk their dogs due to the number of off leash dogs running up to theirs. Be a good neighbour and leash your dog!
Dog Training Tip #2 – Food Matters
What you feed your dog matters!
Before you begin training, make sure your dog is eating a healthy diet. They learn best when the
y feel their best, and it will only make training easier. No different than sending a kid to school on a diet that consists of only fast foods, dogs require a healthy and balanced diet to thrive. Unfortunately, the big name kibbles (ie. Purina, Iams, Hills etc.) are not quality foods. We suggest that you visit www.dogfoodadvisor.com and check to see how your dog’s food ranks. Anything lower than 4 stars needs to be thrown away, as that is the McDonald’s of kibble. Some brands of kibble we suggest are Acana, Orijen, Nature’s Variety, or Carna4. However, we feed our own dogs a complete raw diet and strongly suggest looking into it. Dogs who are fed a raw diet tend to see the vet less often, have shiny and healthy coats, shed less, have clean ears and eyes, and less likely to suffer from allergies.
How to help your fearful dog
Fearful Dog Training
Fear is a common problem among pet dogs these days. I get plenty of calls regarding dogs who arefearful or nervous of all kinds of different things, and some are just scared of life in general. When it comes to fear, dogs are fight or flight animals…so when they are scared either one of t
hose instincts will kick in. The majority of dogs go into fight mode, which is where you get what looks like “aggressive” behaviours starting to happen. When a dog who is “fear aggressive” lunges, barks, or bites they are not biting because they want to. They are biting because they feel they have to in order to get whatever they find scary to go away. Dogs who go into flight mode are simply fleeing from whatever makes them scared. Either way, both the dog who fights and the dog in flight lack one common thing and that is confidence.
When helping fearful dogs, the number one thing we have to remember is not to coddle our dogs. Almost always when I get a client with a fearful dog, they are petting them and telling them “it’s OK” whenever they get scared. When we do this, we are literally validating that the dog should be afraid of whatever it is that is scaring them. We are also reinforcing a state of mind that we actually want to change. Pretty much at any given time during the day there is an opportunity to train, and if you look at all the times your dog gets nervous and you reinforce that by petting and coddling then your dog will always be in that state of mind in the presence of whatever scares them.
The next component to helping your fearful dog is to take things slow and never force your dog into a situation that they are uncomfortable with. Dogs who bite out of fear do so because they are in a situation that is too much for them to handle and feel they need to bite to get out of it. Let’s say for instance your dog is fearful of other dogs. Usually looks like dog aggression when on leash, typically the dog is lunging and barking when they see another dog. Whether that dog is 10ft or 50ft away from you, you need to give the dog more space. You will need to figure out your dog’s threshold and stay below it. So if at 20 ft your dog reacts then you need to be more than 20 ft away from the other dog to stay below threshold. Work at this distance for a few weeks. Show your dog nothing happens when another dog walks by at a distance he is comfortable with. Once he is successfully walking past other dogs below threshold you can slowly start closing in the distance.
Next, you will want to think outside the box when it comes to training for fear. Instead of directly dealing with whatever scares your dog, focus on building your dogs confidence in other ways. A great example is teaching your dog the place command and have them do place on all kinds of different objects. Confident dogs naturally are not afraid of to many things. So by building your dog’s confidence in general they will be able to handle more situations that would have been scary to them prior to training.
If you are looking for help with training your fearful dog please contact us today at [email protected]
Happy Training
Katherine