Behavior & Training

Whether you live with a Chihuahua or a German Shepherd, a Rottweiler or a Dachshund, a Golden Retriever or a Labrador Retriever, an English Bulldog or a French Bulldog, a Beagle or a Boxer, a Yorkie, a Poodle or a Shih Tzu, all dogs need to be trained.

Whether you live with a puppy, an adolescent, an adult, or a geriatric, all dogs need to be trained. And if you are living with a puppy or an adolescent dog, your dog’s socialization and training are both essential and extremely urgent.

There is simply no excuse to deny your dog an education.
By following my advice and watching the many free videos in this section, you will find that dog training is not only quick and easy, but also lots and lots of fun. I have only recommended dog-friendly training techniques that may be easily mastered by all family members, especially including children.

For easy access, I have organized the socialization and training tips chronologically, according to the age of your puppy/dog. Obviously, it is essential to learn how to choose and raise and train a dog before bringing one home. Socialization and training have many crucial deadlines, especially during the first few weeks and months after your puppy comes home. Your puppy needs to be errorlessly housetrained and chewtoy-trained within the first week at home (if not before), socialized by three months of age, and develop bite inhibition by five months.

Puppy classes are absolutely essential for your dog to learn bite inhibition and develop a soft mouth. Doggy adolescence is a turbulent time and you will have to be extra especially vigilant to make sure that your dog’s manners, behavior and temperament do not regress.

Once your dog matures, at about two years of age for small breeds but not until three years of age for large breeds, temperament and habits will become more resistant to change.

If you have followed the puppy training advice above, you will now be happy to know that your dog’s well-established good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits. If on the other hand, your adult dog has developed some behavior, temperament or training problems, retraining is still possible, but it will take much more time than preventative puppy training and, you’ll have to use different training techniques (all-or-none reward training) than the lure/reward training techniques that worked so well with your puppy.

Additionally, I have included special sections on behavior problems, dog behavior and dog-dog play, and having fun playing games with your dog.

YOUR EDUCATION ABOUT PUPPY EDUCATION ›
 

socialization

On February 19th, 2008 Sand says:

I live on the Piha Beachfront in the off leash part of the beach. I want to get a puppy and socialize it well towards children. Someone said sit outside a supermarket with your puppy and everyone will want to pat and make a fuss of it. However shouldn't my pup be fully immunised before I do that, or can I do this before it's last immunisation. There should be very few dog's outside a supermarket. I haven't even got my pup yet. But I failed to socialise my German Shepherd in the 90's towards young kids, and was always mindful and protective of this.

puppy training

On April 14th, 2008 alaska says:

I have a new pup who thinks inside is his toilet I am following the errorless rules at the moment but i am getting know where I take him outside every hr for a walk and game but as soon as we go inside he goes to the toilet help please

Articles in this Chapter:

YOUR EDUCATION ABOUT PUPPY EDUCATION

Congratulations on beginning your search for a puppy. Please take your time making your decision. Your puppy’s quality of life as an adult dog pretty much depends on his socialization and training during his first few weeks in your home. 

Please remember that every unwanted adult shelter dog began his life as a perfectly normal puppy. The time to rescue unwanted adult dogs is right now, when you are searching for, choosing, and deciding how to raise and train your puppy. Please, DO NOT CREATE YET ANOTHER UNWANTED SHELTER DOG!

Basically, dogs are abandoned or surrendered to shelters because they misbehave. Dogs misbehave (act like dogs), simply because no one taught them how to behave appropriately when living with people.

 

Choosing Your Puppy (8 weeks)

Before you choose your puppy (usually at eight weeks of age), you need to know:

 

· How to evaluate and select a good breeder

· How to evaluate and select a good puppy and specifically, how to assess your puppy's behavioral development.

 

PUPPY’S FIRST WEEK AT HOME (8-9 weeks)

You need to ensure that an errorless housetraining and chewtoy-training program is instituted the very first day your puppy comes home. During the first week, puppies characteristically learn good or bad habits that set the precedent for weeks, months, and sometimes years to come. Never forget, good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits!

 

The Very First Day Your Puppy Comes Home

 

PUPPY’S FIRST MONTH AT HOME (8-12 weeks)

Toulous 6wksDuring the first month that your puppy is at home, you need to teach him:

 

· To enjoy spending time at home alone

· To thoroughly enjoy the presence and actions of people

· To perform a few basic obedience commands

The clock is ticking and you only have a month to get a lot of things done.

Once you have taught your dog some household manners, it is time to teach you dog to enjoy spending time when left at home alone.

 

PUPPY TRAINING (12-18 weeks)

The most urgent priority is to continue socializing your puppy to a wide variety of people, especially children, men, and strangers. Well-socialized puppies grow up to be wonderful companions, whereas antisocial dogs are difficult, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous. Your puppy needs to learn to enjoy the company of all people and to enjoy being handled by all people, especially children and strangers.

 

 

Adolescent Dog Training (18 weeks - 2 years)

By now you're probably quite exhausted by your puppy-raising efforts. Hopefully, though, you are justifiably proud of your well-mannered, well-behaved, highly socialized dog with dependable bite inhibition. The challenge now is to maintain your dog's stellar qualities.

 

 

Adult Dog Training (2 years+)

As dogs pass through adolescence and become adults, they develop many doggy interests that may compete with dog training. For example, dogs may find that sniffing the grass, playing with other dogs and chasing squirrels are all much more exciting than listening to their owners and following repetitive instructions — come here, sit, down, heel, etc.

 

ADOPTING AN ADULT DOG

Adopting an adult dog can be a marvelous alternative to raising and training a puppy. Alternatively, a new adult dog can be a full-time project. Adult dogs can be perfect or problematic — carrying the behavioral benefits or baggage of their previous owners.

Take your time to search for the right dog for you and only choose one that you know your family knows how to train.
Some shelter and rescue dogs are purebred, but most are one-of-a-kind mixed-breeds.

 

Behavior Problems

Why do dogs misbehave? Or, perhaps we should ask, do dogs misbehave? Certainly, dogs are dogs, and unless given appropriate guidance, puppies will grow up to behave like dogs. However, most behavior problems that irritate owners are, in fact, perfectly normal, natural and necessary canine behaviors.

 

DOG BEHAVIOR

The Alpha Fallacy
It is popularly held that rank is established and maintained by physical strength and dominance and that the more dominant (i.e., higher ranking) dogs are more aggressive. Hence, dogs that frequently threaten, growl, fight and bite are often assumed to be “alpha” animals. Not so Joe! The above assumptions are quite awry. Not only do they betray a theoretically simplistic view of a most sophisticated social structure but also, such notions tend to be counterproductive, inhumane and dangerous when cavalierly extrapolated to dog training, or the treatment of behavior problems.

 

K9 GAMES®

— The Ultimate Dog Show —
Over the past few years, television has gone to the dogs! Dogs have become more and more prominent in the media, movies and sitcoms. Puppy dogs have a proven “Ahhhhh!-factor” and are used to advertise numerous products from cars to beer. In England dogs even advertise toilet tissue! Dogs have everything. The time has come for dogs to advertise themselves!

Twenty years ago, I predicted, that dog events (especially Dog Dancing) would become the next big-money TV sport, in much the same way that Figure Skating (skating repetitive figures) has evolved into Ice Dancing. It is just begging to happen.