Tag Archives: dog training

Teach Your Dog to Fetch

My dog Lally learned to fetch from an ex-boyfriend’s dog. She watched him chasing a ball around the yard and soon started chasing it herself! You don’t need a dog to lead by example, though, in order to teach your dog to fetch. Teaching your dog to fetch will probably be easiest if your dog already likes carrying things in his or her mouth. But that isn’t a requirement! Tell your dog to sit. If your dog doesn’t know how to sit yet, you can teach him that first. Bring a toy a few steps away from where the dog … Continue reading →

Stop Chasing!

I was out walking the dogs the other day when two young men on bicycles stopped me and asked for directions. As the boys started to ride off, Lally suddenly took interest and wanted to chase them! The chase instinct is one of the strongest instincts in dogs. Pursuit and hunting behaviors are strong in both domesticated and wild canines. Your dog may want to chase: Running people or children. Bicycles, skateboards, and roller skaters. Cars. Other animals. Moose once chased after a ride-on lawnmower. It was a short lived chase; after three or four steps, he lost interest and … Continue reading →

Using Bitter Sprays For Training

My parents got a gorgeous set of new couches for the living room. It’s no surprise that they don’t want the three dogs climbing up on the couches! My dad blocks the couches by putting folding chairs onto the cushions, blocking the dogs’ access to the new upholstery. There is an easier way to keep your pets away from the things you want to protect! Deterrent sprays can help teach your pets that a particular thing is off limits — even when you aren’t home. There are lots of different sprays out there; you may have heard of bitter apple … Continue reading →

Teach Your Dog How to Come

Sounds easy, right? Teaching your dog how to come on command is an easy trick that will be very useful for you. A well-trained dog will stop ANYTHING and come to you when you call. One note: when you are first teaching this trick, don’t tell your dog to come to you for an unpleasant reason. This will teach him to associate the command with something bad and can make him hesitant to come to you at all. Keep things positive when you are first teaching this trick! Stand a short distance away from your dog with a special treat … Continue reading →

Teach Your Dog Tricks: The Basics

Teaching your dog to do tricks can be a great bonding experience. It can also help build confidence in your dog! Dogs like having jobs to do, and they like pleasing their people. Time, patience, rewards, and reinforcement will get you through the training process. After the age of twelve weeks, your dog should be read for some basic training. Don’t believe that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” line — dogs of any age can learn. Some breeds and some dogs are faster learners than others. Some dogs are motivated by food; others are motivated by play … Continue reading →

The Barkathon

Last night was a baaaaaaaad night. The dogs barked me awake at 12:10. Again at 12:30. At 1:00. At that point, I got up to let them out, thinking they really had to go. But alas, the barkathon began anew at 4:50. And 6:00. And 6:20. And so on. Why all the barking? As far as I could tell, someone in the complex was having a party. Unusual noises, music, and louder voices that usual had Moose and Lally in a bit of a frenzy! At least for the first part of the night. What they heard in the very … Continue reading →

Retraining

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Now that Moose, Lally, and I are (sort of) settled in our new home, I’ve noticed a bit of a regression in my little girl dog’s training. When I first brought Lally home from the shelter in September 2003, the first thing she did was hop onto my bed and piddle. She also used to piddle in excitement when I came home from work, or if someone new came to the house. She hasn’t slipped that much in her housebreaking this time around, but we’ve had a few accidents in the new apartment. On Saturday, I came home from the … Continue reading →

Training: NILIF

NILIF stands for Nothing In Life Is Free. This is a training program that can work with any type of dog and any time of behavior problem. Step One: Eliminate attention on demand. Is your dog an attention hound? Does he nudge your hand for petting? My Moose dog is definitely an attention hound. To solve the attention hound issue, you need to ignore the dog’s demands for attention. Be strong! He may try even harder to get your attention. But in a pack situation, the top dog demands attention from the lower ones — not the other way around. … Continue reading →

Training: Body Language Matters

My dog Moose was surrendered to a shelter because he was “too stubborn”. This says to me that maybe his family didn’t take enough time in training him, but then stubbornness is a stupid reason to dump a dog into a shelter, if you ask me. I’ll admit, Moose is not the brightest dog in the bunch. It’s taken me a while (we just had our three year anniversary together last month) to learn what works and what doesn’t if I want Mr. Moose to listen. Obedience training needs three things from you to line up: your tone of voice, … Continue reading →

Rehabilitating Pets and Prisoners

Inmates in Lansing, Kansas are rescuing dogs from death row. Around a hundred of the Lansing Correctional Facility’s 2500 resident criminals are working to train homeless dogs to help them have a better chance at finding forever homes. The Safe Harbor Prison Dog Program has been in operation in Lansing since August of 2004. In that time, the inmates have trained more than 1200 dogs who went on to find happy forever homes. These dogs are trained to be family companions, rather than service dogs — the training is much faster, which means more dogs are adopted and more can … Continue reading →