Puppy Obedience Training - How to Care for a Puppy
Puppy obedience training can be a challenge because puppies have a lot of energy and very short attention spans. While training a puppy, it is important to set up rules and routine, use positive reinforcement, and be very patient. Here are 7 puppy obedience training tips that helped me most while dealing with my little terrors on four paws.
Leash Training Your Dog
Leash training your dog is effectively achieved by teaching him one simple fact - pulling will get him nowhere. We examine common leash training techniques including 180 turns, hand targeting, red-light-green-light, and leash corrections.
Puppy Potty Training - Facts and Myths
Puppy potty training requires time, patience, and consistency. How quickly a puppy learns proper potty rules will depend on his temperament, as well as your own. We present the facts and myths of puppy potty training including what works, and what is ineffective.
How I Trained My Husky Puppy
Puppy obedience training can be a challenge because puppies have hyper energy and short attention spans. We deal with the 3 key elements of puppy obedience training - how to communicate with puppy, how to encourage good behaviors, and how to stop bad behaviors.
Nothing in Life Is Free (NILIF) Dog Training
What is the Nothing in Life is Free program? Is it a good or bad training strategy for our dogs? Here, we consider the many aspects of NILIF dog training including its pros and cons, why it is used, and how it can be implemented.
How Dogs Learn, How Dogs Think
Dogs are not human. They do not learn in exactly the same way that we learn, nor do they think in exactly the same way as we think. Here, we consider how dogs think, and how they learn. By observing our dogs and expanding our knowledge of their behavior, we can better communicate with them and forge a strong and lasting bond.
Build a Strong Bond with Your Dog
To establish a strong bond with our dog, we need love, as well as a good dose of rules and structure. We discuss some dog bonding tips, and how we can create a healthy relationship with our dog that is based on trust.
Zen Dog Training Tips from Kung Fu Panda
To me, dog training is not really about commands, but rather it is about how to live well with our dogs. In this, I found the many Zen-like life lessons in Kung Fu Panda to be extremely useful. Here are five important Zen lessons of panda kung fu applied to dog training.
Dog Obedience Training - Good and Bad
There are two schools of dog obedience training - aversive training and reward training. Both schools are based on operant conditioning principles and many years of study in animal behavioral psychology. Here, we examine the pros and cons of aversive and reward dog training.
Dog Obedience Training Facts and Myths
I had a difficult time with my Shiba Inu when he was young, and when I started looking around for information, I found a lot of conflicting opinions on dog training and dog behavior. Some people think we should dominate our dog, others believe in rewarding a dog with food, and some try growling and biting like a dog. In this article, we try to sort out what is fact and what is myth.
Dog Discipline - Should We Beat or Hit a Dog as Punishment?
What are the different forms of dog discipline? What method of dog discipline will work best on my dog? We discuss the pros and cons of various dog discipline techniques, and how they are based on animal behavioral psychology principles.
Finding a Dog Trainer
Finding a good dog trainer is often more difficult than it sounds. What should we look for in a dog trainer? What can we expect from a dog trainer? What should be do if things do not work out? What about boot-camp?
Controlling a Dog's Behavior - Is Total Control Necessary?
One of the key debates in dog obedience training is about control. Proponents of aversive dog discipline argue that the choice is between total control and no control. Either our dog is a fully controlled Stepford dog, or he is an accident waiting to happen. We consider Stepford dogs, and whether they are better or happier than regular dogs.
My Dog Training Mistakes
Dog training is often counter-intuitive. When I started learning how to train my dogs, I found a lot of conflicting information. In addition, so-called dog experts would give inconsistent dog training advice and sugar-coat the facts. As a result, I made many mistakes with my first dog, but I also learned a lot from him. Here are some of the most common dog training mistakes that we make.
Operant Conditioning - How to Modify a Dog's Behavior
Almost all of the dog training techniques we use today are based on operant conditioning principles. These techniques can be used to modify bad behavior and shape good behavior. We consider what operant conditioning means, and why it is so important in dog training.
Reward Dog Training
Reward dog training allows us to control our dogs behavior by controlling his most desired resources. This is a very effective method for training our dogs because it helps to align our dogs needs, with those of our own. In this way, we establish a cooperative training relationship with our dog, rather than one that is based on pain, dominance, and fear. Here, we highlight the good and bad of reward dog training techniques.
Aversive Dog Training
In aversive dog training we discourage bad behaviors by applying an aversive stimulus, and encourage good behaviors by stopping the aversive stimulus. Some example aversive techniques include leash corrections, poking a dog, slapping a dog, and alpha rolls. Here, we consider the good and bad of aversive dog training.
Dog Bite Inhibition
Bite inhibition means training our dog to have a soft mouth. We want to teach our dogs not to bite on people, but it is even more important that they learn to control the force of their bites. We discuss dog bite inhibition and why it is so important to our dogs.
Brad Pattison, CET Dog Training, & In The Doghouse
Brad Pattison is a well-known dog trainer in Canada. He also appeared in dog training shows in Canada and the US. However, his US program (In The Doghouse) was cancelled due to viewer complaints and outrage. We consider Brad Pattisons dog training style and compare it to other television dog trainers.
Food Training - Good, Bad, or Bribery?
Some people consider food dog training to be bribery. Is food training bribery? More importantly, is food training and effective way to train our dogs? We consider these questions here, and examine whether food can be used to stop bad dog behaviors.