"There is no wealth but life."John Ruskin
|
| |
Advanced dog training exercises
Coming when called is a vital skill that every dog must learn, both for its own safety and that of those around it. A disobedient dog that refuses to come when called could easily be hit by a car, get into a fight with another dog, or suffer a variety of ...
Did Dragons Walk Among Us? (Do They Still?) Part 2
Virtually every culture on earth has an oral tradition of encounters with large, strange beasts—creatures different from those we know. Were they dragons? Why don’t we still have dragons among us? Or do we? Will we ever know for sure? Part 2 What the ...
Saving the Iberian Lynx
Of the 32 remaining species of big cat left in the world, the Iberian Lynx is the most endangered, even more so than the Siberian tiger. Western Europe’s last remaining big cat is in serious trouble, recent estimations place the number of lynx’s remaining ...
|
|
|
| |
Teaching a dog proper behavior while it is young is very important. While playing and having fun with your new puppy or dog is certainly important, it is also important to teach your canine companion just what is expected - which behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors are not acceptable.
Teaching these lessons early, while the dog is still a puppy, is the best guarantee that these lessons will be learned and retained. Dogs learn quickly, and every interaction between human and dog is teaching the dog something. Making sure you are teaching the right lessons is up to you as the dog handler.
Proper training techniques are important for the protection of the dog as well as the protection of the family and the community at large. While dogs are loving, protecting members of the family in most cases, a poorly trained dog can be dangerous and destructive. Making sure your new addition is a pleasure to be around and not a menace is up to you as the owner.
The relationship between humans and dogs goes back for many thousands of years, and dogs have been domesticated longer than any other animals. Therefore, humans and dogs have developed a bond not shared by many other domesticated animals. This strong bond is very useful when training any dog.
All potential dog owners and would be dog trainers should understand how dog society works in the absence of humans. It is important to understand the pack hierarchy, and to use that hierarchy to your advantage as you train your dog. All pack animals have a lead animal, in the case of dogs it is the alpha dog. All other members of the pack look to the alpha dog for direction and guidance. The alpha dog in turn provides important leadership in hunting, fending off other predators, protecting territory and other vital survival skills. This pack arrangement is what has allowed wolves and wild dogs to be such successful predators, even as other
large predators have been driven to extinction.
What all this means to you as the dog trainer is that you must set yourself up as the pack leader - the alpha dog if you will - in order to gain the respect and trust of your dog. If the dog does not recognize you as is superior and its leader, you will not get very far in your training program.
Respect is not something that can be forced. It is rather something that is earned through the interaction of human and dog. As the dog learns to respect and trust you, you will begin to make great strides in your training program. A training program based on mutual respect and trust is much more likely to succeed in the long run than one that is based on fear and intimidation.
A fearful dog is likely to at one point become a biting dog, and that is definitely one thing you do not want in your life. Rewarding the dog when he does the right thing, instead of punishing him for doing the wrong thing, is vitally important to the success of any training program.
Punishment only confuses and further frightens the dog, and it can set a training program back weeks if not months. It is important to give the dog the option to do the right thing or the wrong then, and to reward the dog when it makes the right decision. For instance, if the dog chases joggers, have a friend jog by while you hold the dog on the leash. If the dog attempts to chase the "jogger", sit him back down and start again. You are not punishing the wrong decision, you are simply providing the choice. When the dog remains sitting calmly by your side, give him a treat and lots of praise. The dog will quickly learn that sitting is the right choice and chasing the jogger is the wrong choice.
About the author:
Tony Robinson is an international author and dog lover. His website http://www.dogtraining4u.com contains valuable insights into the life of our canine friends.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Rumor Has It A-Rod Cheated on Madonna with Model Melissa Britos - Gay Wired.com
According to online gossip mongers, baseball star A-Rod may already be cheating on his rumored girlfriend Madonna . Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez , who only recently finished a nasty divorce battle with ex-wife Cynthia Rodriguez , reportedly has ...
Wounded Deer Attacks Hunter - AOL
SEDALIA, Mo. (Dec. 2) – A hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Randy Goodman, 49, said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19 ...
Tips for avoiding identity theft - Los Angeles Daily News
`Tis the season to be jolly, but shoppers both online and in the malls shouldn't let their guards down while hunting for gifts. A slight slip-up and they may give away more than they bargain for, identity theft experts say. No one knows exactly how ...
Michael Smerconish: Mangling the Wal-Mart story - Philadelphia Daily News
THE ONLY thing that could've awakened me from a tryptophan-induced slumber last weekend was what happened after the doors opened at a Wal-Mart on Long Island, N.Y. And I don't mean the trampling of Jdimytai Damour. I refer to the subsequent coverage ...
8 Dec - Soccerway
National leagues (475) Albania (4) Algeria (2) Andorra (4) Angola (1) Antigua and Barbuda (1) Argentina (7) Armenia (3) Aruba (1) Australia (12) Austria (5) Azerbaijan (3) Bahamas (1) Bahrain (1) Bangladesh (1) Barbados (1) Belarus (3) Belgium (7 ...
|
