Training Your Dog to Listen to You

Training Your Dog to Listen to You

Why Won't My Dog Listen To Me?

This is a common question that most first-time Dog owners ask me. Before I answer your question, let me ask you a few instead:

• Do you use cookies, collars, head halters or clickers to make your Dog listen to your commands?

• Do you have to raise your voice every time you want your Dog to listen to you?

• Does your Dog always come or sit on command - anytime and anywhere you want him to?

If your answers are mostly in the negative, its time you seriously reconsider your role as a sincere Dog trainer and an ideal pet parent.

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Get Your Dog To Listen To You

Before you begin any training, you must first establish yourself as the "ALPHA dog" of your family. Your Dog must know that you’re the leader of the pack and it is YOU who is in charge.

Here is a list of simple DO's and DONT's that you must follow if you want to be the Alpha:

• Always go out or come in through the door first - remember you are the leader;

• Always eat first - give your Dog something to eat only after you've finished your meal;

• Don’t circle around your Dog when he is lying on the floor - make your Dog move out of your way instead;

• Don't let your Dog set the rules - pay attention to him when you think fit and not whenever he demands;

• Don’t permit your Dog to sleep with you in your bed - demarcate his sleeping area clearly.

Once you successfully established yourself as the Alpha, training your Dog and making him listen will be a lot easier than you can imagine. Remember, if your Dog does not learn to "listen", all your training efforts will be in vain!

Does your Dog know his name? Does your Dog look at you whenever you call him by his name? This is the first and the most critical step involved in Dog Training. If your Dog doesn't respond to his name, you cannot have his attention for teaching him any other commands.

To make sure that your Dog recognizes his name, take a treat in your hand and hold it away from your body. Call your Dog's name. He is most likely to look at the treat in your hand. Continue calling his name untill he turns and looks at your eyes. Give him the treat immediately. Repeat this exercise by holding the treat in the other hand. Once you're sure that your Dog has learnt to recognize his name, just call his name and reward him for looking at you by petting or with a hug.

You must understand that Dogs respond far better to positive reinforcement than they do to coercion or force.

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Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com

How to train a dog to carry his toys to his bed

First of all I would suggest you should use clicker training. If your dog is not yet clicker trained, first make him understand how the clicker works. Click and treat a couple of times. Now give him one of his toys to hold in his mouth. If he cannot do that, you should first work on the retrieve exercise. I assume here that your dog can retrieve. Now with the toy in his mouth, walk with him and encourage him to bring the toy. Walk with him to his bed. Now show him a treat - he will most probably just drop the toy, because he wants the treat. As he drops the toy, click and give the treat. Repeat this many times. You can start giving a command - any descriptive word you can come up with. Your dog will learn to associate the command with the action of taking the toy to his bed with the click and with the treat.

Latest Dog Training Blog

Dogs Training is my new blog that you can look at and get some really nice information. This is going to be a really interesting blog, not just about dog training but dogs in general. So go there, bookmark that site and visit it often. It is going to be updated very often.

Happy New Year!

Time flies! We are already well into the first week of the new year and I haven't even have time to make New Year's resolutions, not to mention keeping them. Looking back, I can just say we had a fabulous holiday!! We took the dogs to the beach each day, only five minutes away from the farm cottage we rent. They truly enjoyed the wide open spaces, as did I. No rushing - just peace and quiet.

I hope your dogs also enjoyed a good time with their masters or were well cared for. Now we must look ahead, plan our daily activities and training schedule. The beginning of a new year is always a great time to start your dog training afresh. Start with the basics again- your dog will catch up quickly and it will encourage you to keep going and to try a few new tricks.

If your are living in the Western Cape of South Africa, consider visiting the quest farm:

Klein Paradijs - I highly recommend it. You can visit their website at: http://www.kleinparadijs.co.za/

The hosts are Suzanne and Michael. And take your dogs along!!

Happy Days and Holidays

My dogs, Ami and Maggie, and a friend and her two dogs, Dawid and Bennie, and I am leaving for a short holiday today! Just have to quickly update my blogs. Can't wait!!! We are going to a beautiful guest farm close to Pearly Beach. We are renting a small cottage on the farm and are planning to just relax, play games and enjoy the dogs and all of God's creation.
The cottage is situated on the banks of a large farm dam - I'm sure the dogs, especially Ami, is going to love that.

If you take your dogs with you on holiday, please remember the following:
1. make sure they are protected against fleas and ticks.
2. always have enough water with you
3. that they have their name tags on
4. keep them on leash in public areas so they won't bother other people
5. take enough plastic bags to clean up after your dogs.

If you don't take them with you,
1. Make sure they are well taken care of by someone responsible or
2. Book them into a reputable kennels.

And remember to visit my web site: http://www.dogtrainingtipsforfree.com

Enjoy your holidays, have a blessed Christmas and a prosperous 2009!