How To Be your Own Vet

How To Be your Own Vet - in an emergency!

How To Be your Own Vet is your home guide to learn how to care for your dog and treat his health conditions naturally. Do you know how to save your dog's life in an emergency? Would you like to save thousands of dollars in vet bills?

Find out how the amazing story of Derby's brush with death can teach you what you need to know about your own dog's health.

Learn more about How to be your own vet

How to do Agility Training at Home

Dog agility is one of the most spectacular dog sports around and handlers, dogs and spectators all love the game of agility and dog jumping. If you have a agile dog or if you just love to be out and do something with your dog, you should consider joining a dog training school where they also offer agility training classes. Most dog training schools do not just do dog obedience training, but also offer puppy classes, agility and dog jumping classes, tracking classes and much more.

If you just want to do the training at home or even if you have joined a dog training school, you might want to make or buy dog agility training equipment. Most of the obstacles are easy to make yourself from PVC pipe, like the jumps and the weave poles. Other equipment like the tunnel and the see-saw are easier to buy, unless of cause if you are very handy! The most important thing is, that the agility equipment that you use, should be safe for the dog to perform. Your dog's safety should always be your first concern. One piece of equipment that is easy to construct is an agility training ladder. You can always just use the normal ladder you have in your garage. This is used to teach the dog that it has hind feet. He must just be trained to step in the gaps and not on the ladder. It also helps with teaching him balance.

6 Home agility training tips for dogs:

1. Work a lot on his basic obedience commands, like stays, recall and fast sits and downs.
2. Do a lot of ground work, like following your hand, directions and speed.
3. Practice only short sequences at home (at most 4-5 obstacles)
4. Keep training sessions short and fun.
5. NO punishment, only praise!
6. Do to agility training for small dogs, you can make use of a target stick, especially when training the weave poles.

The most important tip, whether you train at home or at dog training school:
The dog is NEVER wrong - if he missed a jump, ask yourself "What did I do wrong?"

Happy Training!

How old for puppy training?

The question: "How old for puppy training?" is often asked by new puppy owners, especially first time puppy owners.

Normally when someone asks that question, he is actually asking "how old should my be puppy be to be taken to a dog training school?" Most dog training schools also offer puppy classes and puppy can be taken to puppy class as soon as it had all its vaccination injections. The age would normally be around 10 weeks. Dog obedience training classes, which normally start with a 8 week basic obedience course, are more for puppies and dogs from 6 months and older.

But to get back to the original question: "How old for puppy training?"; most professional dog trainers would agree that a puppy should not be taken away from its mother before he is 8 weeks old. Many dog breeders (not the responsible one's) give the puppies away when they are only 6 weeks old. Whatever the age when you receive the puppy, puppy obedience training should start the moment the puppy enters your house. Training a 6 week old puppy or a 8 week old puppy, should resemble the way the mother dog would train the puppy.

The mother dog would for example growl at the puppy when he bites her too hard. She would growl and if necessary grab the puppy's mouth with her mouth (without hurting it) when she does not agree with the pup's behavior. We would learn much about dog training if we would tale the time to sit sit down and observe how a mother dog trains her pups. Many of the behavior problems that we face would not even have started if we copied the mother dog.

So apart from teaching the puppy some ground rules like not biting, the puppy should undergo toilet training, but mostly a new puppy owner should focus on bonding and playing with the puppy. Consistency is very important from the very start.

Happy training!

How to teach Fido not to jump on people

One of the many problems most dog owners struggle with is that their dogs jump up against them and their friends and family. Most dogs get overly excited when they hear a car pulling into the driveway or when they hear the doorbell ring. They charge to the front door with a loud noise and with you following and shouting at them to get quiet, which of cause they cannot hear. When you open the door they all jump together at this poor person standing there. You don’t even have the opportunity to greet your friend because you are just shouting and grabbing dogs all over.

When the first ten minutes of excitement is over, then you can invite your friend in and start apologising for your dogs’ misbehaviour. If this is what you are experiencing day after day, it is time for some serious behaviour modification training. It is, of cause, more difficult when you have more than one or two dogs, but it is possible.

Why do dogs jump up on people?
There are basically two reasons why dogs jump up, but both of these reasons are normal canine behaviour. Unfortunately it is not appropriate for dog-human interaction and therefor we must train them to display more appropriate behaviour.

The first reason is that the dog wants to say "hi". Dogs greet each other by sniffing the behinds (which is also not very appropriate for us!) and also by touching noses. If you do not get down to the dog’s level, he feels a very strong instinct to jump up to touch noses with you. This behaviour is also strengthened from puppy days when many people actually encourage the puppy to jump up and even more so when they pick up the puppy and kiss it on it’s nose. This is a mistake most people make when they don’t think about the fact that within a few months this little adorable puppy will not be so little anymore.

The second reason why a dog will jump up against someone is to show dominance. This often happens when an adult dog jumps up on a child or strangers. This type of jumping can have serious consequences.

How to teach your dog not to jump up

Who is Alpha?
The very first thing you should do is to establish your role as Alpha. Your dog should very clearly understand that you are his leader. One of the most important rules that you should follow to accomplish that is to totally ignore your dog when you leave the house and also when you come in again. Ask everybody that visits you to do the same. If the dog jumps up, you should just turn your back on him. Do not say a word, do not touch him and do not even make eye contact. If you do this consistently, the jumping up behaviour will already be reduced.

The Sit-Stay
You can also teach your dog to sit-stay, while you open the door and the visitor enters. Have your dog on lead and have your clicker and treats ready. Ask a friend to help you. When he rings the doorbell, instead of racing your dog to the door, just remain calm, take hold of the lead, lure your dog into the sit position and click and treat. Now, give the stay command and call to your friend to come in. He should totally ignore your dog. Click and treat for a good sit-stay. You should remain at your dog’s side to ensure he does not break his stay. Now with the dog still on lead walk to the living room and ask your friend to sit down. Now you can bring your dog closer to greet your friend. When your dog has settled down a bit, you can take the lead off.

Repeat this exercise many times over and with different people to help you. Your dog will learn but you will have to be very consistent. If you have more than one dog, it will be more difficult. First practise with them separately and then together.

Dog Problems and Solutions

House training
Probably the number one problem puppy owners have to deal with is house training.

I hear these questions every day:

• How to I get my puppy to go outside?
• My puppy messes in the house, what should I do?
• House training 11 month male dog?
• House training a dog in cold weather?
• Please give me advice on puppy toilet training?
  

I have written and posted an article: How to house train a dog - easy steps.
The keywords are patience and consistency.

Stop Leash Pulling
This is probably the second most asked question:

• How can I teach my dog not to pull on his leash when I take him for a walk?
• How to break dog from pulling on leash?
• How to stop a boxer from pulling on a leash?

Read my article: Don't let Fido pull you.
Here I would really advise you to start early. Do not let your dog even come into the habit of pulling you, especially if it is a strong large breed. Again be patient and consistent.

Do not give in!

Dog Barking

Another question that I'm often asked goes like this:

• My dog barks all night, why?
• My dog barks at the ceiling, how can I stop that?
• My dog barks in the morning to wake us, what can I do?
• Dog barks while I'm gone, what must I do?
• My dog barks at people in hats, why?
• My Australian Cattle dog barks at husband, is the dog jealous?

All these and many more are questions I hear regularly. Most barking is because the dog seeks your attention, and it mostly works for him and that is why he will continue to do so. Read my article Stop the Barking.