My Dog Doesn’t Come When I Call

One of the most common complaints is “my dog doesn’t come when I call”.

Training the recall is one of the funniest of all dog-training exercises because we do so much completely wrong! Let me explain.

This is what we want to achieve: When we call our dog “here Bella” we want Bella to come sprinting as fast as she can to us.

Now, in order to achieve this we must make “here Bella” the best command in the world. With the best result and rewards at the end!

So here are some tips!

Never call your dog if you are thinking of telling her off! You can undo months and months of hard work training your dog to come by telling her off just once. Suddenly coming when you call could be a really bed move!
9 times out of 10 make sure that your dog has a good experience when she comes if you call you. On the 10th recall if you need to put your dog on a leash then do so.
When you call your dog to you think of coming as more of a “check in with me” than a “I am calling you to stop what you are doing”.
Use a long line to keep control of your dog if you are unsure. A long line is a piece of line or rope that can be as long as you like that lies on the ground but you keep within reach!
If your dog hates returning to the car then reward your dog back at the car with water and a small feed and things will soon turn around!
The basic formula to any good recall training is:

CALL your dog to you, then
REWARD your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
RELEASE your dog.
In order to make your dog enjoy the experience you should learn the power of using affection and attention by withholding it and only giving it as a reward. This is one of the most powerful tools available to us and yet we get it all so wrong by giving the dog attention whenever they want and wondering why they don’t come when we call them!

All of the above are demonstrated live on video as well as how to establish yourself as the pack leader on The Online Dog Trainer. CLICK HERE: Doggy Dan The Online Dog Trainer

How To Stop Your Puppy Toileting Inside

How To Stop Your Puppy Toileting Inside

There are a few secrets to toilet training although much of the emphasis will always rest with you! Here are the facts about puppy toilet training:

Just as when a baby needs to go toilet they go, so it is with puppies - when a puppy needs to go they will go! So to start with you have to get them outside before they toilet inside. That is your job! If you fail, then blame yourself.

The best way to show your puppy where you want them to toilet is to show them the correct place. The best way to do this is to take them out when they need to go and then praise them when they go. You will be amazed how quickly they will learn if you give them an amazing treat for going in the right place. Think of it like this if the treat is a little piece of cheese, your puppy will after only a few toilets in the correct place start looking for the cheese treat saying “Hey where’s the cheese I just toileted on the grass!”

At a very young age 8 weeks or so a puppies bladder is very small and they can only hold on for sometimes 30 minutes or so before they may need to go again. So you must be vigilant.

After a meal, puppies will often need to go within 60 seconds so always take them straight outside. You should also take them outside as soon as they wake up, as their bowls will start to move and also last thing at night.

Associate a word that everyone in the house sticks to such as “go toilets” this way your puppy will start to hear the word and know what it means.

If you puppy does not go then be aware that they may still need to relieve themselves soon and restrict their movement to a smaller area that is easy to clean until they are taken outside and definitely toilet.

You should never rub a puppy’s nose in it to teach it a lesson. A puppy’s nose is 1000 times more sensitive than a humans and this will never teach them not to do it again. They will simply not know what they did wrong and do it out of sight the next time such as behind the couch!

There are lots more tips and tricks that you will assist you but these are the real basics. Take a look at The Online Dog Trainer for more fantastic advice about how to stop any puppy issue by watching videos.

How To Stop Dog Aggression

How To Stop Dog Aggression

If you want to understand how to stop dog aggression let me start by asking you two rhetorical questions!

Firstly do YOU start the aggression with your dog simply joining in?
Secondly does your dog listen to you just before it behaves the way it does    when you try show it another way to behave? The answer will of course be the following: At the point your dog starts to become aggressive he is taking no notice at all of you.

He is making his own decisions and will not listen to you if you try to show him a different way to behave. What he is doing is simply too important to him and is the right thing to do. Dog aggression is nearly always done in order to protect, their pack and their own lives.

Firstly there is of course a whole range of different types of aggression from dominant to fearful and everything in between. Then there is aggression that occurs the whole time and other aggression, which is very erratic, and random depending on a number of differing factors. We could also look at what your dog is aggressive towards; it could be people, animals, other dogs or objects.

The way to stop dog aggression however is very much the same, or at least the cause of the problem is the same. Your dog thinks that it is the pack leader, becomes fearful and attacks to protect, you and himself. Dominant dogs will be more proactive, often attacking when they still have the option of running away, fearful dogs will only attack if they have no place to run. All the other factors pale into insignificance compared to this.

The most important concept to grasp if you want to understand how to stop dog aggression is that your dog must first look to you as the pack leader in the home. (This is the easiest place to convince him you are the decision maker.) Only then can you convince him that you are the pack leader on the walk. There are some fantastic video sites now that show you exactly how to become the pack leader.

Once you have convinced your dog that you are the pack leader outside then upon reaching the point where he usually is aggressive you will find that he will actually start to take notice of how you are behaving!  If you aren’t then your dog will probably continue to ignore what you are doing at this point forever.

Just remember, dogs are pack animals and they follow the pack leader.

One of the best examples of a professional dog trainer putting this all into practice is The Online Dog Trainer. The site has live videos of this method being demonstrated and explains exactly how to stop dog aggression by simply convincing your dog that you are the pack leader. CLICK HERE: Doggy Dan The Online Dog Trainer

Become The Pack Leader

Become The Pack Leader

Of all the questions that people ask “how to become the pack leader” is the big one! This is by far the most important question how to convince your dog that you are the person in charge.

Think of the pack leader as the decision maker - where you should go on the walk, how to behave in different situations and how to respond to all the strange things that are out there.

 When you understand how dogs packs work you soon realize the importance, that pack leader makes all the decisions. If you leave it up to your dog then there a big chance that your dog is going to get something’s very wrong and make a mistake! In order to understand how to become the pack leader you must first recognize that the following means nothing to a dog…. What car you drive, the size of your house, the money you earn or the fact that you speak languages! Your dog would happily swap all of that for a nice snack! Asking your dog to sit before her dinner falls a long way short of what you need to be achieving to become the pack leader and walking through doorways is only necessary when your dog is on the lead.

Lastly - dominating your dog is certainly not the way to become the pack leader in fact this can back fire badly on you later on if you teach your dog that physical strength is what it is all about. Whilst you may force your dog into submission it will not be convincing your dogs mind that you are worthy of the position and that you should become the pack leader only that you are a bit of a bully.

So how do you become the pack leader? All dogs worldwide, regardless of breed use the same ways to check to establish the pack leader. The best way to learn about how to put it into practice is to watch it being done on video as I have done through one of the video based web sites. The important areas to take control in are the following:

The pack leader will be in total calm control when your dog barks and alerts you to danger. This includes anything that your dog may perceive as dangerous and barks at in and around the property
On the walk your dog should not pull you at a single stage, even the beginning! Learning to walk your dog properly can only really be learnt through video as I have found out!
If you are the pack leader then your dog should be able to relax and switch off completely inside the house. If your dog is always switched on most of the time and can’t relax then that is your dog on pack leader duty!

Getting your dog to switch off is directly connected to how you meet and greet your dog after your return home. You need to watch it on video it is so subtle but it is the difference between being the pack leader or the follower.

Lastly, feeding your dog correctly will establish who is the pack leader and there is much more to it than asking your dog to sit! Also if you have a dog that is “not food motivated” then you may be in for a surprise!

There is one site that shows you – using video – exactly how to become the pack leader and how crucial it is to changing any behavioral issue.

If you want to understand more about this topic or see the videos that explain everything then simply take a look at The Online Dog Trainer here Doggy Dan Online Dog Trainer