Dog Training, Clicker Training, Tricks, Obedience Training

There are three categories why dogs bark excessively:

• The dog that barks when she is left alone
• The dog that barks at strangers, noise or visitors
• The dog that barks because she wants to grab your attention

The very first step before you train your dog to stop barking is to understand your dog’s needs. A dog’s excessive behavior may be a symptom of a larger issue. Your dog may need something that she is not getting it. She may be bored to be alone for hours. She tends to bark during her boredom and frustration. Similar to a digging behavior, barking also is a great stress reliever, a way for your dog to express her emotion and let out the anxiety and frustration.

Dog Barking Solutions:

a. Meet Your Dog’s Needs
All dogs need a consistent and predictable setting: training, exercise, healthy diet, place to sleep, interaction with people or other dogs and stimulating environment to play with toys. Just like people, well-adjusted dog is happy and well-behaved.

b. Do What Comes Naturally
Some dogs are naturally prone to bark but you can always train them not to bark excessively. The earlier you train your dog the better. Find out the triggers for barking and think creatively about changing your dog’s environment to reduce the triggers.

c. Find The Antecedents To Barking
Similar to the previous solution, this one is coming from the external system of your dog. For example: your dog starts barking when she hears a noise when your neighbor closes his door. The way you manage it is by paying attention when this trigger comes. When it comes, drift your dog attention away and give her rewards.

d. Set A Reasonable Goal
It will take sometimes for your dog to learn all the tricks, which is normal. It is your responsibility for developing your dog’s behavior. Set up the goals for yourself and your dog.

Before you train your dog to stop digging holes, you have to understand the motives behind this behavior.

Boredom

When your dog gets bored, it is a ticket to destruction. She will find anything to do to fight against boredom by barking, howling, chewing, destroying and digging. Digging is a great stress reliever. When your dog digs and finds something “treasures” it is well worth the effort and makes her repeat the behavior because of self-rewarding.

What you should do to improve the environment is by stimulating your dog physically and mentally:

-Provide a lot of safe and interesting toys. Rotate them regularly.
-Take your dog out and play with other dogs at the park.
-Teach your dog a new trick.
-If you have Stuff Kong toys, fill it in with dog cookies and let her figure out to get the food out.
-Create some agility equipment such as ramps, tunnels, jumps and teach your dog to navigate them.
-Playing fetch the ball

Frustration

When you leave your dog in a limited area such as your backyard, after a while she will feel confined and frustrated. She probably hears something but cannot get to where the action is.

Some actions to combat your dog frustration:

-Do not to leave your dog unattended for long periods of time. If you have to leave your dog for quite some time, stimulate her environment by hiding toys packed with her dinner or hiding chews in the area where she is confined.
-Playtime is the best distraction for your dog if she digs when you are around. It is a great stress buster and an important part of the day for the average active dogs.
-If your dog likes to dig out of the yard, you may want to bury ¼ inch mesh wire along the fence line. Most dog usually stop digging and discourage when they hit something that will not let them to dig any deeper.

Lack Of Exercise

When your dog is lacking of physical activities, she will do anything to release her energy. Average active dogs need at least 30 minute to one hour exercise a day. Providing your dog with enough exercise will save you time in the long run. The more opportunities your dog gets to run, chase, think, roll etc, the less energy she has to dig holes.

In a nutshell, digging is one of dogs’ advertisements for needing more of something. The best way to stop her is to spend more time with your dog and provide her with more things to think about and to do. Mental workouts are as important as physical exercise can keep your dog from digging holes.

Easy walk leash training dog or loose-lease walking training dog requires patience and repetition. To change a dog’s behavior is not going to happen overnight. A huge step for you is stop following your dog when the leash is tight and she is pulling you. It means that you have to define your terms and suspend all walks that create opportunities for your dog to practice pulling.

After you manage your dog’s behavior by not following her, practice some tips below for training loose-lease walking:

1. Walk briefly and change direction frequently. It makes your dog focus and pay attention to where you are going. The more turns you make, the more your dog focuses on where you are going.
2. Once you get your dog attention and she turns to follow you, it is the time you give her a treat. Stop first and reward.
3. Practice it for several times until she gets the routine.
4. You should start off practicing in a place with the least distraction possible such as in the backyard or in a quiet park.
5. Use a six-foot leash and for your convenience, attach it to your waist, thus it keeps your hands free for this practice and you are able to treat your dog when she is next to you. The point for this practice is to send a message to your dog that pulling does not get her where she wants to go. Because when she pulls, you go the other way.
6. Pay attention to your dog pace. For some dogs, the faster you walk the better.
7. After she understands what you want and she does it right for most of the times, gradually go to busier places.

Changing your dog behavior that has been working for the dog for quite some time, you need to reinforce the right behavior frequently with a praise and a high-value reward. In order to get rid of her old behavior, you must replace it with a behavior that she finds more rewarding. Training your dog to easy walk or loose-leash walking requires a lot of patience, repetition and yummy rewards.

First thing you should know before you start to train your dog to stop pulling on the leash when walking with you is to understand what your dog needs are. Dogs’ common problem is when they are pulling on the leash to get where they want to go. From the biggest dog to the tinniest breed, all dogs learn to pull on their leashes from an early age.

Why Does Your Dog Pull?

Dog pulls because they want to get to the place where they want to go. If every time your dog does it, you follow your dog wherever she pulls you it means you are allowing your dog to think it is acceptable. The key of any training is you. It depends on how much you would to invest to build relationship with your dog and how consistent you are in keeping the work and time to get the results you want it.

Reinforcing The Right Behavior To Your Dog By Defining Your Terms

When you train your dog, figure out and decide what and how you would like your dog to do. It is very important to define and narrow down what you are looking for from your dog to behave on leash. It also gives you a boundary for yourself of what you are going to emphasize on the training; thus it will help you to recognize and reward it.

-Which side your dog should be on?
-Will you allow your dog to sniff at other dogs or objects on the street?
-Will your arm be relaxed or extended?
-Should your dog stay by yourself at all time?
-Is a loose leash enough? etc.

Give Your Dog Enough Exercise

Exercise is part of your dog’s fundamental necessity for physical, behavior and mental stability. When your dog is having a very little amount of exercise, it shows obviously when she is on leash. Lack of exercise causes your dog to pull, spin and tug on leash to get where she wants to go. On the contrary, when your dog has enough physical activities, you can expect a more calm on-leash companion. Active dogs need about 30 minutes to an hour a day of flat-out running to release their energy. Other dogs activities are swimming, playing fetch, playing with other dogs, and so forth.

The key of any dog training program is you. You invest a relationship with your dog; thus how much time you are willing to spend in the training and how consistent you are about sticking to it until you get the result. Training your dog is about establishing rules and boundaries. You want your dog to behave and meet your expectation. It is about spending time together and learning to enjoy each other’s company.

Strengthen Your Relationship With Your Dog

Training your dog means you share a common language and exchange vocabulary with your dog in return you expect your dog to show certain behavior. Using the language you develop your relationship with your dog through communication and interaction. As soon as you find a way that works to understand each other, do not change it. Otherwise, you will confuse your dog and frustrate yourself.

Fix Behavior Problems

Dog training can redirect your dog’s energy and enthusiasm. If you take time to evaluate your dog’s behavior, you can find out the answer that works for you and your dog. For example, if your dog is very energetic around people and it may scare a non-dog-person, you can teach your dog to play Roll Over or Play Dead. The main point here is to train your dog in as many different kind of environments with many different kinds of distractions as possible. If your dog can respond you well in the most distracted place is the better.

Self-Control

You can help to alleviate boredom and create a content dog by teaching your dog simple tricks for one to three minute sessions several times a day. Dog training is very useful for each dog owner particularly who owns energetic dogs. It can help to build the dog’s self-control. Again, a well behaved dog does not grow out of this. Each dog needs training to have better overall manners.