Clever Dogs and Crazy People

Showing leadership in a manner your dog understands and can relate to will make him secure in his position within the household, and security is something all dogs need.

Not doing this will result in a badly-behaved dog that growls at you when you tell him to get off your bed. If you replace love, which has no meaning for it, with leadership which is deeply significant, then your dog will start to listen to you and do exactly as you ask.
From The Dog Trainer Book: How to train your barking, howling, jumping up, pulling on the lead and won’t come when it’s called dog

Dog Owner PROBLEM:
My dog wakes up in the middle of the night and hears cats. So he runs outside to investigate, he uses the dog flap to go out. Of course he wakes me up. How can I stop him from doing this?

The Dog Trainer ANSWER:
The quick answer here is to close the dog flap over night. Does your dog stay clean over night? It really does matters where your dog sleeps at night. If he’s on your bed or in your bed room his exit is going to wake you. If he’s in another part of the house like the laundry or kitchen where his exit might be you can shut other doors to mute the sound.

Although it is best you know what your dog is up to. Is he chasing and catching cats in the night and doing bodily harm? How would you know? Your dog should be secure in the night, crated or in an area that is suitable perhaps where he cannot do any damage. Dogs prefer routine and the security of a designated bedtime and area.

• Always brush your dog on a table with a rubber mat (at hip height) so that the surface is non-slip

• The coat of your dog must be dry before attempting to brush it; A clean coat can be brushed a dirty coat can not

• After bathing and drying the coat always brush tangles free shortly afterwards rather than when it is wet

• Ensure you always have two hands on your dog while brushing

• Move around your dog instead of moving the dog around you as it will help to keep your dog calmer

• Always handle your dog in a calm, quiet and patient manner when brushing

• Try and stand away from your dog, far enough so you can use your arms freely without feeling cramped or you will find yourself in awkward positions, not too far away that you are reaching for your dog

• On the table your dog will be safe and not fall off they will know instinctively where the edge is but do not leave your dog unattended until they learn to stay and not jump off

• When you brush your dog practice using your whole arm and hand to support your dogs body

• Brush quite firmly and reasonably quickly so your dog will feel confident in what you are doing

• Keep the skin taunt as you brush so it does not pull or hurt your dog, this enables you to brush through wrinkles not over them
• Ensure all holds are gentle, the tighter you hold the more the dog will wriggle.

BRUSHES to use on a smooth coat:
1. Zoom Groom Use on back and sides to remove loose coat
2. Furminator Use on back and sides only to remove shedding coat
3. Flea Comb Use on pants area to thin and through the general coat on the back and sides
by Jill Simpson-Pets by Design

I cannot count the number of times when people have said to me, as if it was the only thing that mattered, how much they love their dog. The problem with this is that there is also the notion that their dog, inevitably, will love them back.

Dogs have all sorts of ‘feelings’: they feel hungry, tired, thirsty, hot, etc. But they don’t feel love. This is a human emotion.

I understand that many dog owners believe their dog has a soul and is therefore capable of love, and even of greeting them in the afterlife.
I have no real proof as to whether a dog has a soul or no soul. Similarly, if you claim that your dog loves you, I will not dispute it.

All I am trying to do right now is give you the opportunity to step back emotionally so that training your dog will be easier for you.

I am not saying you should not love your dog: that is why you got it in the first place. But preferably you must love your dog in a way that establishes you as a leader and not as a lover. Leadership is what will give your dog the great ‘love’ all dogs desire.

So what exactly is leadership? It is not aggression, or harsh discipline, or intimidation. In human terms, a good leader is often beside you, so you work together as a team. In doggy terms, it is more about you making it clear what you want and expect rather than yelling or smacking. This reflects ‘the social order’ of the group that you’re working with – that is, your dog or dogs as part of the human family – your terms, his context.
When you arrive home and greet your dog first you are acting as a human, because as humans we greet our family almost immediately when we enter the household. If you greet the humans in your family first and your dog last you are acting as a leader.

So humans first and dogs last. It is as simple a rule as that, but the changes in your dog when you act differently, as a leader and not as a lover, will be instant and noticeable.

In all the years that I have trained dogs, I have noticed that a dog’s diet has a strong correlation to their ability to concentrate and learn new behaviours’ in training as well as hold that information easily until the next training session. A bad diet does affect your dog’s ability to listen and do as you ask.
What is a bad diet?

That is anything taken directly from your plate to their mouth when you are sitting at the table! (as they have been sitting watching and dribbling all the way through your dinner) Or when you take your plate to the kitchen and then put it on the floor for them to ‘clean’. Yes this is a bad diet!!

If you really want your dog to have a few left over’s transfer them to their bowl and give it to them with their regular meal and make sure you have down sized their regular meal a little to accommodate the extra’s.

It is up to you what you feed your dog but how you do this is part of the balance of love and leadership. Keep it simple, do not confuse your dog with food from the table.

FROM The Dog Trainer BOOK: How to train your barking, howling, jumping up, pulling on the lead and won’t come when it’s called dog.

I met a lovely lady called Dora who a wee ‘Hairy Maclary’ type dog had called Billy. She wanted Billy to stop dashing out the door every time it was open as he would then run all over the neighbourhood, with Dora chasing endlessly behind him, calling to him to return.

I pointed out especially that chasing your dog wasn’t the best way to recall him, and we talked about a few alternatives. I began training by first putting Billy on a long line for better management. Then I quietly opened the door as we continued to talk so that we could start off with basic recall in a controlled manner.
Within a few seconds Billy realised that the door was open. Out he ran like a bullet, but when he got to the end of the long line he was stopped with such force that he sat down abruptly with a thump on his bottom. I told Dora, “Now you can call Billy with all the enthusiasm you can muster.”

I didn’t know that Dora was a member of the local operatic society. She let rip with “Billlleeee, co-o-oo-me.” Her call was melodious, but had the strength of a minor tornado. Billy turned and looked at her with sudden surprise, but didn’t move a muscle. I encouraged Dora to gently tug on the line to encourage his return. Dora reeled Billy in like a fish on a hook with his bottom bumping over the cobbles. This was not exactly what I had been thinking of, and perhaps I could have better explained this method of training.

Nevertheless Billy was now at our feet. I told Dora to give him a reward for arriving. Instantly, she produced a biscuit from out of nowhere three times bigger than Billy and shoved it into his jaws. So there was Billy, biscuit in mouth, with a ‘You made me do it’ look on his face, and an ecstatic Dora telling him what a good boy he was.
Well, it was a beginning and at least Dora was not chasing him. Before long we had Billy recalling beautifully, and Dora not forgetting he was a dog, not a dogfish. To this day Dora still has the most enthusiastic recall I have ever heard and doles out the biggest biscuits as a reward.

She certainly learned the lesson that rewards can be fun and are extremely helpful when you want to train a dog in a new behaviour.