Dog Training Tips on Canine Communication

I am doing everything I can to get my dog to sit.  I say "Sit!  Sit,sit you crazy dog, sit! Just humor me this one time and put your rear on the ground!  This isn’t funny anymore, now I am getting mad, SIT SIT SIT!"  It’s just not happening....

So how was that for you?  You have run head long into a big difference in the way humans communicate and the way dogs communicate.  We have words, languages, punctuation, antonyms, synonyms, slang, accents, and other ways we verbally communicate.  Multiple people can look at the same thing and describe it using different words and we all can understand exactly what that thing might look like.

Our dog does not have the multiple communication choices that we have.  He does not have a dictionary where the same word might have multiple meanings and a list of other words that mean the same thing.  All he has are the sounds and tones that come out of his mouth.  We might call it whining, growling, or barking.  Those are all the tools that he has when he wants to verbally communicate to other animals.

In order to verbally communicate with our dog, we first have to understand that words are simply sounds to him.  If we want him to understand those sounds, they must be unique, with only one meaning.  For us, this could be equivalent an emergency vehicles siren.  We hear that siren and we know that there is an emergency vehicle nearby.  We look for the vehicle, pull over, and let it by.  The unique sound of the siren invokes a unique response from us.

That is how our dog verbally communicates.  If we want to have our dog sit, we must have a unique sound that whenever he hears it, he always sits.  Most people use "Sit".  And, by the way, "Sit, sit, sit, sit" is a different sound than “sit”.  

So remember, you must use unique sounds with your dog to have him understand you.  For more information, please contact The Best Dog Trainers in South Florida.

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Dog Training Tips for Bad Behavior At The Door and Guests

Quick things you can do every time someone comes to the door and your dog displays bad behavior.

I was at a dog training session in Cooper City last week and we were just finishing up the session.  We had covered everything the client had on his wish list for that day and everything was just great.  As I got up to leave, a friend came to the front door and rang the door bell.  His dog went completely nuts.  He ran to the front door before we could even stand up, barking and jumping at the door like a crazy person.  I told the client that we had something else to work on…

What we first must understand is that just about all dogs are excited when new people are coming into the house.  This is not always a bad thing because our dog’s action can also act as a defensive/protective mechanism to an unwanted situation. What is important is that we are not embarrassed when anyone enters our house because they are jumped on, licked, and generally harassed the unruly dog. The best way to accomplish this is to nip it at the bud. Here are some tips that I have given my clients over the years:

• Put your dog on a leash. As your guests’ arrival time approaches, make sure that your dog fully engaged with toys or other distractions.
• Play with your dog outside for 30 to 45 minutes before your guests arrive.  This will help get the “excitement out of him”.
• As soon as you hear the doorbell or you get a call from the front gate, grab your dog’s leash by first putting you foot on the handle.  Then, calmly reach down and pick up the handle.  Have your dog sit next to you.
• Once you hear your guests at the front door, make sure your dog is still in a sit position.  Calmly command him to walk with you and go to the front door.  Have him sit again.
• Open the door and greet your guests. If your dog starts to become unruly or leaves the sit position, correct him and place him in the sit position.
• If your dog is still unruly, ask your guests to stay at the door for a moment.  Walk your dog around the room and have him focus on you.  Once he is calm, walk back to your guest and place your dog in a sit position.
• Have a short conversation with your guests while maintaining a close watch on your dog.
• Walk with your guests and dog into the house and to the area where you will be spending your time.  If the dog does not show signs of excitement or misplaced focus, calmly drop the leash.
• If your dog begins to go crazy again, pick up the leash (method described about), walk around for a moment or two until he is calm, and drop the leash.

You are teaching your dog is to be calm when you are meeting guests. The leash serves as a simple, non-physical training aid for you to direct your dog to make the right decision. It also allows you to be consistent in your management of him.  This is how your dog learns and how he associates leadership.

For more information on this subject or any dog training issue, please contact The Best Dog Trainers in Cooper City and South Florida.

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Puppy Training 1 How Soon Can I Begin

How early can you begin to train a puppy? Even though you may not deliberately set out to train your puppy as early as seven or eight weeks, you can be guaranteed that he is learning how to best interact in your world as soon as you bring him home. He is learning from every interaction with you, and as your dogs owner, its your job to make sure that he is learning the right things!

As a dog trainer, the most common training questions that I hear from puppy owners are about house training, jumping up on people, and puppy biting. Usually the question is framed in this way: "How can I teach my puppy NOT to jump on people, bite me, or soil in the house?" These problems can definitely be solved, but we must first learn to rephrase our question: "What can I teach my puppy to do INSTEAD of jumping up, biting me, or soiling in the house?"

As you begin to identify positive behaviors that the puppy can perform that PREVENT the unwanted behaviors, you have taken the first step toward teaching your puppy to be the best family companion that he can be.

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When Your Holiday Guests Leave

All of our out of town Holiday guests left several days ago and our home is now returning back to normal.  The one thing that has not turned back to normal is Wolfie, our dog.  Although he has been perfectly house broken for several years, he is not going into the guest bedroom and going to the bathroom.  What gives?

Remember when we were little and our parents would drop us off at Uncle Bob’s and Aunt Lizzie’s for the weekend?  Uncle Bob would take us to the movies, the local amusement park, and the ice cream parlor.  Aunt Lizzie would make us our favorite goodies and we could stay up late watching all the TV our parents never let us watch. 

The funny thing is that when we got home, everything we had smelled like Aunt Lizzie’s rose peddle perfume.  Mom had to wash our clothes several times until we finally got that smell out.  Until then, we refused to wear those clothes.  They smelled “icky”.

The same thing happens when our house guests leave our home after the Holidays.  They leave their natural smells in our home’s guest room.  We really don’t care because we understand that is just “Uncle Bob and Aunt Lizzie smell” and will go away after a few days. 

Our dog does not react to this different smell in the same way as us.  He expects “his territory” to smell one way, the way it smelled before our guests “invaded his territory”.  He needs to reestablish the prior smell (smelling like him) and he only has one way to accomplish that.  He goes into the guest room and raises his leg.  We really don’t want this to occur and need it to stop as quickly as possible.  We need to remove the foreign smell from the territory.

First of all, we need to neutralize the foreign smell.  As opposed to our dog’s urine smell, we will introduce another, natural smell that we and our dog can “live with”.  We suggest the scent of lavender.  This is a calming scent and also introduces a neutral smell.  Get a lavender Glade plug-in, a lavender candle, or a bamboo lavender oil vase and place it in the guest room.  If you have carpet in the room, vacuum the room after sprinkling lavender carpet dust on the floor.  If you have a tile floor, clean the floor with lavender Fabuloso.  To make sure that everything is consistent, place some lavender Glade plug-ins in other rooms in the house.

Shampoo your dog with a lavender dog shampoo.  You have now removed the “Uncle Bob and Aunt Lizzie smell” from the guest room and have reestablished a singular smell that is like Wolfie, your dog.  He no longer has the need to raise his leg.

Leave the door to the guest room open for several days but don’t allow your dog in the room.  The best thing to do is to place a doggie (baby) gate in the guest room doorway.  This allows the room to “air out” and to allow your dog to pass by but not go in the room until all the old smells have dissipated.

Remove the doggie gate after about a week and you can probably stop using the lavender products after another week.  The house smells have now returned to normal and you have reestablished the natural smells of the pack.  The potty issue should now be resolved.  If you have any questions, you can always contact us at TheBest Dog Trainers in South Florida.

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