Edie MacKenzie

Edie MacKenzie is a published author, traveler, dog lover, and tortoise enthusiast. Passionate about what she does, her books provide peopel a firm grounding in the dog breed and their unique characteristics with a nice touch of humor.

Amazing Dog Behavior Snippets

January 3, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

Any study of dog behavior has to start with an analysis of the behavior of the wolf, ancestor of all domestic dogs.

Wolves are exceptional predators with a complex set of behaviors, signals and communication methods guiding their behavior. Their bodies and brains are the result of millions of years of evolution that has resulted in perhaps the ultimate co-operative hunter.

Dogs are directly descended from wolves and have been domesticated for only 15 000 years or so, a mere blip on the evolutionary scale. So it makes sense that many of the wolf’s instincts and drives are still present in dogs.

Understand this, and many of your dog’s strange behaviors will suddenly make sense.

Here are some of the behaviors common to dogs and wolves.

Pack Mentality: As pack animals wolves naturally submit to a leader. Wolf packs usually consist of a mating pair and their offspring, with the alpha male as the leader.

Dogs also look for leadership in their human “pack”. Where none is present, they will feel compelled to take up the role themselves, leading to dominance issues.

Body Language: In the world of the wolf (and the dog), body language trumps vocal cues every time. This is a complex “language” with body posture, movement, facial expression and eye contact all playing a part.

These signals are often misunderstood by humans. For example, many asume that a dog who wags his tail is happy when he may in fact be highly aggitated and ready to bite.

Territorial Aggression: In the wild, wolves will stake out a territory, then patrol and defend it against intruders. The same behavior can be seen in dogs. They will naturally protect what they perceive as their territory, whether it’s their home, a favorite toy, or even a person they regard as “theirs”.

Socialization: Social interaction is very important in a wolf pack as it helps to develop the strong bonds that are vital to the survival of the pack.

You can simulate this with your dog through play, walks and obedience training. But you need to go further, socializing your dog with a broad spectrum of people and other animals, so that he doesn’t start to see everyone outside his immediate circle as a threat.

Pursuit: A wolf pack hunts by pursuing a prey animal until it is exhausted and easily subdued. Their instinct is to chase anything that moves away from them.

Dogs have this same instinct which is why they love to chase cats, cars, and cyclists.

Fleeing: Even powerful, apex predators like lions, would rather back off than get involved in a fight where they could be seriously injured. A wolf or a dog will rather flee than fight if the odds are stacked against him.

Vocalization: Contrary to popular belief, wolves can bark, they are just less inclined to use vocalization as a form of communication. This is perfectly logical, as a hunter that makes a lot of noise is unlikely to be very successful.

Dogs, on the other hand have spent thousands of years in the company of humans and have learned that we communicate mainly by voice. They therefore have no problem expressing themselves with a bark, a while or even a howl if the mood takes them.

If you want to discover more about dog obedience training, dog care, puppy care and other useful dog information visit www.dogsanddogtraining.com

Filed Under: Dog Information Tagged With: Alpha Male, amazing dog behavior, Blip, Body Language, Body Posture, Communication Methods, Dog Obedience Training, Dog Training, dog training tips, Domestic Dogs, Evolutionary Scale, Eye Contact, Facial Expression, Leader Dogs, Pack Animals, Social Interaction, Socialization, Strange Behaviors, Territorial Aggression, Vocal Cues, Wags, Wild Wolves, Wolf Pack, Wolf Packs

How to better care and are obedient dog – Simple and easy tips on how to Train a Dog

October 23, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Dogs has a habit of communicating through body language and by making some specific noise. They speak through actions such as wagging its tail, moving his legs and tilt head to transmit messages. Noise also helps them put their turning point. Growl when they are angry squeal when they are hungry and bark when they are happy or if they want to draw attention to certain things. Training a dog can be beneficial to take care of it quite easily. Below are some useful steps, how to train dog.

Dog Training
In order to train your dog properly, you must first understand dog behavior and characteristics. These characteristics are different for each species, and so you know, the characteristics of the dog in order to communicate with him. Regardless of breed the dog, if you love them will listen to what you want them to do. Training dogs can be used to minimize the barking, jumping and stop him from chewing things at home and potty train him away from pooping in the house. You can learn more on the leash to train training.

How Fetch
Dog Dogs love to play outdoors and love to race each object that was thrown away from them. Children also like to run and play with toys. If you want your dog to listen to you, you petting him on the head and use the phrase “good dog” as often as you can. Here are a few steps, how to train your dog to download:

  • First of all, when you start the training you need to keep the dog treats with you.
  • Take the dog outside, or to the park or the garden, where there is enough space for it to run and play. Dogs love to chase
  • balls, bats and frisbee, so keep two balls with you.
  • Give your dog treats, and then, when everything is getting ready to play ball or Frisbee show and hold it high into the air.
  • then throw the ball as far as you can let your dog chase it. When the ball and frisbee gets back to you ask your dog “drop”.
  • dog will not do as instructed immediately. In this case, remove the second ball and try to get a dog because of it. The dog will want a second, and so will fall first. When the dog is doing it, throw the second ball and let it go after the ball.
  • Repeat this process until your dog gets the ball back to you and wants to throw another. When you’re going to throw the ball repeats the word “fetch”, as he realized that fetch means to restore the object. Keep giving your dog treats for him enthusiastically games.
  • is a great way to train a dog when the dog is running and the condition of the dog owner bond becomes stronger because of the funny tricks to use.
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