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.

Dog Leash Training – Use Food Instead Of A Clicker

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Leash Training – Part 3

Though clicker training garners results with leash training, not everyone is comfortable with it. Personally, I do not use a clicker when training my dogs.

I prefer to keep the rewards mixed. A rub, praise, toy or food can be intermixed as rewards when you get the response you want.

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Dog Training Tips To Get Your Dog To Obey!

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Train puppies to NEVER chew on furniture or expensive rugs – even when you aren’t there to supervise. . .

Learn simple techniques for getting any dog to stop barking at strangers or from begging you to let him back inside –

Plus a TON more step-by-step dog obedience strategies THOUSANDS of regular people are already using, check out –

The Hands Off Dog Training Method

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Food is great for luring a dog into behavior, but once the dog has the concept, humans have a hard time of getting rid of the treats. Be unpredictable in your rewards, make a game of it.

Always impress upon the dog that the fun stuff comes when the leash is slack. Learn how to use your voice and facial expressions so that your dog wants to be near you. These are training tools that you never leave at home. Practice different pitches and sounds to see which attract your dog’s interest.

Many trainers have concerns about using treats, but they must remember the significance of raising the criteria. This means asking the dog to do more before giving it a reward. Your dog may learn to walk beautifully by your side as long as you keep clicking and treating, but what happens when your pocket is empty? Try to make him do a bit more during each walk – go a bit farther between treats or ignore bigger distractions.

Despite its age, your adult dog will need the same considerations as a puppy during leash training. When the leash goes taut, help the dog understand why you stopped by using your voice to get his attention. If he is too busy barking or pulling forward something it finds particularly enticing, use treats or a toy to distract it from its mission.

Have these special rewards ready before hitting the known problem area and work to keep your dog’s attention. This will help your dog learn to ignore the bothersome barking dog or that tempting squirrel nest.

Understandably, we all would like instant results, but dog training seldom works that way. It may take weeks or even months to persuade the dog that pulling is no longer effective. Owners can become discouraged, concluding that they are doing something wrong or their dog is hopeless.

So in the end, even if the results are slow in coming, keep in mind that even 2 steps without pulling is progress, and you must praise, praise, and praise some more! Soon it will be 3 steps, then 4 steps, and so on.

The change won’t happy overnight, in a week, or even a month – it’s going to take time, fairness and consistency, which means practice almost every day, perhaps for months. Overall, it’s a relatively small investment to achieve years of benefit.

Leash training is a deceptively difficult aspect of training. Dogs learn to pull much more readily than they learn not to. For those who do dedicate the time and effort needed for leash training, the results are worth it.

Teaching Your Labrador Retriever To Retrieve

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Mutual trust and understanding are required between the hunter and his Labrador Retriever before a satisfactory retrieving companion is developed.

The intelligent Labrador Retriever, brought up as a house pet with the love and understanding of the person who is to take him hunting, requires a minimum of training in order to accomplish the job.  Much of this training can be done in the house and a few minutes a day is enough.

Such things as blind retrieves and hand signals can become a game in the house with the dog learning to trust his nose as one of the important by-products.

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Introduction to feathers can be accomplished by tying feathers on a dummy or using a pigeon or chicken wing with the feathers intact.  Remember that a Labrador should hand you the object retrieved and not drop it on the ground as is allowed with other breeds.  This is also one of the requirements for a working certificate for a show dog.  One important thing should not be overlooked and that is allowing persons to throw just anything for a dog and not requiring the dog to bring it back and give it to them.  Let toys be toys, but certain definite other things should be reserved for training.

If a dog has a tendency to go off with the object you are training with outdoors, it is a good idea to reduce the available working space so that evading you is minimized.  In such circumstances, moving away from the dog may induce following and the training object may be retrieved as the dog passes.  His game of keep-away is thus converted to delivering the object for reward of the praise bestowed upon surrender of the object.

For outside work, training involves getting your Labrador Retriever to go far out, which is not possible in the house.  Introducing him to gunfire must also be done outdoors.  You can find a training aid called a dummy thrower that is very useful, but test it without your dog the first time as the dummy goes a long way.

For Labrador Retriever owners wishing to use a whistle for signals, one of the product that you can get is the Acme Thunderer.  With this type of whistle, one can almost talk as it is possible to make various other sounds.  One blast is commonly used for a dog to sit wherever he is, and three blasts to summon the dog to come towards or all the way back to you.  The single blast is used also to signal for the Labrador Retriever to pay attention when you plan to use hand signals.

How To Test A Shelter Dog

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It’s hard to know how an unfamiliar dog will react to your attempts to become his leader; if you catch a very self-protective dog off guard, he may bite. It doesn’t happen frequently, but don’t take the chance, and make your assessments in other ways instead. He’s going to be a little bit out of sorts when you first take him out of his cage. Give him some time to get used to you and to work out his excess energy. Don’t make loud noises or sudden moves; just let him sniff and greet you, and then take him somewhere where you can really get acquainted.

Never grab an unfamiliar dog; he may interpret this as a threatening gesture and respond by snapping. If you’ve brought your kids with you to the shelter, ask them not to touch the dog until he’s gotten accustomed to you and until you know that he is trustworthy.

Crouch down and pet him and play with him. Does he accept and enjoy your affection, or does he act suspicious of you or ignore you altogether? Does he trample and nip you, or does he avoid you? Look for a dog who plays and cuddles with you enthusiastically but not obnoxiously or fearfully. Take a walk around the room. Does he trot after you, or does he seem relieved to see you go? He should follow you happily without attacking your legs. If you have a toy, toss it for him. Does he show interest, or does he turn up him snout at your attempt at a game?

Keep petting, talking, and playing with him. If he growls or snaps at you or curls his lip, move on to another dog. Unless you’re an experienced dog trainer, you don’t want to mess with an aggressive dog. If he doesn’t appear dangerous but is nevertheless very rough or mouthy, he still may be too dominant for you.

If he slinks around and avoids looking at you, he’s probably a submissive dog who will need a lot of positive reinforcement. Some dogs may cower or shake when you try to pet them; many interpret this as a sign that the dog has been hit or beaten. However, adult dogs often shrink away from human hands simply because they were not properly socialized and have never gotten used to being touched and petted.

If a dog seems wary of your touch at first but begins to accept your affection after a few minutes, chances are that he’ll be able to come out of his nervousness pretty quickly with good training and lots of love. Bur if he remains nervous and terrified, it’s probably going to be a real challenge to turn him into a happy and comfortable pet, and he’s better left to someone who’s had lots of experience working with undersocialized or abused dogs. If he’s lethargic and draggy, there’s a good chance that poor health is to blame. Look elsewhere. You don’t want to adopt a dog who may be sick. Be on the lookout for a dog who’s cheerful, responsive, and confident.

Do you have fun playing with him and paying attention to him? Often, when owners who are having troubles with their adopted dogs, their biggest problem seems to be that they just don’t like their dogs very much. Do not adopt a dog if you’re not crazy about him! Spend as much time as you need to get to know as many dogs as you can; make more than one visit if necessary. But don’t forget that a dog who catches your eye one day may be adopted by someone else or even euthanized the next, so you’ll have to judge for yourself how long it’s safe to wait.

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