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.

Your Dog’s Body Language And What It Means

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Dogs use their bodies and paws to express a variety of different things.  Below are some examples and what they mean.

Dog crouches with front legs extended, rear up, and head near the ground: This is the classic play-bow and means simply “I want to play!”

Stiff-legged, upright posture or slow, stiff-legged movement forward: “I am in charge around here!” and “I challenge you.” A dominant dog will use this posture to indicate assertion of authority and a willingness to fight for it.

Body slightly sloped forward, feet braced: “I accept your challenge and am ready to fight!”

Dog rolls on side or exposes underside: “Let us not argue” or “I am not a threat to you” or “I accept that you are in charge here.” This is a submissive response to avert conflict. Many dogs adopt this posture in a fairly relaxed and contented manner when they are around their pack leader. When your dog rolls on his back for a belly rub, he is actually accepting you as leader of the pack.

Dog places head on another dog’s shoulder or places paw on the back of another dog: “I want you to know who is the boss around here.” These gestures are commonly used by dominant dogs, pack leaders, and dogs that have aspirations of becoming a pack leader.

Mouthing: This shows up in dog-human interactions as the dog taking the handler’s hand in his mouth or, while walking, taking the lead in the mouth. Mouthing can be a serious sign of dominance challenging and shows that the dog does not accept the human as pack leader.

Dog places paw on master’s knee: “Look, I am here” or “Pay attention to me.” This attention-seeking signal has many variations. They include pawing the air in front of their master or sliding the head under the master’s hand.

Hair bristles on back and shoulders: This is a sign of anticipated aggression. A ridge of hair bristling down the back is a sign that says “Do not push me, I am angry!” When the bristling extends to the shoulders it means “I have had it with you” and is a sign of an imminent attack.

Dog sits with one front paw slightly raised: This is another sign of stress but is combined with insecurity. It means “I am anxious, uneasy and concerned.”

Dog rolls on his back and rubs it on the ground: This is sometimes preceded by nose rubbing where the dog pushes his face, and possibly his chest against the ground in a rubbing motion or rubs the face with a forepaw, from eyes to nose. They often follow feeding or occur as the dog’s owner begins to prepare food. However they also can occur following or in anticipation of other pleasant activities.

Scraping the ground and ripping the turf with the paws: This is usually after the dog has defecated but may occur at other times. Dogs have glands on the bottom of their feet that provide each with a unique scent. What a dog is saying here is ” I was here and I am leaving my calling card!”

How To Use Your Power In Finding The Right Veterinarian (2)

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 The Right Veterinarian -Part 2

Knowing your veterinarian, trusting him or her, and having a deeper knowledge from their point of view and work ethic can really make taking your dog to the doctor more meaningful (and hopefully more often for the check-ups that so desperately go undone for pets most homes today because there is a lack of trust on the dog owner’s part).

To help you better understand the core of a licensed veterinarian out there, take a look at the following ideas. For starters, there is a good chance that your veterinarian feels exactly the following in their practice:

1) Cares about your animals, cares about you – whether for the sake of your dog, you or the business – wants to see successful outcomes, healthy pets and satisfied clients. The only way business can be continued and clients be made happy is for the well-being of everyone involved.

2) Worries about getting sued, or being brought before the state regulatory board. This worry is disproportionate to the actual chance that this will happen, but that doesn’t change your veterinarian’s awareness of the possibility, which may make some vets better doctors, and in other cases, more paranoid and less willing to take chances.

3) Feels that he or she doesn’t have an income commensurate with the amount of time and education that it took to become a veterinarian. And paradoxically, it is also true that many (although certainly far from all) veterinarians suspect they charge too much, and feel guilty about it.

4) Fails at mind reading. In other words, the doctor has no way of knowing any information, feelings, or opinions you may have on an issue unless voiced. And without your willingness to share, a relationship can fail to bond, which may have negative repercussions for your dog down the road.

5) Harbors a zero tolerance for mistakes (and most likely, you do too). And guess what? All doctors make mistakes.

Your veterinarian tries to do his or her best under the circumstances that present themselves, but what must be kept in mind (by both parties) is that it is your dog. If that concept is too difficult for your veterinarian, find a new one.

And on the flip-side, if you can look deep inside your own attitude, perhaps you are not giving your veterinarian enough trust, communication and open-mindedness.

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Here’s Dog Trainer Chet Womach On How To Save Money By  Handling
Basic Veterinarian Issues At Home

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To discover how to treat your dog at home with over 1000 at-home
health remedies, Click Here.

Dog Training Classes – Hiring The Wrong Person To Train Your Dog

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It was a breezy summer evening when approximately 12 dogs from various breeds were all assembled in a small group at a local city park in San Diego, California. At each dog’s side, its owner stood by, attentively listening to the dog training instructor whom was in the middle of the group.

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Dog Training Tips To Get Your Dog To Obey!

If you’d love to discover EXACTLY how to get your dog to stop urinating on your carpet and actually ring a bell when he needs to potty. . .

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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“Today’s lesson will teach you how to give your dog the “Down” command.”  He went on to say: “Now with your dog sitting by your side, and with a little bit of slack on the leash, loudly say the word ‘Down’ and then step on the leash hard so that your dog is forced to the ground and knows exactly what the down command means. This will show your dog that you are in charge and capable of making him go down whether he likes it or not.”

Like mindless listeners, the entire class obeyed the lesson and literally crammed the heads of their dogs down into the ground by stepping on the leash. By the time the entire training session had ended, it seemed like every “down” command ended in shrieks and moans from every dog. There was mass hysteria while the toy dog breeds fought off the leash and collar and the larger dogs just got confused, not understanding the forcefulness of the lesson.

Any dogs that rebelled against their owners and the leash in the attempt to force them down were asked why the instructor to stay behind for some “special handling”. This special handling only turned out to be a much more aggressive counter-lesson with a rolled up fist and an aggressive action towards the dog.

Is This Worth Saving A Few Dollars?

The above scenario happens all too often throughout the country. It seems that with a few months of reading and researching dog training manuals, almost anyone can become a dog training “expert” regardless if the training principles they are teaching or wrong or not. Such negative dog training only destroys the responsiveness, initiative, willingness, and motivation of any dog involved towards learning.

It just goes to show you that wherever there is money to be made in any type of field, especially dog training, you’ll always have your egomaniacs and fake “experts” rushing to fill the gap and make a quick buck.

“It may be a simple matter of economics”, as one pet store owner was saying. “Many dog owners come into the store and want to know how to properly train their pets. Although I sell dozens of instructional booklets, they want one-on-one teaching instructions. However, it’s quite expensive to hire a real professional so all they do is search around on the Internet or their local newspaper ads to find a cheap dog training class, which is usually run by someone that does not know what they are doing and for the most part uses aggressive tactics”

The point here is to let all of you dog owners know that it is much safer to work on your own training abilities by using qualified information instead of hiring the wrong person to do the job.  And there are some organizations, such as “Petco”, is nationally recognized animal pet store, that hires professionals to teach obedience and dog training classes for your dogs each week.

Dog Training: Basic Equipment Needed To Train Your Family Dog

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Dog Training Basics

You will need three specific pieces of equipment for proper dog training: a training collar, a leather training leash, and a 15-foot length clothesline rope.

If you’re already thinking that your dog’s present leather collar will work, and that his 4-foot chain leash will suffice, you may as well stop reading this article and save yourself and your dog weeks of discomfort and hardship.  There simply is no substitute for the right training equipment. A training collar is a slip-chain type made of metal. Don’t substitute one that’s made of nylon.

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Dog Training Tips To Get Your Dog To Obey!

If you’d love to discover EXACTLY how to get your dog to stop urinating on your carpet and actually ring a bell when he needs to potty. . .

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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One of the many things your dog is going to learn is to have confidence in you. But he will never develop that feeling of confidence if you substitute improper training equipment that will not be effective. Where there’s no confidence there can be no respect, and no respect means no desire to please. No desire to please means no willingness to learn. Add them all up and you have an uncontrollable dog that will never achieve his rightful place in human world.

The Proper Leash For Dog Trainng

Your leash should be of the regular five to six foot leather type with a hand loop at one end.

Training collars and leather training leashes are available at pet shops and via online catalogs. Training collars are sometimes called choke-chains, which is incorrect.

While it’s true that a training collar can choke, if it’s worn on the dog correctly and used properly, there’s no way it can be a choke-chain and cause harm to your pet.

The Right Collar For Dog Training

The collar should be large enough to slide over the dog’s head comfortably, but not so large as to fall over the ears if the dog should lower his head.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to place the collar on the dog and cinch it up tight for a moment and observe whether you have three inches of chain left over.

If so, you have a fairly good fit. It is better to have a training collar that’s slightly too large than one slightly too small.

Final Dog Training Necessities That You Cannot Find In A Store

The remaining equipment that you’ll need cannot be purchased at any store, but without them, you cannot successfully execute dog training.

You must love and care for your dog! You must have patience and exercise patience while your dog is learning. A shallow patience mixed with a short temper will ensure complete and utter failure.

To lose your cool and blow up means the end of dog training, so here’s a little tip that might help you keep your cool:

It takes 4 to 5 days for an average dog to learn the average thing. Do not expect your dog to perform like a professional the first few days of teaching him something new. It just doesn’t happen that way. If you lose control of yourself, you have lost control of the situation. When this happens while dog training, your dog loses confidence in you.

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