Training your dog at home may be one of the most rewarding activities known to pet owners. Just seeing your pet respond to cues and commands can bring immense satisfaction, because you will see concrete results from all of your training efforts.

Pet owners who are just starting out with their training sessions will often encounter small problems that can directly impede the progress of the dog. If your dog is not responding to more classical training approaches, you may want to try clicker training. Clicker training (or operant conditioning), emphasizes the relationship between target actions and rewards.

Since the association between rewards and actions are continually reinforced during training sessions, dog trainers have minimal problems when teaching their dogs new tricks. Clicker training is so simple that it can even be done by a ten-year–old child.

There are two indispensable elements that must always be present during clicker training: the clicker, and the treats. Some people offer toys, and even verbal praise, as treats. But for the purpose of quickly getting your dog’s attention, I highly recommend that you find a tasty treat that your dog will not mind eating again and again.

Expert tips for trainers

If the dog is not following your commands, it is possible that the dog has yet to establish a solid connection between the command, and the action itself. Review the lesson and repeat the cycles to see if the dog is responding to the nonverbal cues.

If the nonverbal cues are not working, that means the dog has made no association between the action and any signal. Go back to square one, and repeat the association games. Use the clicker to mark the target behaviors during the action, and not after.

Verbal signals can be added to the training equation only when the dog has become an expert in responding to nonverbal commands. Nonverbal commands are easier to master than verbal commands (this is why some folks who use classical conditioning often have a difficult time teaching the simplest of actions).

Training sessions should not be drawn out and boring. Ten minutes is already a long session for an active dog who has never been trained before. During the first few sessions, limit your training timeframe to just three minutes. If the dog responds well to the clicker training, it can probably complete 20 successful cycles in three to five minutes.

Don’t be harsh with your pet if it does not immediately respond to your commands. Review the information signal (the cue), and check to see if the dog has made the association between the cue, and action itself. If the dog looks unmotivated, the problem may lie in the reward that you are offering. Change the reward and see if the dog will respond.

Punishment should be limited to a neutrally toned word such as “wrong”. Don’t scold your pet for not understanding. It doesn’t help the animal learn, and the animal may associate training sessions with being scolded. That is never a good thing for home-trained dogs.

You and your dog both need to speak and understand “dog language”

Wrong
There are times when you will need to understand why your dog is whining, or barking, e.g. you need to understand if it’s whining simply because it has missed you, or because it has no water and desperately needs a drink.

You need to determine if it is barking because it is just fed up and wants a bit of attention or because it’s trying to tell you there is someone currently in the process of breaking in through an upstairs window. What you don’t need to do is start barking, growling or whining in order to communicate with your dog.

Now we understand that there is no truth in this particular myth, let’s take a look at the various ways your dog will communicate with you, and which will help you understand it.

Using His Tail to Tell You His Mood:  With its bottom in the air and its tail wagging, your dog is probably trying to let you know that it would love to play with you and have some fun. If his tail is right between his back legs, going under his tummy it probably means that he is scared of something or somebody, and if this is the case, you should do your best to find out what is worrying him.

Tail Wagging: Not always an indication of a dog being happy and playful. It can also mean he is feeling aggressive. Depending on how he is wagging his tail, will help you determine his mood. If his tail is held up high and wagging rapidly, this could indicate that he is feeling aggressive.

Hackles Raised: This is an aggressive stance and indicates that your dog is frightened or is ready to fight whatever has caused this reaction in him.

Rolling Over: In dog terms this is normally a submissive sign that occurs when your dog is amongst other dogs or humans. It can also mean they just want their tummy rubbing!

Other communicating signs from your dog to watch out for include sniffing, crouching, position of ears, eyes wide open or narrowed.

A well behaved dog is a pride and joy to the owner. A dog which lacks basic training is indeed a matter of embarrassment and can be a real pain to the surrounding people. Even though the owner may think an untrained dog can be cute, let me warn you many times it can be a danger to itself and the people concerned. For example, a dog that does not heed to the command of the owner can run loose to an approaching car or motorbike and cause an accident to itself and to the occupants of the vehicle.

The most crucial part of training is to start of early because it is easy to train a dog in early stages when it is not exposed to much of established habits and inappropriate behaviors. Before we start let us all remind each other that we are not exactly the dog whisperers.

Dog training books can help the owners to smooth the relationship with their pets. Such training books cover variety of topics from tips on hose braking to appropriate dog foods for varied breeds. Regardless of which ever canine breed you possess, most of you will be struggling with issues like aggressive behavior, house training, establishing who is the alpha (dominant person in the home) and setting boundaries. Here it is important to understand the size and breed of your dog has nothing to do with basic dog training.

Dog your dog is not always an easy task simply because of the fact that it is hard to earn the respect of your dog. It may sound quite absurd, but in many situations it can be the sole reason for unacceptable behavior. It will take much more than reading dog training books systematically.

Following are few basic dog training tips or advices:

• Always be patient and positive with your animal- always remember the fact that dogs are great attention seekers who loves to be praised and appreciated now and then. Use verbal as well small treats in the initial stages of training, when your doggie behaves perfectly the way you taught them to do so.

• Be firm and friendly with your pets- Use a friendly tone when you teach them to heel or come. However use a much stern and firmer voice to make them sit. The animal should understand that you mean business

• Engage in shorter session of dog training- Keep your sessions for fifteen minutes or so and end it with a positive gesture. Do not force your doggie to undergo prolonged sessions as this may make them restless with the entire sessions. Also remember to spend some extra time playing with your pet after the dog training. This helps to strengthen the bond between the master and the pet.

• Avoid distractions- do not train your dogs in busy parks or crowded outdoors. Also keep your other pets away while engaged in dog training.

• Finally remember dog training can be real fun. It is the perfect time to understand your dog’s behavior and let them know you care for the animal. This can be a rewarding sessions for many out there.

As part of its commitment to help first responders save lives and property, Mission Manager, Inc. is pleased to announce a collaboration with the American Humane Association aimed at enhancing the associations Red Star teams nationwide animal rescue efforts. Mission Manager, one of the most widely used cloud-based emergency management tools, has supported approximately 5,000 missions over the past three years.

Under the arrangement, Mission Manager will donate its software and a portion of its revenues to the American Humane Association.

Mission Manager provides a turnkey solution for mission planning and real-time situational awareness. Based on three core principals preparation, readiness and execution the software provides a team-based operational environment for day-to-day tasks and serves as an online command center during incidents. Mission Manager features automated reporting tools, multiple communications vehicles and extensive mapping capabilities.

American Humane Associations Red Star volunteer responders are trained to help animals during or after a disaster, or as a result of animal cruelty bringing vital skills in animal handling as well as necessary supplies and resources to set-up and operate temporary shelters and/or conduct field rescue missions.

Were excited to use Mission Manager, which will automate our Red Star Teams administrative tasks and significantly enhance the volunteers rescue efforts. Until now, weve had to organize our team of nearly 200 nationwide volunteers by pen and paper, said Paul Raybould, American Humane Association Chief Innovation Officer. With Mission Managers support, were able to do a better job than ever before in meeting the needs of animals during times of crisis.

Our reason for being is to help first responders save lives and property whether their callout involves a missing person, an animal rescue effort or catastrophic event, said Michael Berthelot, President and CEO of Mission Manager. Thats why our collaboration with American Humane Association is such a fit. Were proud to partner in the pursuit of saving animal lives.

A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATIONS HERO DOG AWARDS

Mission Manager is also sponsoring the Search and Rescue (SAR) category in the 2014 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards gala on Sept. 27. The finalist in that category Bretagne (pronounced Brittany) who lives in Cypress, Texas has made significant contributions to the SAR community over her long career.

As seen on a special broadcast of The TODAY Show on Sept. 11, she is one of only two surviving search and rescue dogs who worked at Ground Zero following the 2001 terror attacks. Bretagne was also deployed during the Olympic Winter Games in 2001 and Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Since retiring in 2008, she spends her time working as an ambassador to the SAR community and visiting schools. Bretagne is among eight amazing dogs that will be honored at a star-studded awards gala on Sept. 27 in Beverly Hills, where the top American Hero Dog for 2014 will be chosen based on more than one million votes by the American public. People can read her remarkable story athttp://www.herodogawards.org or watch video at http://on.today.com/1yrzFhZ.

ABOUT THE RED STAR TEAM

American Humane Association is the countrys first national humane organization and the only one devoted to protecting both children and animals. The organizations Red Star rescue work began in 1916 when they were asked by War Department to help save hundreds of thousands of horses that were wounded on the battlefields of World War I in Europe.

Since then, Red Star has been involved in virtually every major relief effort, from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. During the past 10 years, Red Star has rescued, helped and sheltered more than 10,000 animals hurt in catastrophes and cruelty cases. To help, please visit http://www.americanhumane.org.

ABOUT MISSION MANAGER

Mission Manager provides cloud-based software designed to help save lives and property by enabling first responders to operate more efficiently and effectively. Mission Managers team member and asset management capabilities, combined with its calendar and communication functions, allows users to enhance team readiness through optimized training and seamlessly integrate mission-specific operations during real-time events.

Over the past three years, Mission Manager has been used in nearly 5,000 missions ranging from single-person rescues to large public events and full-scale natural disaster response. Mission Manager is currently used in all 50 U.S. states, and on every continent except Antarctica. Truly a global tool, Mission Manager is available in 80 languages. To learn more, visit http://www.MissionManager.com.