Westies will really go exploring if they can help it, since their disposition and terrier temperament include the irresistible urge to check and investigate. For them, new ventures mean more learning. One of the things he will understand very soon is that you are a good provider of what he needs. Soon, he will see that aside from material needs, he can also get from you the decision to know what is right and wrong to do. Earning the dog’s trust is important in westie training.

At first, you get the impression that the dog’s learning is progressing into the wrong directions. But prepare to implement training as a never-ending process. For example, you will need a response to the fact that your westie is quick to develop ways to catch your attention and get you to pass on to him a treat. Thus, your training goals need to include how to veer your dog’s natural instincts into its socially acceptable version, while giving the dog a proper lifestyle.

Here are some tips in order to take to heart westie training:

1. Every dog needs to be given the chance to have training, and it can start at eight weeks of age. Time spent on inculcating basic manners and obedience skills to your westie need to be fun and will create a special loving bond between dog and trainer.

2. Look for a reliable dog trainer, school, or private obedience teacher. Good sources of a contact can be the dog’s vet, groomer, or breeder. Once you have chosen, ask if it is possible to sit in a class session.

3. No dog training can consist of force and abuse. The best methods of training dogs rely on the use of reinforcements and corrections. We ourselves are aware that the behavior that is rewarded will be repeated by the dog.

4. When unacceptable behavior happens, correct the westie verbally right there and then. On the other hand, the best reinforcer is a treat. Praise, attention and play are also important.

5. Exercise fairness and compassion on your westie. Never hit or yell in correcting.

6. Shower praise on the dog when he does what you want.

7. In the long run, you will need to be consistent and confident. And not only that; the complete family needs to agree and stick to what the major family member teaches.

8. There needs to be a fair amount of time each day to attention, affection, training and play. A quarter of an hour of training a few times a week will have you and your westie keen on learning.

9. Among the many training commands out there, your westie will need the following in particular: sit, stay, heel, down and come. A well-behaved dog is a delight to know.

10. Westie training eats up time and wears away our daily focus, but yours for the keeping is a westie that is a pleasure to live with.

One of the most important areas of training a dog is house training. However, this can be a very frustrating task. One of the best ways to succeed is use the dogs own instincts. By nature, dogs are usually very clean animals. They prefer to keep the areas where they eat and sleep clean and free from soil. Dogs also like a routine and like to know where they are supposed to urinate and defecate. For instance, if they are taught to do their business on gravel or concrete, they will look for gravel or concrete to do this. If they are taught to go on grass or dirt, they will look for grass or dirt. Take advantage of these habits.

First, you must set up a training area. You will need a place that is small and confined, like a bathroom or kitchen. A crate will work for small dogs or puppies but larger animals need more room. You need to spend some time with your pet in this area playing with him. Your pet will also eat and sleep in this area as well.

You should put together a special bed for your dog or purchase one. Don’t fret if your pet soils in this area at first. He will soon learn that this is where he eats and sleeps and stop eliminating there. Once the dog figures out the bed is for sleeping, you can move it to different locations in the house. Make sure you do this only when you are home. If you are not there, move the bed back to the training area.

Next, you will need to set up a bathroom area. Find a location for this purpose, probably outside. But, it needs a to be a place the dog can go whenever he needs to go. You should go with your dog to give rewards for good behavior. Feed the dog at the same time everyday. If your dog is fed at the same time everyday and establishes a schedule for eating he will also establish a routine for eliminating. Once you get a feel for those times, it will be easier to guide your dog to the designated location. Your dog should have easy access to the bathroom area; that way accidents are less likely.

Now, you can continue the house training. When your pet is in the habit of urinating or defecating in the toilet area and not in his eating or sleeping area, you may extend the training area to include the rest of the house. Don’t start to fast. Go slowly at first. Add one room at a time. Don’t go into new rooms until you are sure your pet has good control of his bathroom habits. Do this only when you are present with the dog. If you are not home, keep your dog in the original training area. You can speed the process up, but do so with caution. It is advisable to go slowly rather than have to retrain your pet at a later time. If you do choose to speed things up, make sure you are there to reward your dog. Remember, it is important not to punish for accidents. This will only slow the process down by confusing the dog.

Good luck!

If you have adopted an older dog only to learn it has some behavior problems, don’t worry-you can teach an old dog new tricks. It is a good idea to know something about a dog before you adopt it, but sometimes you just won’t know what you are in for. Adopting an older dog means he may come to you with some behavior issues. Common problems pet owners have with newly adopted older dogs, are aggression, barking too much or even soiling inside the house. Whatever the case may be, if you use the right techniques when training your new pet,  you will be able to help him to behave properly, learn his place within your family, become a great addition to your household.

When you first adopt an older dog, be sure to really check it out for any behavior issues. If your dog has any aggression problems-maybe he is aggressive towards other dogs, people, or over his food. You will need to pay immediate attention to correcting aggression problems, as these could lead to someone getting bitten.  Try to determine if he has any behavioral problems needing special attention and the level of his previous obedience training-if any at all. Try giving your new pet some basic obedience commands and see how he responds. If he doesn’t know the basic commands, you’ll know he hasn’t been given any training. If he responds fearfully to a command to come or sit, this may mean he was abused by a previous owner. Make sure he is totally house trained, too. Take a thorough look at his disposition and behavior so you can see where to begin training your older dog.

The best way to get started training an older dog is to follow the advice of the best  professional dog trainers, and use a step by step program that takes you from basic obedience training exercises right through more advanced training. This takes all the guess work out of how to train your older dog, and also will enable you to avoid making the same mistakes everyone always makes when trying to train their dog without a good system in place. All the best professional trainers emphasize using positive training techniques. Using positive reinforcement, you will give praise and rewards to your dog for correct behaviors, and teach him how you want him to behave. You will also learn how to communicate with your dog in a way that dogs understand. Knowing how to use your voice and your body language has a lot to do with training your dog effectively.

You will learn how to be your dog’s leader-the Alpha dog. Once you have earned his respect, confidence and trust as the Alpha dog, he will be eager to follow your leads. It is a dog’s essential nature to try to please the superior members of his “pack”-that’s you and your family.

The whole family needs to learn to be consistent with the training, to avoid any conflicting and confusing training. With the right training methods your older dog quickly learns his place within his new “pack”.By establishing yourself as the Alpha leader, you will good results with solving behavior problems your dog may have brought with him.

Training an older dog to be the best addition to your family that he can be will provide you with a pet that you can be comfortable with in any social situation. Since you adopted the older dog to be a new part of your family, don’t allow him to be anything other than a joy to have. Be sure you take the time to train your older new best friend  and have the best relationship with him you can have.

When you first get a puppy there is so many things to teach them. Everything you teach a puppy is part of Dog Obedience Training. Anything from housebreaking to not chewing on the furniture falls under obedience training. You have to teach your puppy how to grow up to be a dog that other people can love being around not just you. Here are 5 tips to help you with the training process.

Housebreaking is a matter of you watching your dog and knowing when they need to go outside to potty. Unless you are crate training your puppy they have run of the house, so you don’t want the puppy going to the bathroom on your carpet. So develop a schedule for taking the puppy outside until it learns to tell you in someway that they need to go out. This does eventually happen even in the most hard-headed of breeds.

To keep your puppy from chewing on the furniture provide them their own chew toys. This was if you catch them gnawing on your favorite chair, you tell them no firmly and then hand them one of their chew toys. They soon get the idea.

When doing leash training, make sure to have the right size collar for the dog for one thing. A small dog does not need an overly wide collar. The retractable leashes are a great tool these days, because you can adjust how far you allow your pup to get from you. Use a light hand when walking your pup on the leash until they get used to it. It is common for them to pull against you at first. If you yak on the too hard you could hurt your puppy.

Do not play too aggressively with your puppy, because you could teach them behavior that may lead them to bite someone. This is easy to forget about when they look so cute grabbing their toys from your hand trying to get it away from you. If you do a tug of war with them this good lead to aggressive behavior as they grow up, and could lead to a child or adult getting attacked or bit.

Something that is quite annoying to several people is dogs jumping up on them. Even when they are dog lovers people aren’t always comfortable with a dog jumping into their laps or jumping up for attention. So it takes repeated times of telling your puppy to sit to get them to quit the jumping up. If you own an overly enthusiastic breed this can be harder to accomplish. Terriers of various kinds can be a challenge in this area.

Through these 5 tips on Dog Obedience Training you can train your dog to do some important basics in proper behavior. Hopefully these 5 tips will help you easier understand how to go about training you cute new pup, so that you always love it and enjoy being with it. Remember proper training of a dog makes the dog easy to like by all people who come in contact with it on a regular basis.

When you first bring a rescue dog into your home – especially an older one who may be very set in his ways – your first responsibility is to get to know your dog. This requires constant and careful observation. You must spend time getting to know your dog, learning how to read him so that you will understand which training techniques will work best with your dog.  For instance, if your dog has quickly assumed the role of “Alpha dog”, your task at hand will require immediate and influential action. However, if he is demonstrating tentativeness, he may be simply in the “role confusion” stage and only needs to see signs of leadership from you to learn where he belongs in the family hierarchy.

So job one is observing your dog’s behavior to determine what type of training will be required and in what doses. If your dog tries to “lead” you or other members of the family, he is trying to take charge. More specifically, if your dog exhibits some of the following behaviors, then you would do well to take the appropriate steps to assert yourself as Top Dog. It’s in everybody’s best interest – including your dog – that he learn from the get-go that he belongs in the lowest place in the family’s pecking order.

To determine if your dog thinks he is “leader of the pack”, look for the following behaviors:

Shows teeth, snarls, or even attempts to bite when you try to remove a toy or bone from him
Always has to be out in front – pulling on the leash, rushing out the door ahead of you
Challenges your authority, from simply ignoring your instructions to outright disobedience
Eats food on his schedule – that is whenever he feels like it – and not on your schedule
Is always trying to control his territory – like sitting in the middle of the hall – forcing all to walk over or around 
Pushes his way onto your bed despite your commands to the contrary

The recommended techniques required to establish you as “Alpha Dog” may at times seem harsh. But asserting yourself as leader will be doing your dog a huge favor. For a dog to assume the role as leader in a human environment can become very stressful for your dog. This could lead to anxiety, nervousness, constant barking or even aggression. Dogs simply want to know their place in the family pack and what is expected of them. Oftentimes, an “aggression” problem is really attributable to “role confusion”.

So, how do you go about reversing roles?  Start with these four general rules:

Rule 1 – go slowly. In fact the more aggression your dog has exhibited, the slower you should go.  You do not want this to become a challenge to your dog to compete with you, but rather a life lesson.

Rule 2 – no more “something for nothing”. Teach your dog that all the good things in life must be earned including play time, treats, walks, petting, even meals. 

Rule 3 – do not tempt bad behavior. No more dashes out the door unfettered. No leaving food on easy-to-reach counters. No more treats simply because you looked down and saw two soulful eyes beseeching you. 

Rule 4 – Make your dog totally dependent upon you. Become the provider of his every life-sustaining necessity and his every life-enhancing nicety.

Here are some tips and techniques to help you achieve role reversal with your dog:

When taking your dog outside, be sure to walk through the door BEFORE your dog
Always request and get a trick, even if just sitting, before receiving a treat or when you place his food bowl in front of him
When you dog occupies space that he shouldn’t – like the middle of a walkway or on your favorite seat or your bed – gently nudge him until he moves. If necessary, lead him to where you prefer he rest
Never give a command that you don’t intend to enforce. Don’t beg or yell.  Help him to obey if necessary, like gently pushing his rear to sit. Once he obeys, reward him with praise
Feed your dog afterthe family eats. And, give him ample time to finish, but do not allow him to “graze”. If he doesn’t eat in a determined time frame (15 to 30 minutes), remove the food
You determine play time
You determine which games to play. Avoid games of strength and resolve like tug-of-war and even rough housing. Hide and seek or fetch are more appropriate (if you play fetch, insist that he return the toy to your feet). Do not allow him to play keep away
Provide your dog with affection, but in moderate doses and preferably as positive reinforcement for good behavior
During this role reversal period, always remain on a higher level than your dog – literally. Be sure to administer praise and even petting from an elevated position. Avoid sitting down to play with your dog. When your eyes make contact, maintain your eye contact until he averts his stare. After you gain the dominant position in your home, you will be able to relax these silly techniques
Do not allow jumping up on people or furniture during this period. This is a dominating behavior. Either ignore the dog or use a command such as “off” or “no” while gently pushing the dog to the floor
Do not allow your dog to pick favorites among family members. This can be accomplished by having everyone involved in the “role reversal” training. Allowing the dog to dominate just one person will defeat your purpose
Do not hesitate to introduce crate training. It will be a safe haven where your dog can escape the stress of trying to be a leader until he learns his rightful place in the home

Be diligent, patient and persistent and your dog will eventually understand that he relies upon you to satisfy all of his needs and wants. This is a happy place to be for your dog, for you and your family. Now enjoy the wonderful benefits of dog ownership.