Small dog training is like other regular dog training. It isn’t true that training a smaller dog is more challenging than training a large dog. Here are a few questions about training smaller type dogs and some expert answers.

Why is it so hard to potty train my small dog?

The reason why most people find training a little dog hard is because of their natural reactions to them. They tend to carry around a little dog and this is the root of why they are hard to potty train. When you carry your small sized dog to the place where they should take care of their toilet business and then carry them back to your place, you are essentially not teaching them anything. When you carry them around too much, smaller type dogs have no way to warn their owners that they have to relieve themselves outside. Training these little dogs starts when you recognize that they are just like any other large-sized or medium-sized dog. You have to keep them on a leash and let them go to their special place where they should relieve themselves. Do not carry them and you’ll be successful in small dog training.

What kind of method is the best in small dog training?

Any kind of obedience training is suitable for smaller type dog training, but clicker training works more effectively for smaller dogs. Clicker training is a more gentle approach to small dog training. In clicker training, you can make the dog respond positively to a series of clicks. In clicker training, you allow the dog to associate the clicks to treats. You click and give a treat and do this until the dog responds well to clicks. Then, you can break down the skills you want your dog to learn. When the dog does something towards good behavior, you click and give a treat. It’s as easy as that.

Training dogs of a smaller size can be a very rewarding experience if you approach it well. Smaller or little dogs are a joy to train and learning about the basics of small dog training can increase the pleasure of having a small dog within your own home.

Too many people add a young puppy to their family and do not take the opportunity to housebreak it or train it in the areas of obedience and temperament. Too late they find that a dog’s habits are difficult to break, and an untrained animal will result in straying, aggressive behavior toward the neighbors, and plenty of ruined household items; these are the main reasons for dog obedience training.

Regardless of the breed, dogs and especially puppies need to be trained for a variety of reasons. A canine’s natural habits include exploring, hunting and retrieving, following scent tracks, and chewing to maintain healthy teeth. While it is not necessary to try and break these natural tendencies, letting a dog know when and where to use their natural instincts is essential. Giving them basic dog collars and leashes or harnesses will help the canines feel secure and help the owner with control and safety.

Indoor Puppies Are A Nuisance If Not Housebroken
More and more people live in apartments, condos and retirement communities. These establishments often allow pets, but unless they are properly housebroken, an animal’s anxiety at being confined indoors results in a lot of items being used as chew toys. This is a dog’s natural release of stress and loneliness if the owner is not at home. One of the first things taught at puppy obedience schools is a series of commands that lets the dog know what is acceptable as a toy and what is not. And puppies that are confined will need to be potty-trained until they are large enough to be taken outdoors.

Clicker Commands And Invisible Fences
Most dogs respond quite well to clicker command training, and some breeds often grow to adulthood no longer needing the mechanical sound to remind them of what to do or not do; simple words often suffice after months of clicker training. Voice commands work very well with older dogs, but puppies respond best to clicker commands until they are fully grown. Invisible fence training is also handled at many obedience schools.

A Dog’s Attitude Around Strangers
Even breeds with mild tempers, such as a golden or Labrador retriever, will often feel uncomfortable around strangers, even young children. One of the most important reasons for dog obedience training is to bring the animal into contact with a number of people and let it get used to being touched by those who exude a completely different scent than its owner. After the pet is fully grown, this type of reassurance training becomes less successful, so it is important to have puppy training include acceptance of unfamiliar people. This will in no way undermine the dog’s instinct to protect its owner from attack; dogs have a strong desire to keep harmful people and animals away from its loved ones.

A pet depends on its owner for everything, from food and shelter to protection from disease. Obedience training helps insure that your animal and all those it comes in contact with are safe.

This book is currently one of the highly favored dog training guides online and its author is Daniel Stevens. As an owner of several dogs, I already knew a few tricks when it comes to handling my pets. However, with a great deal of good feedbacks I have read regarding this book, I should say it is not a bad idea to give it a try. So what exactly is this book all about?

The book covers a range of information and goes a great deal more than problem behaviors. It includes helpful advice on choosing a dog for those who are decided to get one for a pet or companion. It offers effective guidelines for first time dog owners, such as breed information, housetraining puppies, etc. The book is packed with other interesting informational facts about dogs that anybody would surely benefit from.

Within several weeks since I got to practice the program I have learned so much about dog behaviors and how to respond accordingly. The dog training techniques are presented in more practical approach and the book offers step by step solutions in clear and detailed explanation. This is a quality book which will provide first time dog owners both systematic and creative method to train their dogs.

Sit Stay Fetch has recently undergone a change of name as the book is now known as “The Secrets Of Dog Training.” I have to say the name befits the true intent of the book, though it may no longer be a “hush hush” as the secret is open now to all interested to obtain it.

The book is an E-book, so you pay for it and then you can download it. They even give an eight week money back guarantee, so if you try the book, and it doesn’t help you can return it within two months! That is a really great deal. The bonus is, because it is an E book, it is easy to scroll through to the parts that you want to read and you don’t have to store it at home and flip through pages and pages, trying to find what you need. I don’t know who started the rumor that this book was a scam. These days people are less trusting. I assure you, however; this book is indeed real, well written, and easy to read for first time dog lovers.

The book contains some pretty interesting reading and I have no doubts in recommending this dog training guide to anyone who owns, or is thinking about owning a dog. The book really helps the user gain insight and comprehensive view of dog training. It is a great assistance and there is information guaranteed to be useful to all dog owners.

Having a dog as cute and playful as the havanese will surely bring lots of excitement and fun to your household. But having a dog such as the havanese is more than just excitement and fun. Along with being a dog owner is a number of responsibilities that must be carried out in order to have healthy and happy four-legged member of the family. One of the responsibilities is training, specifically havanese training for your havanese.

Though the havanese is considered to have high degree of intelligence, that does not necessarily mean that training is not needed anymore. Regardless of the breed’s intelligence, training is always an important part of a dog’s life. It is best to start your havanese training the moment you bring Fido home. Start off with introduction and familiarization. The new family member must be introduced to other members of the family including other pets if there is any.

In order to make training less difficult, understand communication from your pet. A confused, stressed, nervous, distracted or excited dog is not able to learn efficiently so it helps if you understand the signals he is trying to show. A dog may also show signals such as sniffing, circling or squatting every time he needs to urinate or defecate. Understanding these signals is helpful during potty training.

Breeders should have already socialized the puppies before sending them to their permanent homes. But if that is not the case, it is not yet late to socialize your pup. Social investigation and playful fighting must be allowed during this period so as to help them develop social relationships.

Regardless of the training technique used, it must be known that physical punishment should not be used as a mean to train a dog. Hitting the dog or rubbing his nose in the spot where he committed accident will only result to behavior problems such as aggression.

Havanese training may seem so challenging when you will just look at it but with consistency, patience and determination, you will eventually reap the fruits of your labor.

Agility is really the pinnacle of dog sports. The most talented dogs prevail. There are no two ways about it. But there is a lot that goes into a winner’s (and even a loser’s) performance behind the scenes and before the competition oven takes place. This will be the focus of this article: agility training. It is not an easy thing. Do you think dogs will naturally jump pall around and weave through poles? No, they won’t. You have to train them.

The sport of agility for dogs was started in the UK in 1978. It was at the Crufts Fair and it was a legendary day. Since then everyone the whole world over has become familiar with this great sport whether they know it or not. It is the sport where the owners have their dogs jump all over beams and run up steps and follow commands. It takes a whole lot of dog agility training in order to achieve this. You basically have to devote all your spare time to it if you want your pup to be a success. By the way, some people think it should be limited to medium and large size dogs but this belief is a little outdated. Chihuahuas are great at this sport. Believe me. There’s no reason to be biased against any sort of a dog competing in this majestic and great sport. None at all!

The hardest thing to do as regards agility training for dogs is to get them to understand the Pole Weave. This is where they have to weave in and out of stakes in the ground. They pass the first on their left, then the second on their right, the third on their left, etc. This is so hard to get them to do. There is no precedent for this sort of activity in nature. It is totally unnatural. I don’t know who thought it up but they were a genius. The dogs who can master this one skill will probably go on to be top dogs in every competition in which they compete. This is agility’s toughest obstacle and the one that creates the real winners.

Now that you have a better idea of agility training, do you think it is too much? Do you think your dog has it in him? You’ll never know until you try. It’s really all about meeting the dog “where he is” and training him from that point.

Dog training videos and DVDs are becoming a favourite, easy way of learning how to train your dog.  Dog training classes and private dog trainers are pricey, so more people are now finding it less demanding to download dog training videos which they can watch at their own tempo and in the comfort of their own home, on the move on their laptop or listen to dog training books that are on audio.

In an ideal world where cash and time are not an issue my first option for training my dog would be a series of classes with a well-known  professional dog trainer but like many people I simply cannot stretch to afford this.  We all want the best training for our dogs though and there are many other excellent solutions available.

Cesar Millan is a household name now and you can buy his dog training DVD course for just over $ 130 which is quite affordable but there are further costs, such as the Illusion collar you need to buy for your dog to follow Cesar’s dog training video course.  The collar is around $ 40.  A great option though.

Dog training DVD courses have been proven to work better than just reading a book as you can actually watch the dog trainer in action, hearing how the voice is used to give commands and secondly seeing the body language which should be used.  Your dog watches you constantly and hears you second.

It was these advantages to dog training videos that prompted me to find out more information online with a view to finding a good dog training DVD course by a professional dog trainer.  I was quite surprised that most reviews online were for mainly ebooks with maybe just a short video included and most reviews I came across were written by people who had clearly never been near a dog and neither were the dog training videos or books written by a proper dog trainer!

I finally found a dog training DVD course through going into dog forums where I was given a personal recommendation from someone who had been using a dog training DVD course by a well-known professional dog trainer for 6 months and she had rescued her dog who sadly had been abused and needed to regain trust with people, which he did with the help of the training and of course, love and care.

Some research online about the dog trainer himself was very positive so I downloaded this Dog training DVD course – written by a long standing British professional dog trainer.  There are 21 dog training videos, and over five hours of an audio book which is also supplied as an ebook to print and download.  I also receive a newsletter regularly (plus all the previous newsletters) and can contact the trainer personally should I ever need.  The videos are of the professional dog trainer with real dogs and the method of training does not involve harming your dog or require any special, pricey equipment.

I was happy with the price of $ 59 for this complete dog training DVD course which covers everything from preparing to bring your pup home, house training and ongoing training covering each stage of your dog’s life.  Common dog obedience problems are also addressed in depth.  These simple dog training videos helped me sort out my jealous little westie’s naughtiness!

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.