Having a dog as a pet can be a rewarding experience. Not only do you have the unconditional love of an animal, but you have the companionship of a great friend, as well.

One good way to spend time with your dog is to teach it tricks. Knowing tricks will mean you can show off how smart your dog is to your friends, and teaching the dog the tricks is quality time you get to spend with it. If you train your dog properly, it can be a lot of fun for both of you!

The first thing to remember when teaching your dog tricks is patience. Your dog won’t understand what you want right away, so you need to be willing to work slowly with your dog until it can understand and respond to what you’re asking. If you get frustrated, your dog will, too, and the training won’t work.

Another important part of training is consistency. For example, if you use the word “Down” to get your dog to lie down, use that word every time. Don’t switch to “Lay” or anything else. This will just confuse your dog and keep you both from success.

There are lots of great resources both online and in print to help you teach your dog tricks. You can use them to get you started, then tailor your training to match your dog’s personality and do what works for the two of you.

One of the most basic commands is “Sit,” and this can be an easy trick to teach. Begin with your dog standing. Give the command, whether it be a vocal “Sit” or a hand gesture, then press gently on your dog’s back until it lowers to a sitting position. When it fulfills this command, praise your dog and give a treat.

Keep up this process, but each time you give the command, wait a little longer before pressing down on your dog’s back and giving the treat. Eventually, your dog will understand that you want it to sit down in order to get the treat. And after that, your dog will sit without getting a treat as a reward. However, even if you don’t reward with a treat, make sure you praise your dog for sitting on command to give positive reinforcement for good behavior.

Teaching your dog tricks can be a great experience for you both! The time you spend together will strengthen your relationship, and the positive reinforcement you give your dog will help it feel even more loved. Just remember that patience and consistency are the keys to success!

You want a crate that’s large enough for your dog to turn around, stand up, or lie down in comfortably when he reaches full maturity. There are all different types of crates. Some are made of wire mesh, some are cloth mesh, or there are plastic types that are most often times called airline crates. You really want to consider the ease of assembly, but also the durability. Although heavier, wire crates are usually easy to put up and take down and are very durable.

The best type of crate is one you can take with you when you travel with your dog. You might even want to get two different crates. One for the car and one for the house. Then you don’t have to be carrying it back and forth which can become a real hassle.

Now the next step is teaching your new puppy to use the crate.

Here are 7 tips to coaxing your new puppy into his crate:

1. Set up the crate and let your puppy check it out. Put a blanket or one of the special crate pads inside.

2. Come up with a command, such as “Go to Bed” or “Go to your crate.” If you’re new puppy won’t enter the crate on his own or when you call to him then physically place your puppy in the crate.

3. Close the door, praise him and give him a little treat, and then let him out.

4. Use a treat to lure him into the crate. If he doesn’t want the treat and won’t follow it in, then physically place him inside and then give him the treat.

5. Close the door, praise him while he is inside, and give him another little treat.

6. Let him out again. And just remember, the treat can be anything as long as it motivates him.

7. Continue using the command you had chosen and giving your new puppy a treat after he enters into the crate until he is going into the crate all on his own.

If your new puppy happens to be afraid of the crate, try feeding him his meal in front of the crate. Then when you feed him his next meal place it just inside of the crate. Continue feeding him this way , each time pushing his food bowl further back into the crate until your new puppy is inside and isn’t afraid to go in on his own.

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.

Training your baby with a squirt gun