August 20th, 2009 by Peter
Here are a few ideas to stop your dog from pulling on the lead:
- Whilst walking, if the leash goes tight, the dog is pulling. If the leash is slack then the dog is walking at a suitable pace. When the leash is slack you can reward him and give him some praise, remember to continue walking immediately though. The dog will soon become aware that keeping the leash slack will earn him rewards. You need to be very consistent with this approach.
- Try walking around the garden in an unpredictable pattern. when he pulls on the lead trying to go one way, turn the other way and continue walking. Do not give any commands and evetually he will realise he needs to stay by your side to predict where you are going to walk next.
I hope this helps. If you have any good ideas then make sure you leave a comment.
August 19th, 2009 by Peter
Do you find that when your taking your dog for a walk you end up being dragged along like its actually him taking you for the walk?
If so, you need to make sure that you teach your dog not to pull on the lead. It’s understandable that dogs get excited to take a trip out of the house, so a little bit of pulling isn’t going to hurt. The one thing that you need to remember is, it’s the people that the dog is running towards that might get scared, for example young children and the elderly. An excitable dog can be extremely hazardous!
You need to experiment a number of different techniques to stop your dog pulling on the lead. I’ll tell you a few of mine in the next post.
August 14th, 2009 by Peter
Trying to keep your dog to ’stay’ can sometimes be hard work. There are however, great techniques you can use to try and fix this problem.
Firstly, get your dog to sit in one place. Once they are sitting, walk backwards slowing shouting “stay” every couple of seconds. The best thing to do is alter the distance each time. Start with a short distance, if it stays, reward it with a yummy treat. Next time, try and walk a bit further away and again, reward them if they do well.
Make sure that you use the same place to try out this sort of training so that it stays familiar.
August 13th, 2009 by Peter
The way dogs greet each other is the way they greet humans too, normally by jumping up on them, wagging their tails! For some people, they want their dog to stay sat in it’s bed when they arrive home, however, this reaction is simply the dog saying ‘hello’.
To try and calm the dog down there are a few things you can do:
- Turn your back when it jumps up and try to ignore it.
- Grab a treat and move it nearer and nearer the dogs nose until it is eventually sat down.
Remember that you have to try and be consistent so that you don’t confuse your dog! Also, try and remember that he is only trying to say hello!
August 12th, 2009 by Peter
My friend has two gorgeous dogs, they have been together since they were puppies and spend every minute of the day side by side. Unfortunately, due to a few family problems, the dogs are now going to have to be separated, for dogs this can be very scary and even stressful.
Dogs can get something called separation anxiety. You can tell your dog has this if they start to tremble as you leave the house, hide, pant or seem overly excited when they get back to the house. There are exercises that you can do with your dog to help prevent this and getting professional help may be the answer.
For severe cases of separation anxiety, you may find that your dog damages doors and windows of your house when left alone, exhausts itself by barking and howling and may even injure itself in the process. If this does happen then seeking professional help and getting medication for your dog is essential.
I hope that when my friends dogs are separated that they don’t go through this!
Do you know of any dog that has suffered from separation anxiety? If so, I would love to hear how you overcame the problem.
