Your Dogs Nature and Temperament

Before you begin to train your dog, it is necessary to establish well-defined and clear-cut training goals and objectives. Training your dog will be a tough task in absence of clear-cut training goals and without proper analysis of her temperament.

Every dog is unique and has a distinct personality. How often do you   see a dog that fails to demonstrate desired behaviors despite the best training efforts? This is mainly because of an absence of adequate training goals in line with the dog’s nature and temperament. An understanding of her personality is helpful in defining her training needs. When you know her nature and temperament you know the reasons for most of her behavior patterns.

By understanding the root of the problem, you will be in a better position to chalk out a training program that addresses those problems effectively. Thereafter you can easily set up training goals and objectives in-line with her nature and temperament. Moreover, having an insight into your dog’s personality will help you avoid possible inconveniences and damages to you, your family members and visitors.  

Common Dog Traits

All puppies and dogs have some traits in common. These traits or the normal genetic make up of a dog forms the basis of most of her behavior patterns. An understanding of these common dog traits is necessary to have a basic insight of normal dog behavior. When you become aware of normal dog traits, you automatically get logical reasons for dog’s behavior that you once considered strange and unacceptable.

Now you will have a better understanding of what behaviors or habits are normal and what requires care and correction. This will be an important guideline for evolving an appropriate training plan for your dog. 

Dogs are descendants of wolves and are pack animals. They have a genetic structure that is suited for living in herds. Every herd has pack leader, commonly referred to as Alpha. However, when the dog or puppy is in human association, she considers her owner as alpha.

Most of the behavioral problems are because of confusions regarding the alpha role. The puppy tends to become dominant and rowdy if she does not accept you as her alpha. In that case, she becomes arrogant and develops unacceptable behavior patterns. However, the positive news is that very few puppies would like to assume the leadership or alpha role.

Most of them are happy being followers, which makes your task simpler. All you have to do is to reinforce this trait by commencing training when she is young. Try to tell her from the very beginning that you are her alpha and she has to obey you.

Puppies are extremely concerned regarding their survival and comfort. To a puppy, food has direct bearing on survival. Therefore, food is the most acceptable reward for training your puppy. It is natural for a puppy to be possessive of her food. Most of the puppies demonstrate a guarding behavior towards their food and might growl or bite if you or someone attempts to approach her while she is eating. Growling and biting behavior towards you is an indication that she has not yet accepted you as her alpha and requires corrective training.

Dogs, like their ancestors, used to live in dens. Even in human association, the puppy needs her den or a private space where she can relax and feel comfortable. Her den in your house can be an isolated corner, space under a table, sofa, or any other place where she finds herself comfortable.

Puppies are very fond of and protective for their dens or personal spaces. It is therefore necessary for you to provide her a den. If you do not provide her a personal space, she will choose it herself. It is therefore better to provide her a personal space while she is young. If she chooses an undesirable space like your sofa or bed while she is young, it will be very difficult for you to stop her from using that space when she grows old.

Who Should Train Your Puppy

It is an undisputed fact that training your puppy is a necessary requirement for her proper socialization and installing good habits in her. However, it has always been a point of debate as to who should be in-charge of training your puppy. There are various methods for training your puppy. You can train her on your own, take her to classroom training sessions or hire a professional trainer to train your puppy.

All the aforementioned methods of training have their advantages and disadvantages. People supporting any of the methods have a strong case to support their preferred method. It is true that formal and classroom training methods have some advantages because of the involvement of trained and experienced professionals. However, nothing beats the joy and pleasure of training your puppy on your own.

Moreover, it is not possible to take your puppy to formal training classes and puppy socials until she gets all of her shots. This means that she cannot attend the formal training classes until the age of 6 months. You cannot leave her untrained until she becomes 6 months because if you do so, you are may have an ill-mannered and rowdy dog. Secondly, the classroom trainings are general in nature and do not keep in mind the specific requirements and temperament of your puppy. Early and personalized training is necessary to prevent a host of possible behavior problems. However, you can go for classroom training at a later age to train your puppy for special tricks. Formal training comes in handy if you want to train your dog for show purposes.

Advantages of Personalized Training

Now you have just two options for training your puppy. You can either hire a personalized trainer or train your puppy yourself. A personalized training program would design the training objectives and training sessions according to her needs; her breed and personality characteristics; size and type of your home and your family members. However many puppy owners have difficulties in finding a qualified personal trainer for their puppies. Moreover, some people are not able to afford a personal trainer because of budgetary constraints. In such cases and even otherwise, self-training is often the best option to train your puppy. 

Self-Training- The Best Option     

The best training option that you have for training your puppy is to do it yourself. Many puppy owners are apprehensive about training their puppies. They consider puppy training a time consuming, specialized job and do not feel equipped to handle puppy training. However, this is a misconceived notion. Puppy training is a specialized job but it is very easy to pick up training tricks and tips. With some basic understanding of dog behavior and keen interest in the well being of your puppy, you can easily learn how to train her. This book will cruise you through all the necessary steps for puppy training and help you to commence your training with relative ease.

Puppy training is not only a simple but also an enriching experience. By taking time to train your puppy, you are doing a great favor to yourself and the puppy. Remember that your puppy is unique and no one understands her better that you. You are the best judge for her training requirements and are sympathetic to her limitations and special needs.

Training is the best way to establish a bond of love, care and mutual respect with your puppy. Training sessions will bring you closer to your puppy and she will become more responsive to your commands and gestures. Puppy training is an emotionally enriching and educational experience. By training your puppy, you will acquire better insights into puppy behavior. You will become better equipped to provide care and affection when she needs it. Training will also establish a line of communication with your puppy and she will be in a better position to understand and respond to your commands. Puppy owners who train their puppies themselves seldom have complaints such as if “My puppy does not listen to me” or “she refuses to come when called”.

When you train you puppy on your own, she gets to listen to your voice more often and responds to your commands immediately. The puppies that receive training in classrooms or by professional trainers are at times delinquent in their behavior. They respond perfectly to commands of their trainers but may not give the same response for your commands. This is primarily because the puppy recognizes the trainer as her owner and not you. Self-training is consistent and avoids confusion for your puppy. She learns the meaning of each command and understands your facial expressions and gestures.  

By training your puppy, you are establishing yourself in the alpha role for her. She will consider you her leader and become subjugated and responsive to you. If your puppy does not consider you as her alpha, she will not respect you. This lack of respect is the basis for many behavioral problems. The puppy also needs a hierarchical structure and requires someone to whom she is accountable. Training sets up the required hierarchical structure. Therefore training is a perfect way of establishing natural and not enforced respect for you in the puppy’s mind.  

Puppy training is a rewarding experience not only for her but also for you. Puppy training is fun and brings you emotionally closer to your canine friend. Training is a perfect way of keeping you fit and healthy. When you train your puppy, you get much-required workouts and exercise. Moreover, puppy training is a good stress buster and a perfect way of chilling out after a long and hectic day.

By training your puppy, you not only save money and avoid inconvenience for yourself but also do a great favor for dog lovers and the entire dog community. Puppies trained by their owners have very few chances of developing behavioral disorders. However, the puppies that do not receive adequate training bring about a bad name for themselves and the entire dog community.

How often should my pet be examined

Most of the dog owners try to find this answer in a serious manner. Whatever the schedule we have for the examination of your pet animal, if there is any abnormality noticed in your animal, without delay, you need to subject the animal for a thorough clinical examination.

It can be suggested that even before the purchase of a puppy, just consult a pet animal care specialist and try to understand about the schedules to be maintained for the examination of the animal. This will help a lot in solving many health related problems in the concerned animal.

Though once in two or three months is the general schedule for the examination of the dog, as soon as the puppy is procured the dog needs to be taken to the veterinarian for a thorough examination. Hence, the health care measures related program will be obtained in time.

Most of the time, the dog is to be taken to the veterinarian at fifth or sixth week of age because in this period only, the vaccinations against diseases will be systematically carried out. The period of vaccination in the first year will be continued up to the sixteenth week of age and the schedule needs to be maintained accordingly.

However, if you have the pregnant dog, the dog need not be stressed by long distance based transportation for examination purposes. Hence, consult the veterinarian by phone and try to reduce the travel for the dog.

However, the veterinary advice needs to be obtained in terms of health maintenance. If the dog has met with an accident either during travel or during routine movements, the animal needs to be taken to the pet hospital immediately.

Though no disease is evident, it does not mean that the dog is healthy. There are occasions wherein the animal may look like a normal dog but may have some diseases, which can be found out during the routine health check ups. Hence, the owner has to decide on when to take the dog to the hospital depending on necessity.

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