Posts Tagged ‘Neighbors’
Dog Training: Train Your Dog To Become A Good Neighbor
Their world may not extend beyond a couple of blocks – but nevertheless, dogs are an integral part of society and as a dog owner, you have a serious responsibility when it comes to dog training.
You must mold your dog into a good neighbor – not a nuisance or a menace. Left to its own devices, a dog naturally might enjoy destroying someone’s precious lawn, chasing other animals or having a loud dialogue with the midnight moon.
These and lots of other behaviors your neighbors will hate, of course, never strike your dog as anything but fun, unless you have employed dog training and supervised.
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This is your responsibility. Certainly you don’t want your dog’s behavior to become a point of contention between otherwise compatible neighbors.
To begin with, no dog should be allowed to roam indiscriminately. Most people are reluctant confront the owner of an offending dog, but no one appreciates canine trespassing.
You must use some form of dog training because dogs lacking human supervision will often leave destruction in their path, and you are liable for your pet’s activities.
Don’t let bad feelings start because you have given your dog a free rein.
Furthermore, you put your dog’s life at risk every time you allow it such freedom. Your pet may attack or be attacked by other animals – wild (think about rabies) or domesticated. Chances are, at some point, the dog will be hit and perhaps killed by a car.
A free-roaming dog is more susceptible to picking up parasites and disease. And it may simply disappear one day, leaving you to wonder whether it has been abducted or killed. Sadly, these are common occurrences.
If you want to keep your dog outdoors, an exercise run or a sturdy fence around your yard is mandatory. Hopefully, if your dog is a barker, your neighbors live a good distance away. However, in the densely populated urban and suburban areas in which most of us live, it is simply unacceptable to permit a dog to bark endlessly. You are going to have extremely unhappy neighbors. Breaking the barking habit can be a real problem; you can try working with a trainer to come up with a solution, or you may simply have to keep the dog indoors. Certainly, it is unfair to make other people suffer while you’re away.
Remember, barking is both natural for dogs and a learned behavior in certain situations. To correct unwanted barking, you must catch the dog in the act and administer a stern, forceful correction.
You cannot correct undesirable behavior via dog training unless the dog is actually caught in the act of performing it.
Leash Training 101 – Do You Have The Right Mindset
Leash training your dog is much more than actually following a few steps and guidelines.
It’s the actual mindset of the owner that is the single most important element.
Success or failure, joy or frustration – all depend on how you approach your dog’s leash training sessions.
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Start your leash training off on the right paw, so to speak. If you have a puppy that is unaccustomed to a leash and collar, let it first adjust to the feel of a buckle collar only.
Once it is comfortable wearing the collar, snap on a short, light line and watch while it drags that around. Leave the line on for 10-minute leash training sessions a couple of times a day until your puppy no longer pays attention to it.
For an older puppy or adult dog that you have had fitted for a head collar or prong collar, again, let it have time to adapt to the feel of this new device before snapping on a leash.
Do not leave specialty collars on an unsupervised dog. Because both prong and head collars tighten with pressure, a dog can suffer serious injury if the collar catches on an object. Pay close attention to your dog during these get-comfortable sessions.
It’s important that you approach training with the right attitude, because teaching leash manners requires absolute consistency on your part. Every walk becomes a training session, whether you plan on it or not. There is no such thing as “We train when we walk after work, but all the other walks are just walks”.
This is a difficult concept for people, as we are impatient, hurried, and often doing something other than paying attention to our dog as it walks.
While your dog is learning, there should be no rushed walks, no stops to chat with neighbors, no using the time to make a call on your cell phone, etc.
You can’t expect your dog to become mindful of you during a leash training session if you consistently ignore it.
Likewise, recognize that your dog doesn’t pull on the leash to aggravate, annoy, punish or get back at you – it’s simply a matter of cause and effect. The dog is thinking: I pull, you follow, and therefore, I get to where I want to go.
You must reshape this thought process. Put emotions aside when leash training, view your lessons as an opportunity to forge a new relationship and decide that from this day forward you and your dog will learn how to enjoy your walking time together!
Dog Behavior Problems – Window Jumping and How To Prevent It
When your dog escapes to achieve social interaction in the neighborhood, the owner must establish a very strong leadership role or you’re end up with dog behavior problems.
This tends to fulfill its need for socializing within the confines of its own home, a step necessary for complete correction. This can be accomplished through basic obedience command responses, practiced daily over a 6-week period.
Some problems of this type have been solved by installing frosted glass in the dog’s favorite escape window, eliminating its view of the outside.
However, several dogs have switched to other windows when this has been done, so the owner must be prepared to face this possibility.
The more important adjustment is to eliminate the social gratification formerly sought, such as “bumming around.” If neighbors are feeding or otherwise accommodating the dog, their help must be sought to stop this.
It is always necessary to determine when the dog jumps out of a window. If it occurs shortly after the dog is left alone, the owner must leave the house, sneak back to the premises and apply some strongly distracting stimulus as the dog begins to prepare for the freedom leap.
In every case, a period of initial anxiety behavior, such as whining, pacing or barking, precedes the actual leap.
If the jumping occurs just before the owner arrives home, the owner should arrange to come home earlier than usual to apply the corrections.
Just as in barking cases, the distracting stimuli should not be painful, but should take the dog’s mind off its anxiety.
This may involve a rap on a door some distance from the escape scene, and even stomping on the roof while monitoring the dog behavior problems by listening through an air vent.
If jumping is associated with fear of surroundings, it is necessary to change the area in which the dog is confined (the simplest method) or to switch the dog’s emotional association with the area from fear to contentment.
This may be difficult because the fearful response usually occurs when the pet is alone; conditioning requires the presence of the owner or some other intervening factor.
However, if the dog has been severely punished in the area, especially at homecoming times, it is often practical for the owner to stop the punishment and virtually ignoring the dog behavior problems when arriving home.
Any interaction between the owner and dog at other times should consist of play, training work for command responses and quiet activities, such as just sitting around.
This sort of dog behavior problems correction takes several days to weeks.
Puppy Socialization: Introduce Your Dog To The World!
New puppies soak up information and experiences like a sponge – especially those between the ages of 8 to 12 weeks. This is the ideal time to get your pup out into the open and absorbing positive experiences to help with his socialization.
Say Hello To The Neighbors
Your neighbors and friends are all dying to meet your new precocious pooch. By all means, take your puppy for a walk around the neighborhood. He’ll learn to walk on a loose leash and run into new people and situations. The faster you can introduce your puppy to leash walking the better. That way they see the world on their own four paws, so to speak.
Ask people to meet to gently pet and feed a treat to your pup. Limit interactions to cordial children, good-natured dogs, and responsible adults. It teaches the pup that strangers are good people.
Be careful, though. Until your pup’s immune system has been cranked up by his third set of vaccinations (at 16 to 20 weeks) he’ll be vulnerable to diseases, some potentially deadly.
Another great way to expand your puppy’s circle of friends without making a big scene is to invite a few select dog-savvy adults and children over to greet your puppy. Keep everything low-key and nurturing ? no running, squealing, teasing, tussling or poking. Provide treats liberally.
Field Trips Are Great
From the time you get your puppy until he’s about 16 weeks old, socialization is a high priority. Socialization simply means introducing your puppy to new people, places, experiences and other dogs in a positive way. Well-socialized pups grow up to be happy, well-mannered adults.
Keep in mind that your pup’s sociability and outlook depend on a lot of factors. For instance, recent worming or vaccinations, cutting teeth and a recent, long airplane flight can make your pup tired and grumpy. Exposing your pup to too much at these times can cause him to be overwhelmed and taxed rather than enriched by the experience.
Take your puppy to places where dogs are welcome (don’t forget to bring your cleanup supplies). Try to do five to seven new things each week, like experience stairs, bicycles, people with facial hair or glasses, garbage cans, loud noises, new walking surfaces and work trucks, etc. It’s also a great time to introduce your pup to a grooming routine.
And even when your puppy is older than 16 weeks, it’s still a good idea to continue to actively socialize him until he reaches 12 months of age.