Pet Expertise Dog Training Blog

Dog Switching Sides Constantly While Walking on the Leash

March 21, 2008 – 4:06 pm
Does your dog constantly switch sides while you are walking him or her? If so it can be frustrating and dangerous. Read on for tips from Cerena on teaching your roaming dog to walk nicely on one site of you. The tips below were written by a wonderful dog trainer friend and colleague, Cerena West Zutis and posted here with her permission. Exercise your dog a bit before the walk if possible. Drop/toss treats for your dog as you walk along. Make sure to drop or toss them where you want your dog to be!  Wear the bait bag on the preferred side and put in some favored treats/toy. Always reward from one side (of course!) If tug a is good reward for your dog, wear the tug and use the tug toy on one side. Teach the dog to never, ever step off the curb without permission and use the curb as a boundary. Place treats ahead of time along ...

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Help for Dogs Who Destroy Toys. Train Your Dog to Play Nicely with His Toys!

March 6, 2008 – 5:59 pm
Got a destructo-pup? Do you find yourself buying expensive dog toys and watching them be chomped to shreds in minutes? Not only is this an costly problem for you, it is also dangerous one for your dog who may ingest pieces of toys. It can also cause him to have less toys to play with which can lead to him turning his chewing need to bigger toys such as your furniture or other "naughty" outlet behaviors. Luckily, there is help for your Goat-Dog <grin>. With a few tips about the best toys for him and a bit of guidance for your dog, you and your dog can enjoy toys for a good long time. The training plan below is best for the happy-go-lucky type of dog who just happens to enjoy destroying his toys. It is not suitable for dogs that are very sensitive and nervous and especially not those who guard their toys. Let's start by ...

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Housetraining Your Dog or Puppy (Housebreaking)

February 4, 2008 – 9:35 pm
Prevention is the most important part of housetraining because each time your dog relieves himself in the house, the habit to do so becomes stronger. Until your dog has learned where to go potty, he should be under constant surveillance or confined in a small enough area that he'll automatically choose to "hold it". As you progress, you can expand this confinement area until it includes the whole house. Follow the instructions below for more details on how to housetrain your puppy or adult dog. Keep him in an area that is small enough that he will automatically "hold it". You can do this using an exercise pen, crate, pet gate, tether, attaching him to yourself with a leash or by holding him in your lap. I suggest beginning with an appropriately sized crate (pg. 7) or 2 to 5 foot tether (pg 8). The crate should be just big enough ...

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Ever Wish Your Dog Would Leave Things and Drop them When Asked?

December 3, 2007 – 5:58 pm
Leave It and Drop it - Lessons that could save your dogs life (and your valuables from being chewed!) It works best to spend about 15 minutes per day in 5 minute sessions working on his lessons (training during TV commercials works great!). Using small, pea-sized, treats to reward good behavior makes learning happen quickly and without overfeeding him. If your dog is not interested in treats, you can substitute playing with him or scratching him where he really enjoys it for a few seconds. Try to tailor your lessons so that they are easy enough for him to earn a reward most of the time. Setting him up for success will avoid frustration for the learner as well as the teacher. The following steps will help you to teach your dog to ignore an object when you ask him to. We begin by making the concept very easy and simple for your ...

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Your Dog is Always Learning and Will Do What Works!

November 13, 2007 – 9:16 pm
The key is to be conscious of and reinforce your dog's behavior in the course of your daily routine! Your dog is paying close attention and learning from every cause and effect in his world. He will learn to do what works to get him what he wants, and it might not always be the behavior you had in mind! Be careful to prevent, ignore or give him a time him out for behavior you don't like and reward behavior you do like. It is essential that all family members practice his lessons with him and respond to his behavior the same way each time in order for him to learn quickly. It is also important to remember to practice the lessons that he has learned occasionally to keep them fresh in his mind. I will explain below some ways to reward and discourage your dog's behavior. Part 1: How to Reward ...

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Preventing Problems in Your Dog or Puppy

November 1, 2007 – 4:10 pm
Preventing misbehavior may not teach your dog everything about how you want him to behave, but it is a great place to start because it keeps you sane and keeps him from learning how fun it might be to do naughty things. The following instructions will help you to prevent your dog from destroying your home, becoming fearful or aggressive, barking or hyper behavior and more! Misbehavior Prevention Tools and Supplies: Crates / Kennels A crate is helpful for working on housetraining as well as a prevention tool for times when you are not home or are otherwise unavailable to supervise your dog. Keeping him in his crate when you are not able to supervise will prevent many problems and help to keep him safe. His crate should be made of plastic or wire and should be just big enough for your dog to lay down and change position comfortably. Fabric crates are ...

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Finding the Dog of Your Dreams

October 9, 2007 – 10:22 pm
I just got off the phone with a lovely gentleman in search of the perfect dog for his family. He is brand new to the world of dogs and was doing the right thing though by calling to ask about dog training for his new puppy-to-be. While we were talking about his new dog he mentioned that he would get the pup in a week to a month. Thinking this was a bit odd, I asked him to explain. He told me that his dog was being located by a "dog trainer" and she would find the right pup for them and have the dog shipped. "Uh oh" I thought, puppy broker...  A puppy broker is someone who "finds" puppies or a sort of puppy middle-man. They usually associate with large scale puppy breeders or puppy mills (who don't always have the best ethics or concern for producing the healthy happy puppies) ...

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Easy Walk Harness Training Guide Free With Purchase!

August 29, 2007 – 8:34 pm
Hi All, I have just finished a long-awaited article on training your dog using the Easy Walk Harness! I decided to write the article since the Easy Walk Harness is our biggest seller and I wanted to help people get the best results with it possible. The article will also help with training your dog to walk on any type of front-attachment harness such as the Halti No-Pull Harness or the SENSE-ible. The truth is that a dog can learn to pull into any collar or harness if we are not careful to teach them not too. I have seen dogs pulling like freight trains into choke collars and even a few dogs walking sort of sideways in order to pull into their Easy Walk Harness or other front-attachment harness. Training your dog is almost always the answer (even with nifty-cool aids like the Easy Walk Harness)! What's great is that the Easy Walk Harness ...

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Free Downloadable Dog Training Guide - Our Gift to You and Dogdom!

August 27, 2007 – 3:40 pm
Hello Again, The big news here at Pet Expertise is that we have made our Dog Training Guide: Basic Manners for Family Dogs FREE for download! The Guide has a retail value of at least $7.50, but we felt that we would rather use the Dog Training Guide as a free gift to help our visitors to train their dog using positive and gentle methods. We figure the easier we make it to get this information out to people the more dogs will be enjoying the results. The Dog Training E-Book contains information on how to train your dog for basic commands like "Stay" and "Come" as well as lifesaving behaviors like "Leave it" and "Drop it". The Ebook also explains training theory like the reasons not to use punishments like collar corrections as well as how to effectively use treats and clickers. The Pet Expertise Dog Training Guide also discusses how to solve common dog behavior problems ...

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MannersMinder Dog Training Machine - Just Can’t Wait!

August 27, 2007 – 3:30 pm
Hi All, I am so happy to announce that we have the MannersMinder Remote Dog Training Machine now available for pre-order for shipping in November! We have long been waiting for this product which is made by Premier Pet Products and is a rebranding of the Treat & Train Machine by Sharper Image. The Treat & Train Machine was (in my humble opinion!) not marketed well by Sharper Image and then was pulled after only a couple of years in the stores. Dog trainers had just started to discover the power of this dog training tool when it was gone! Because the Treat & Train was such a helpful dog training tool, I drove around to all my local Sharper Image stores and filled my car with the remaining units so I could offer them for rent until a new product was available (I have since run out of my rental units). I'm so thrilled ...

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