In dog training, barking at the doorbell is often left untreated. It happens so often doesn’t it. You call at someone’s house and as soon as you ring the bell or knock on the door all hell breaks loose and a dog hurls itself against the door barking loudly. It’s worse from the dog owner’s view point, every caller is greeted with the same response from their dog. It is not easy to stop this behaviour. Breaking this pattern involves a desensitising process. It has to be done in several easy stages and it does require that your dog obedience training has reached the stage of him obeying the SIT and HEEL commands. The aim of the whole exercise is for your dog to learn to patiently hold a SIT when callers attempt to enter your house.

Stage 1

Start by teaching your dog to SIT at some distance from the door while you walk away from him and towards the door. Walk back to your dog and praise him for remaining in a SIT. Only move on to stage 2 when your dog consistently succeeds with this.

Stage 2

The next step involves desensitising your dog to the door opening. Command your dog to SIT directly in front of the door keeping the lead in your hand so you can provide immediate feedback. Now open the door. If your dog breaks the SIT, correct with NO and re-command SIT. Praise him for success. Repeat the exercise until your dog can ignore the door opening at least three times in a row. Return your dog to a SIT in a remote location, walk to the door, and open it. If your dog gets up, give a verbal command NO. If he SITS, praise him. If he continues to walk towards you, take the lead and silently put him back on his spot, lead correct with NO, and re-command SIT. Repeat this process until your dog is desensitised to the door opening.

Stage 3

Now add a person at the other side of the door. Have your dog SIT. Walk over to the door and open it. Tell your visitor, “Wait please.” Return to your dog’s side and control the lead. Invite your visitor inside the house. Only allow the person to enter if your dog maintains a SIT (obviously the person helping you is prepared for the exercise and knows what to do). If your dog gets up, correct with NO and re-command SIT.

Stage 4

Now add a knock on the door or the doorbell as the final piece of the jigsaw. This part will stimulate your dog the most. HEEL your dog through the house. Have an assistant ring the doorbell or knock on the door. When your dog reacts to the stimulus, divert with NO and redirect with HEEL plus praise. HEEL will be easier than SIT or DOWN because HEEL requires more momentary thinking than either of the stationary commands. When your dog can ignore the doorbell in HEEL, try SIT.

Conclusion

Whether you are performing dog obedience training or actually greeting someone at the door, keep the vocal cue the same. Don’t panic and introduce sentences like “Come on now, you know how to do this,” as it will only confuse your dog and make it more difficult for him to succeed. Use crisp, clear commands exactly as you learned and practiced them. If you repeat this process every time someone comes to the door, your dog’s greeting manners will improve. Slowly decrease the distance to the door. If your dog shows signs of backsliding, move further away. Always practice the desensitisation exercises for door opening and knock/bell as part of your distraction training workout.

There is nothing worse than the incessant barking of a dog. It is even worse if it’s our dog that’s creating the noise. Living as we do in close proximity to each other it is an inconvenience to us and to our neighbours and can lead to big fallouts and accusations that our dog is out of control. However barking dog training is not difficult with the right equipment particularly electric dog training collars.

We do not want our dog to stop barking altogether, that would be like expecting a human being never to talk. Anyway most dog owners agree that a barking dog is a good protection and an outstanding burglar alarm.

What we as dog owners need to do is control the barking dog, training him when it’s appropriate to bark and then stop on our command. Dogs bark for many reasons, most of them are legitimate. A dog barks to communicate a message, show excitement or draw attention. There are warning barks, alarm barks, playful barks, need barks and command barks. Continuous barking is a behavioural problem

It is possible with time and patience to train a dog to bark on command and as a by product to be quiet on command but most of us do not have the time to do this so there are a few things which can provide immediate resolution to the barking dog problem, in particular electric dog training collars.

1. Ultrasonic devices
These emit an ultrasonic sound when the dog barks which humans can’t hear but which distracts the dog. There are several versions of these; collars, stand alone and hand held devices. From my experience the ultrasonic collars are not terribly effective but the others work quite well. You simply place the stand alone device in your home or garden. One advantage of this device is that it can control the barking of your neighbour’s dog. With handheld ultrasonic devices you simply press the button when you want to deliver a correction. These can be useful if you are bothered by barking dogs when out walking, jogging or bike riding.

2. Spray Devices
These generally come in the form of citronella no-bark collars. They spray citronella when your dog barks and most dogs do not like it so it provides negative reinforcement every time. I have found these to be very effective.

3. Electronic devices
In professional dog training circles electronic bark collars are considered to offer a much faster and reliable method for gaining the desired result compared with the two above. Some still believe that there is something cruel or inhumane about electric dog training collars. While this may have been true several years ago they have come a long way since the early days. They work by giving the dog a mild shock. The bark triggers the first warning which is the mildest. If the dog barks again within 30 seconds the shock is intensified slightly. Repetitive barking will take the collar to the 6th and final level. There are lots of safety measures built in now, for instance, if your dog barks fifteen times during a period of 50 seconds the collar shuts off for three minutes and resets.

So there you have it. There is no need to put up with continuous dog barking. Barking dog training with one of the three methods outlined above needs no expertise to use and is usually effective immediately.

Crate training dogs is not cruel! By their very nature dogs like to live in a den like environment. Dog crate training means that you are providing your dog with a way of life which really suits him down to the ground. He feels safe and comfortable in his crate or kennel provided that you, the owner does not abuse it. By this I mean that puppies and dogs should not be shut in for hours on end, crates should never be used as a punishment. Crates and kennels should be considered as a refuge for the dog to escape the bustle of everyday life. Even though dogs seek attention they still need a quiet place to rest.

Crates come in various sizes and are made from various materials. I always recommend a wire crate because of its durability especially with puppies. The most important thing to bear in mind is that a crate for a puppy should be just big enough for the puppy to stand in, sit down, turn around and lay down. Anything larger will allow the puppy to sleep on one side and poop in the other side.

Try to associate the puppy’s kennel with good things. Put the puppy’s toy into the kennel and throw the odd treat in there when he does something good and you are rewarding him. If you ever need to separate your dog or puppy from the rest of the pack (you and your family) then you should designate a small room like a utility room or downstairs toilet. It’s fine for your dog to associate one of these rooms with punishment but never his crate.

When you introduce a puppy to dog crate training for the first time put a hot water bottle under his blanket as a substitute for the warmth of his mother and siblings. Also you can add a few stuffed toys around him to simulate the rest of the litter. For the first few nights keep the crate near your bed and raised up so that he does not feel completely isolated.

There are so many benefits of dog crate training a dog, not least is the peace of mind that you have knowing that your beloved pooch is safe and secure when he is in his kennel.

Potty training dogs, usually puppies but not always is one of the first things you must do to prevent your life with the new member of your family from becoming hell. Dogs are essentially clean animals. They will instinctively soil outside their sleeping and eating areas. There are several myths associated with dog toilet training that need to be dispelled immediately.

“Put plenty of newspaper down on the floor and when the dog goes on the paper praise and reward him with a treat” This is fine if you want to encourage your dog to go on newspaper inside your house for the rest of his life!

“When you discover that your puppy has gone in the wrong place, drag him back to it and rub his nose in it” This very old fashioned advice contains no ancient wisdom at all. In fact it can cause puppies deep and long term emotional stress. Dogs live for the present and they will not understand or learn from the experience because they will not be able to connect your behaviour with what they did wrong possible hours before.

Dog toilet training should be quite a simple process provided you take the trouble to get into a good routine. If you are training a puppy then you will have to build your routine around the puppy’s needs. It’s good that these are reliably predictable. Puppies need to wee immediately after waking up so it is important that you are present to take him into the garden without delay. Puppies also urinate within 15 minutes of eating and defacate within about 30 minutes of eating. So again it is important for you to be around to take youir puppy outside. Young puppies do not have good bladder control and need to wee at least every hour or two. Puppies also tend to urinate spontaneoulsy when they are excited so you should take your puppy outside frequently when he is on the move. You may find it useful to keep a daily toilet record so that you can easily predict when your puppy will want to go.

Always go into the garden with your puppy and lead him to the same spot every time. It is also a good idea to always use the same route because your puppy will more easily learn the routine. Use cue words like “wee” and “poo” as he goes. Using different words means that later on you will be able to prompt each action as a command. Fortunately dogs are creatures of habit and they soon learn the correct routine.

Older dogs need a similar routine except thast they are able to control themselves for much longer. In this respect it makes the job of dog toilet training harder because it is less predictable. Vigilence is the important thing here.

If you catch your dog about to go in the house then you should grab his attention by crying out his name in a loud voice and immediately escort him out into the garden and then praise him when he goes out there. Accidents will happen even when you believe that the training is going well. It is a complete waste of time to scold the offender after the accident has occured.

Cleaning up after an Accident

It is important to know that most cleaning agents are not suitable for cleaning up after your dog has urinated. The urine contains uric acid and this is where the smell comes from. Standard cleaning agents contain ammonia, bleach and disinfectant, none of these will remove the uric acid, in fact they may well add to it. This will attract the dog back to the same spot since uric acid actively stimulates the dog to urinate. The product that I recommend is Urine Off this contains odour eliminators which completely remove the smell as well as the urge for your puppy to go again in the same spot.

Pup training if not done sensitively and with care can permanently scar your puppy for life. Psychologists say that we have two kinds of memory, the ability to recall and the ability to associate. It has been shown that dogs in particular are not so good at recall but they are very good at association. It is therefore very important that your puppy is not exposed to events that he needlessly associates with fear. In the home for example, the vacuum cleaner and even the floor mop can have this effect if they are not introduced to your puppy carefully.

Everyday events

An enormous number of activities occur in the home, things like the phone ringing, the door bell sounding, the washing machine working, shavers, showers, stereos, parties etc. When pup training, introduce him to these new experiences carefully and without frightening him. Try to look at things from his perspective. Just about everything that happens in your home will be a new experience for him. The answer is to do it slowly and calmly. Try to make everything a positive experience for him.

Fear of the vacuum cleaner is one common phobia which is easily avoided. Put your puppy in another room and then switch it on. Let him hear it from a distance, do some cleaning with it and then open the door to the room containing your puppy and carry on cleaning. This will allow him to come as close as he wants to it without being worried and he will not associate the sound of the vacuum cleaner with any fear.

Visitors

You need to take control of visitors as soon as they arrive. Most people will want to make a fuss of your new puppy, pick him up, stroke him etc. Don’t let this happen. It is important that you let your puppy approach your visitors, not the other way around. Again, look at it from your puppy’s point of view. It can be quite traumatic to have a complete stranger grabbing you and could associate all visitors with the same trauma.

Puppies and young dogs are particularly susceptible to associated fear. At this age they can be imprinted with bad associations for the rest of their lives. In any pup training regime it should be uppermost in the mind of the trainer to avoid any trauma of this kind.

Using a clicker for dog training is probably the best method of giving your dog instant praise for a correct behaviour, but it has to be done in a very precise manner. A dog’s memory is almost wholly based upon association rather than recall. A dog’s ability to recall is very limited – If you wait more than 3 seconds to praise your dog for something he has done then it is quite likely that he will have forgotten what you are praising him for. This is why clicker training works so well. You can click much sooner than you can praise him verbally or give him a treat. Clicker training dog obedience is suitable for a puppy or dog of any age from 6 weeks to 16 years. Here are the simple steps to follow:

Preparation

Purchase a clicker and prepare about 50 very tasty treats: cheese, dried liver, sausage. The treats should be in small pieces about 5mm cubes.

Associate a click with a treat

Click the clicker and give your dog a treat. Do not speak or praise him at this stage – you want him to concentrate on the click – treat scenario. Click and treat about ten times and watch your dog’s reaction. Is he looking for the treat after the click? If so go ahead and give it to him. Continue with the same click – treat routine for the rest of the 50 treats that you prepared and make sure that he is responding to the clicker. Now in your dog’s mind you have associated a click with a treat.

Associate a correct response with a click

It does not matter whether your dog knows any commands. The next part of the process is to positively reinforce a correct response. Take the ‘Sit’ command. Tell your dog to sit, you may have to encourage him but as soon as his bottom hits the ground click and then give him a treat. You can also praise him if you wish. Repeat this several times, puppies for no more than 5 minutes at a time, grown dogs for longer. Make sure that at the same moment he sits you click.

How it Works

The success of clicker training dog obedience is all in the timing. In your dog’s mind, the immediate click associates his behaviour with the treat that follows. He can wait for his treat but he needs to understand why he is getting it. The clicker marks a correct response from your dog. The clicker provides instant reinforcement and has the advantage that it can be heard from a distance.

A Word of Warning

It is important that once your dog is clicker trained you do not allow anyone to randomly click repeatedly around him. This may confuse your dog and set back his training.

In this part of my dog training guide I want to talk about chewing and how to deal with problem chewers.

The first thing to say is that dogs and puppies will always chew; it is part of their make up you might say that it is built in to their genes. Chewing helps them relax, it gives them something enjoyable to do and it feels good. Puppies chew for the same reason but in addition because they are teething and like human babies they use their mouths to investigate most things.

Chewing is not a problem in itself; the problem of course lies in what they are chewing. No one appreciates having their costly designer shoes destroyed or their expensive oriental rug shredded.
What your dog chews on depends to a large extent on you! All dogs must learn what is acceptable to chew and this lesson is best learned as a puppy.

Puppies

The first rule is never to give your puppy any of your own personal items to chew on. Always separate your ‘toys’ from his toys to avoid any confusion. If you offer your puppy one of your old shoes to chew on then he will not be able to distinguish between shoes he can play with and shoes that he must leave alone. Your puppy will see all shoes as things to play with and possibly chew.

Adult Dogs

If your adult dog is chewing the wrong things or destroying your home then the root cause is usually boredom, frustration, loneliness and anxiety. By having active toys, dogs find other things to do besides chewing on your furniture. There are excellent active toys available like GoDogGo that allows your dog to play fetch on his own. Also, the infamous Kong and snack activity balls or squares allow your dog to seek out food in an active way. Finally, there are hide-a-toy plush toys where smaller toys are hidden inside one larger toy. Keeping your dog busy by using these toys will often prevent chewing on your furniture. Interestingly, very often most of the chewing occurs just before you get home. To avoid this behaviour you can train your dog to bring a toy with him to the door as you arrive. That way he will spend that time looking for the toy rather than chewing.

You can teach your dog commands like “leave it” or “Drop” and tell him to stop gnawing your things. Use a spray bottle or a shaker device instead of physical punishment, which can often cause dogs to become more destructive in protest.

If your dog is chewing on himself more than your home, immediately visit your veterinarian. It could be due to a parasite or there could be underlying psychological reasons.
Finally, It is important to remember that punishment will not deter chewing, but can increase the behaviour. Redirecting and training will always be more effective. You may need to keep your dog confined with some toys for a while when you are not there to discourage chewing. Also, I recommend that you spray your furniture with chewing deterrents, like Bitter Apple, that you can buy at pet stores.
No matter what advice you choose to take about how to keep your dog from inappropriate chewing, you will find that changing your dogs chewing behaviour will take time and patience so it is better to train your puppy not to chew the wrong things from the outset.

In dog training, aggression is a major issue – 30% of rescue dogs are there because of aggressive behaviour, it is also the main reason why dogs are put down.

There are many causes of aggression, they can be grouped into the eight categories listed below.

1. Medical Problems

Aggression can be due to several reasons and it is unusual for an aggressive dog to have just one type of aggression. Before looking at any of these reasons it would be wise for you to investigate any possible medical problems particularly if your dog has shown a sudden change in his temperament. There are many medical reasons why a dog may be showing aggressive tendencies ranging from pain of any kind to diabetes and epilepsy.

2. Fear of other dogs

This can occur simply because your dog’s mother was timid and fearful. It can also occur if your young puppy is not properly socialised with dogs and other puppies. Between the ages of 7 and 16 weeks they learn to perform and understand the complex rituals of ‘meeting and greeting’ other dogs. If they have not learnt the greeting rituals then approaching an unknown dog they will instantly be viewed with suspicion and a confrontation may ensue.

3. Fear of humans

Again this is caused by a lack of socialisation and handling at an early age. Pups that are not handled gently and often from about 2 weeks old can fail to bond properly with humans. This very early handling causes the puppy very mild stress which enables it to handle dog and people interaction when it is older. Fear aggression is always defensive. It can be directed at just men or just women depending upon who looked after the very young puppy.

4. Frustration

Dogs that are tied up in apartments or left in back yards for long periods where they can see things that they want to interact with but cannot, often suffer from this kind of aggression. It can lead to the dog wanting to escape, agitation, biting and unprovoked attacks. The traditional aggression towards the postman is based upon frustration.

5. Sexual

This is usually limited to male dogs and exhibits itself as mounting both people and other dogs. Castration and behaviour modification can help with this problem.

6. Territorial

By definition territorial aggression should be directed only at other dogs but dogs seem to regard humans as part of the pack consequently this kind of aggression may be directed towards humans as well. It appears to be the result of either dominance or fear.

7. Dominance

As the word implies, the dog wants to dominate other dogs and members of the family. In this case the dog needs to learn its purpose and position in life. The ‘Nothing in Life is Free’ plan can often control this kind of problem.

8. Predatory

This kind of aggression can be directed at many things including, cats, dogs, squirrels, cars, bikes, skate boarders etc. Movement appears to be the trigger. This is not easy to cure, reward based obedience training can help but it requires the trainer to constantly monitor the dog at all times.

Hereditary aggression is almost impossible to cure but learned aggression can be successfully treated by what is called ‘counter-conditioning’. This is the process of re-teaching your dog good associations when interacting with other dogs and people.

So, in conclusion when dog training, aggression has several possible causes and while it is not always straightforward to cure knowing the reason goes 90% towards finding a possible solution.