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Basic Dog Training Tips

June 25, 2021 Comments Off

Training your dog should be a fun experience where both you and your pet benefit from working together. Unfortunately, too many owners get discouraged in the training process when they fail to make any noticeable progress. This tends to happen when the owner is unprepared from the beginning. In order to help prevent this mistake, here are some basic dog training tips to get you off to a successful start.

Be Patient

It takes time to establish communication channels with your pet. You have to start at the most basic level, assuming your dog knows nothing about what you are doing. This requires a great deal of patience at first, but it is imperative that you display a calm demeanor. Your dog can sense when you are frustrated or upset, and this could intimidate or scare them. Take things slow and know when to stop for the day. This will help insure that your sessions stay fun and productive.

Use Encouragement

Frustration can bring on negative reactions such as scolding or yelling. If you are not careful, then you might find yourself constantly reprimanding your dog throughout the training sessions. This will only confuse your pet and lead to a disinterest in learning. Constant positive reinforcement is the best strategy to creating a constructive learning environment. Make sure to reward your dog for effort, even if he dog doesn?t get a command exactly right.

Repetition is Key

It is understandable to want to move on to the next lesson when your dog performs a command correctly. You are excited about your pet?s progress and you want to keep things moving in the right direction. But the best strategy is to master one task before starting the next one. This is accomplished through repetition exercises, and it is by far the most important step in successful training. Start every new lesson by reviewing previous lessons. Build your dog?s confidence by letting him perform tasks he is familiar with before progressing with new material.

Maintain Structure

Getting your dog into the proper mindset for learning can help improve his retention rate. This can be accomplished by adding consistency and structure to your training sessions. If possible, work with your dog at the same time everyday and keep you?re the sessions under one hour. Start and end each session with a review of tasks they are already familiar with, and try to work on only one new command each time. Familiarity with your training structure will help your dog feel more comfortable. They will know what to expect and they will understand what is expected of them.

There is much more to dog training than just the lessons you teach. There is a psychological element that must also be addressed if you want to save time and frustration. Use the basic dog training tips above to establish the parameters of your training. From there you can concentrate on teaching the actual tasks and commands.…

Protecting Your Furniture And Carpets With Cats

October 27, 2020 Comments Off

Those of us who are cat lovers know that our love of felines comes with a little frustration at times. One such time occurs when our kitties employ their claws to acts of destruction on your carpet or furniture.

We have all tried to train our cats to stop scratching the backs of our couches; many of us have experienced this is not a simple matter to correct. While some people resort to yelling or shooting water at their cat’s nose, there is a much more effective way to correct this issue.

If you’ve taken basic psychology, you’ll remember there are two types of reinforcement, positive and negative. Employ both reinforcement tactics to training your cat and you’ll be through the woods before you know it.

Negative Reinforcement ï¿½ The idea behind negative reinforcement is to take something away to impact behavior. When it comes to your cat scratching in areas you don’t want destroyed, you want to provide motivation for your cat to stop scratching.

One of the most effective ways of providing this motivation is through a product called Sticky Paws (available or your favorite pet supply retailer). To use this product, place the tape on the areas your cat has been scratching.

Positive Reinforcement ï¿½ Once you use the Sticky Paws, the next step is to provide the place where you want your cat to scratch. This can be as easy providing a scratch post, either large or small. These posts come in two varieties, cardboard and carpet, and either will do the trick.

Beyond just supplying the scratch post, you need to attract your cat to the post. A very easy way to develop this attraction is to spray the post with some Catnip Spray (Whiskercity makes one cats love). This can make for a playful transition from an undesired scratch area to a more appropriate one.

Old habits die hard ï¿½ More so for us, the human, than for our cats sometimes. If you’ve been caught yelling at your kitty, this can be a difficult habit to break. You may have become accustomed to hollering every time you hear your cat scratching. When you put both the Sticky Paws as well as new scratch post in place, you’ll want to become very intentional about checking where you kitty is scratching before open your internal megaphone.

Keep in mind all three of these areas. If you provide either the negative or positive reinforcement, you will be ineffective. To be successful you really need both. Likewise, if you continue to holler at your cat when they start scratching at your preferred scratch post, you’ll prevent them from forming the habit of scratching at the right spot.…

Learn About Crate Training Puppies

October 19, 2020 Comments Off

Crate training puppies has received a bad reputation in many articles and symposiums on dog care, but there are logical reasons for using a crate to train your pup. No one wants to see dogs that have to live in crates, but they are valuable for house-breaking your dog, and also for being a “chill out” place where your dog can relax without human interruption. Especially if you have young children who want to play all the time, your pup may actually appreciate a little “crate time” to rest, and get away from the little hands for awhile.
You will be helping your dog if you teach him what a crate is for. It’s valuable for traveling, for rest after an illness or injury, and for trips to the vet. When I lived in a house with rescue dogs, we had a crate for each dog even though they ran loose when we were home. At bedtime, most of the dogs headed for their own crates, and sacked out, with the doors open. A crate doesn’t have to be a cell or a dungeon; it can be a nice sleeping place.
Crate training puppies is also a valuable training tool if your pups are in that stage of life when they think everything is a chew toy. You can save a lot of wear and tear on your furniture, clothing, etc. if your dog has a crate full of chew toys. Always supervise your puppy if he has a rawhide bone or the like, in case he would have a choking problem.
Using a crate is a good way to help housebreak your pup, as well. The crate should be the right size for your dog – not too big and not too small. The dog will not usually soil an area where he will be sleeping, and a giant crate gives him the option of urinating and sleeping in the same place. He should rest comfortably in his crate, and it should be small enough that he won’t want to urinate or defecate there, because it is his sleeping area.
If your pup exhibits signs of separation anxiety, the crate can be a place of refuge for him when you have to leave him, to go to work, as most of us must do. You don’t even have to close the crate door if you don’t want to – he will be able to rest quietly in his crate, so that he won’t get all spastic and upset when you leave him. Some dogs just can’t handle the separation, and they truly pine for you while you’re away. They need to be able to relax and chill out while you are gone, and a crate is a place where this can happen. This is a very humane reason for crate training puppies.
Many trainers recommend that crate training puppies be done in your bedroom, where you sleep. Personally, I like my dog to sleep on the bed with me, but if you want a dog-free bed, the crate is a good alternative. And if you train him to crate up first, when he’s a pup, you can always invite him into your bed later on, when he’s not so bouncy and boisterous, so you can get some sleep.
Don’t give your pup attention when he cries in his crate. I know it sounds cruel, but he needs to learn that it’s OK for him to be alone in his crate and accept that alone time. Don’t reward his crying with attention, because it will defeat the purpose of training him to stay in the crate. If you use your bedroom for training, he will eventually relax and sleep when you do, so that is an excellent first step in getting your pup used to a crate.…

The Wide World Of Cats Is Easy To Understand With Simple Tips

March 19, 2019 Comments Off

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but cats can make pretty great pets too. Whether your cat is aloof or appreciates a good snuggle, a cat can be a wonderful companion. However, cats aren’t always easy to care for. Here are a few tips on getting the most out of your cat.

If your cat suddenly goes off its feed for no apparent reason, try tempting treats such as jack mackerel, tuna, or cream of chicken soup in small amounts. These are not complete foods and shouldn’t be fed long term, but they are extremely tasty to cats. A finicky cat may start eating again and keep on when given one of these treats.

To help prevent tapeworm infestation in cats, feed a small amount of food grade diatomaceous earth for two weeks out of each month. About a quarter of a teaspoon per cat per day is adequate. Food grade diatomaceous earth kills internal parasites and causes them to be expelled from the system.

Cats love to squeeze into tiny spaces. If your cat gets caught on something wearing a traditional collar they could end up hurting their neck trying to break free. Breakaway collars are made to come off if tugged on vigorously. This could save your cat’s life!

As your cat gets older, changes in behavior may signal pain. If your cat doesn’t like to jump or climb any more, it may be in pain. If your cat stops taking care of grooming or stops using its litter box, pain may be the cause. Be sure to have your older cat checked out by your vet if you notice behavior changes.

Protecting your cat from household chemicals is something that you may already know, but did you know that protecting them from medications is just as important? Common over the counter medicines such as ibuprofen can be toxic to your cat, even in small doses. Keep your medication safely out of the reach of your cat.

Protect your cat from choking. Be sure to dispose of poultry and fish bones safely. Wrap them in a paper or plastic bag and put them in your outdoor garbage can with the lid tightly secured. Alternately, place them in a plastic bag and freeze them until garbage pick up day.

Keep the litter box clean. Cats are naturally very clean animals, and a dirty litter box will have your cat looking for alternative places to relieve himself. Cats also value their privacy, so try to locate the box in an area that does not get a lot of foot traffic.

Give cat box liners a try. These may not work for everyone, but they can be helpful if they work for you. Line the litter box with one of these liners, and then put cat litter in as usual. If it works correctly, you should be able to gather the liner and dispose of the litter. Unfortunately, sometimes cats just scratch the liner to pieces as they are doing their business.

Although you might find its appearance unappealing, don’t toss a scratching post when it’s getting particular worn and frazzled. While it doesn’t appear clean and new, your cat probably thinks otherwise. For a cat, it is comfortable and familiar. If you throw it away too soon, that cat may look to your furniture for some clawing while it slowly breaks in a new scratching post.

When you introduce a new cat into your home, you have to be careful with how your other cat reacts. Try giving the new cat a little space in one room at first, and then introduce him to the rest of the house. Make sure to have different litter boxes at first too. If you ease the new cat in, it will go more smoothly for everyone.

Animal Control

Keep track of your feline friend by having the animal microchipped. This small device is implanted beneath the skin between your cat’s shoulder blades. Microchip implantation may sting for a few seconds, but the implant is otherwise unnoticeable and will not cause your pet any discomfort. This chip makes it easier for animal control to locate your cat if it goes missing.

Living with cats can be frustrating, but it can also be fantastic. Thanks to this article, you should have a lot of ideas on how to better care for your pet. Dog lovers may get more slobbery kisses, but cats are wonderful in their own way. These suggestions will help you appreciate yours.…