Small dog guide

Why Is Small Dog Training Important

Fix Dog Behavior Problems!
Secrets to Dog Training – stop your dog’s behavior problems for good!

Why is dog training important?

Small dogs that are not provided with a proper training are often said to suffer from small dog syndrome. Small dog syndrome is not a disease but this term is given to those dogs that shows certain set of behaviors like being yappy, tend to snap and nip, possessiveness, nervous etc. In contrast to popular belief, these behaviors are not inbred; they develop as a result of improper training or poor dog management of humans that own the animal.

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Dog training tricks for hard-to-train dogs

Just like humans, all dogs are different in their attitudes- some are born leaders while others are born followers. Consequently, all dogs respond to training in different manner- some easily do their tasks and exercises without giving their owner hard time while others will test their owner’s patients to its limits.

Qualities that often get in the way of training sessions are independence, dominance, intelligence and determination.

• Independence: Independence is the most common trait found in hard-to-train dogs. If your dog is independent, it will exhibit a marked indifference for other animals and pets. They may not like petting and will resent grooming. They prefer being alone. Independent dogs are hard to train but it is not impossible to train them. You just have to know what works for your dog and what doesn’t to get the best out of the training. It will be a big mistake to apply force in correcting the habit of your independent dog. Physical actions like hitting or yanking will only result in making the training session more difficult. So the best way to train your dog is to use “cookie power” that is try to find out what food excite your dog and take advantage of that.

• Dominance: A dominant dog shows that it can’t be bossed around and it will show its discontent in being ordered. They are natural leaders. A dominant dog when not allowed to do what it wants, it growls or snaps. Dominant dogs are trainable despite their irritable and fearsome nature. All you need to do is to establish authority through decent actions. Once this issue is established clearly, your dog session will get smoothened.

• Intelligence: Most of the hard to train dogs are born hunters naturally. They have to rely on their brain power to survive. These dogs can easily know our moods and take advantage of it. They can manipulate things and even their owners to have what they want. Training these dogs is difficult but not impossible. These dogs have the ability to understand words quickly so you should use commands such as “no”, “sit”, “good boy”, “bad boy” etc. These dogs easily get bored so you need to include lots of variations in your training sessions.

• Determination: Determined dogs are very difficult to train if they have set their mind and heart on something. These dogs will better understand if there are more repetitions and few variations.

Here are few tips that apply to all types of small dogs in general:

• Be patient but firm: Small dogs tend to have mischievous personality and love to clown around so it is very important to firm while being patient.
• Your dog should be calm and relaxed: Small dogs sometimes become over aggressive to compensate for their smaller size. Before starting the training session make sure your dog is relaxed.

Reasons For The Small Dogs Bad Behavior

Fix Dog Behavior Problems!
Secrets to Dog Training – stop your dog’s behavior problems for good!

Everybody loves to keep a pet at their home and cute small dogs are everybody’s favorite pets. The cute small pet dogs often amaze and mesmerize the owner with their naughty activities. Often these jolly activities of the small dogs seem lovable but sometimes they seem to be notoriously bad.

If you are also suffering with the problem of small dogs’ bad behavior, then you should try to solve out the problem by teaching them how to behave. The first step towards teaching good manners is to try to explore and learn the reasons that cause bad behavior in the dogs.

4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer – Bestselling Clickertraining Book For Dog Owners Written By Norwegian Top Trainers Morten Egtvedt And Cecilie Koeste.

What Causes Bad Dog Behavior?

By knowing the situations and actions or things that instigate bad behavior in your dog, and by learning how badly your small dog acts in the presence of those things, or in those situations or actions going around, you can easily teach the dog how to avoid reacting in the notorious way and how to act properly in a well-behaved manner.

Often a small dog bad behavior syndrome is observed whenever a new guest appears and knocks on the front door. You can simply plan a regular practice session for your dog that will tend him to forget the bad behavior which is instigated by the alarming presence of the guest through knocking on the door and to acquire an easier and well behaved manner to react in such situation.

The small dog will act erratically as it would be disturbed by the knocking of the door and ringing of the bell, but as you will keep commanding him with the simple sit, stand, stay calm commands, the small dog will learn to behave calmly in such instigating situations, and only then, you can further the behavioral session for the dog by including a real stranger as a guest in your home. Call some of your friend to your home who is still not familiar with your small dog. The dog will get irritated with the stranger knocking on the door, calm the small dog down with the similar set of commands, and then let your friend come-in, the dog may show some erratic behavior. Follow the same steps and give proper commands to your dog about how to behave when a stranger comes in. With proper care and better practice of commands, the dog will learn how to behave. Similarly, you can teach the dog how to remain well mannered while you take your dog out for a stroll or you take your pet with you in a shopping mall.

The practice session may take the following steps

• Practice the sit and stay commands with the small dog in front of the closed door.
• You may take help of a family member in this practice session to act as a guest.
• Let the member who is taking part in this behavioral session for the dog to wait outside the door for a while.
• After some time, while you are practicing simple sit and stay an stand command with your cute lovable small dog, ask the other member to knock the door or ring the bell which, you have noticed earlier to cause bad behavior in the dog.

More Small dog house training tips to keep in mind

Fix Dog Behavior Problems!
Secrets to Dog Training – stop your dog’s behavior problems for good!

One of the challenges faced by small dog owners is how to house train their pooches? It is imperative for the owners to have some sound knowledge and positive attitude when it comes to train your small dog at home. While the dog when brought to the home starts to know the new environment, it is good to give this new family companion a small area of its own. Small dogs are pack animals and enjoy being in a den. It is therefore advisable that the small dogs are provided with small space like the hallway or near the kitchen in order to make them feel safe.

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An important step to house train the dog is to establish a space in the outdoors where the dog should relieve itself i.e. the toilet area. It is worth remembering that dogs develop this habit easily and so it is better to ensure that you make the perfect place for their toileting.

Then the next puppy house training activity will be to potty train the pet. This is important because the small dog needs to know where it has to eliminate the waste. It is seen that dog owners would not like their pets to soil the carpets or mattresses. So it is imperative that the dog is taught the correct place and way to relieve itself.

Also, when house training the small dog; you need to take the age of the pet into consideration. Most breeders do not send the pups to new homes till they reach the age of 5 months and are set to be house trained by the new owner.

Crate training is a popular way through which dog owners can train their puppies at home. It is a kind of training where the owner places the dog in a crate for defecating or urinating purposes. This way is for the owners who leave their puppy at home while out for work. But house training when you are at home should not include crate training as it is a destructive and noisy method.

It is also a good house training tip to set up a proper feeding routine for your small dog. It will help in proper bowel movements of your pooch. If possible, it is good to follow the feeding schedule provided by the breeder in order to keep your dog healthy and away from diseases like obesity. This way, you can notice that your pet will have regular bowel movements.

There might be some occasions when your small dog will need to stay alone when there is no one in the house. So you can start to train your dog for this by keeping it confined in an isolated place but not lock it up. Little dogs sleep a lot and so start confining the puppy for small periods at first and then slowly extend the time.

You can also prevent your dog from getting bored when you are away by providing it some toys, bones and chews to play with.

Obedience Training for your Small Dog: Make Your Pet Socially Acceptable

4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer – Bestselling Clickertraining Book For Dog Owners Written By Norwegian Top Trainers Morten Egtvedt And Cecilie Koeste.

One of the best things you can do for your small dog is to give it obedience training. While obedience training for your small dog might not solve all problems with your small dog’s behavior, yet it could be the foundation for solving most of them. Good obedience training for your dog can well open up a precious line of communication between you and your dog. This is very important as through this you can instruct your pet to do as you want. Teach your little pet anything right from “Sit’, Stay’ or ‘Down’ to ‘Out.’

Fix Dog Behavior Problems!
Secrets to Dog Training – stop your dog’s behavior problems for good!

Benefits of obedience training for your small dog:

Without regular obedience training, dogs will behave like any other animals and destroy your furniture, belongings and other precious things around the house, dig holes in the garden, bark excessively or become quarrelsome. With the right obedience training for your small dog, you can teach your pet to redirect his natural behavior in socially acceptable ways.

He can also learn to accept you as his master. By obeying your commands of ‘Sit’ or ‘Stay,’ he accepts his secondary position vis-à-vis you. One way of teaching him to be submissive to you is to shake hands with you, roll over or give you a kiss—things he can do easily if trained early in life. Besides, small dogs love doing these things as they are pleasant acknowledgements of the fact that you are the top boss.

Advantages of obedience training for your small dog: Usually, dogs’ minds are so complex that they cannot fathom where they fit in to the family structure and how they should behave. With training, that confusion is entirely eliminated. Besides, they need to be mentally challenged in order to remain healthy. If done well, all training can prove to be fun.

Once you give your pet obedience training, you can take him out confidently or let him roam about publicly. He will be safer with training because he now understands your commands. With training, you instill confidence in him and he in turn respects you.

Once he is socially trained to be obedient, he can prove to be good with kids and guests.

Disadvantages of not training your dog: With training, you establish yourself as the dog’s master, but if left untrained, he can rise to his instinctual behavior and establish himself as the master.

If untrained, he can feel unimportant and ignored, and will dominate you and your family as he establishes his alpha leader status.

Obedience training commands: Here are some basic commands for training your pet:

Sit: Your dog must get into the sitting position.

Stay: Your dog must continue to sit till the time you decide to release him from that position.

Down: Your dog is down on his elbows while his rear legs touch the floor.

Come: Calling out to your dog by name (e.g. “Brownie”) is the same as saying “Come.”

Heel: Let his head or shoulder remain parallel to your left leg.

With such training, you could soon have an obedient and pleasant pet around the house.

Potty training small dogs – Tips to make it little easy to housebreak your small dog

4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer – Bestselling Clickertraining Book For Dog Owners Written By Norwegian Top Trainers Morten Egtvedt And Cecilie Koeste.

There is nothing better than sharing your life with a small cute little puppy that loves you unconditionally and is a faithful companion. If you have brought a new canine companion to your home, you have also brought a lot of responsibilities. You should provide it the best care, food and other necessities. You should also give it the best house training.

Fix Dog Behavior Problems!
Secrets to Dog Training – stop your dog’s behavior problems for good!

However the biggest problem with a puppy is its house training that is teaching your puppy to go to the toilet and not to spoil your expensive rug. House training a puppy includes a number of things such as potty training, crate training and much more. Other elements of dog training can be postponed but dog toilet training shouldn’t, it should be started immediately without delay.

Puppies as compared to adult dog are bit easier to potty train as adult dog out of its habit has become used to. Whereas, a puppy is learning habits and thus can be molded to your convenience. You can start with taking your small puppy to the same place every day and you must stay there until it goes to restroom. Gradually, begin by taking your dog to the toilet usually at the same time of the day, especially after feeding.

You can use words such as “bad boy” or “no” when your small dog toilet at places he should not. You should appreciate or reward your puppy by giving it its favorite food or toy when it goes to right place for potty. Your puppy will notice this reward system and slowly it will learn to go potty in the toilet. You are required to keep a lot of patience during training.

You should also use disposable sheets, spread around the places where your puppy sleeps or plays, so that you can easily clean the place during training. You should leave the toilet door open once your small pet starts realizing that the proper place to go is toilet. Remember to keep the door open when your puppy has eaten or moves in a circle or acts restlessly. Try to understand these gestures to know what your puppy might be asking for.

Here are few tips to make it little easy to housebreak your puppy:

• Feeding your puppy should take place at same time daily. Routine is very important. You should stick to the same routine of getting up and going to bed at the same time. Do not feed four hours before it going to bed and withdraw the bowl of water two hours before.
• Take your puppy for a walk in the morning, 15-20 minutes after every drink or meal and before going to sleep. Remember you should not play with them until they have excreted.
• Until your dog is trained try to restrict it to the rooms which have an easy to clean floor.
• Dogs dislike doing toilet in the area where they normally eat and play. So if your dog has accidently done it on a wrong place, clean the place thoroughly and then feed or play with it over there.

These little things are sure to help you and your pet as you will both will be able to live a happy and safe.