Article by Davey Martin

Would you like to have an expert trainer teach your new puppy? If you read Daniel Stevens’ book, The Secrets to Dog Training, you will have an expert. He teaches you, the dog owner, to be an expert trainer. He says the first step in training your dog is to train yourself.

Most problems owners have with their dogs when they are training them comes from the owners’ behaviors. Stevens believes that how you train your dog and what you say and do can cause their behavior problems or make them worse.

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Article by Thomas Rimmer

Clicker training is one of the most effective ways of training your dog, and makes use of a small plastic box which contains a metal strip that makes a “click” sound when pressed. This is called the clicker, and it’s an essential tool for use with clicker training. How does clicker training work though?

By using clicker training, we can clearly communicate with our dogs by employing a little consistency and co-operation. We can use it to correct any existing unwanted behaviours, but we can also use it to help shape and reinforce new behaviour too. Dogs learn by the immediate effects of their actions, and by using positive reinforcement; clicker training takes full advantage of that.

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I have an Afghan Hound, 20 months, extremely smart, but strong willed. I’ve been told that the clicker might work. Can a novice use this method?

Housebreaking a dog is one of the first things to do when you bring him or her home unless you want to spend all your time following her around with a plastic bag. Your dog will not know she shouldn’t go to the toilet in the house until you train her otherwise so expect to find plenty of presents around the house until you have trained her.

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With clicker training it is said to be hit or miss — also the dog doesn’t really LEARN the behavior… just does it for performance and the treat…. this true?

Dog clicker training method gets full marks from me! I’ve used this form of training on a number of problematic dogs, and the end results have been extremely outstanding.

Sadly, there are still people out there who think that clicker training is ineffective and worse yet; some even believe that this impressive training process should only be employed on circus dogs!

That’s absolutely nuts!

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clicker training, Koehler Method, Monks of New Skete, Cesar Millan etc.

do you think using a mix of methods works better than just one?

Teaching a new puppy leash training is really a skill for both owner as well as pup. Even though an owner can understand the principles involved, a puppy can not. It is important that the master not misconstrue any resistance as bad. Also they should not discipline their pup or do anything that could make the puppy respond to the leash as a bad thing.

Puppies usually are apt to fight any training. In order to start this training, a puppy needs to first be introduced to and become comfortable with a collar. A buckle type collar is best and should be securely yet comfortably fastened. The puppy will try to get out of it at first, and here it is important that you encourage him or her. Do not punish or scold him. Within a few days your puppy will be completely at home with the collar and you can start lead training
techniques.

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It is important to potty train your dog for not giving way to their nature’s call anywhere and anytime. Otherwise it will cause you a lot of embarrassment and trouble. Are there any effective ways on how to potty train your dog?

You may think that it is difficult to train puppies and older dogs to take your command to go to the bathroom. Most dogs can pay attention to repeated words, and they are able to associate the words to what you want them to do. For example, if you continue to say “go potty” when your dog is out there relieving itself, it will remember your word.

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