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Dog Training For Dummies
Dog Training For Dummies
Dog Training For Dummies
Ebook625 pages7 hours

Dog Training For Dummies

By Jack Volhard and Wendy Volhard

4/5

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About this ebook

Make training fun and effective

This friendly guide shows you how to select the right training method for your dog, based on his unique personality, to reach your desired goals. Whether you want to teach Buddy to sit or master retrieving, you'll get expert training tips and techniques for you and your dog — to ensure a mutually respectful relationship with your four-legged friend.

  • Concentrate on canines — discover why your dog acts the way she does, understand her nutritional needs, and ready yourself for the task of training your dog

  • Prep for your pup — prepare your home for your puppy's arrival, discover the importance of socialization, and get started on housetraining

  • Put your best paw forward — teach basic commands like Sit, Stay, and Down, and get the scoop on how to deal with doggie don'ts like chewing, digging, and excessive barking

  • Take training to the next level — get involved in organized dog activities and competitions, where you'll both show off impressive tricks like retrieving, figure 8s, and much more

Open the book and find:

  • Step-by-step instructions for teaching your dog basic commands

  • Helpful advice on crate training

  • Safe ways to address aggression and separation anxiety

  • Tips for teaching Buddy to behave himself around people and other dogs

  • Techniques to keep your senior dog feeling young

  • Health issues that can interfere with training

  • Experts to turn to for training help

Learn to:

  • Use positive reinforcement as an effective teaching tool

  • Select the gear you need for training success

  • Teach the basics including Sit, Stay, and Down

  • Eliminate unwanted behavior

LanguageEnglish
PublisherWiley
Release dateJun 22, 2010
ISBN9780470882511
Dog Training For Dummies
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Reviews for Dog Training For Dummies

4/5

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  • 1/5
    No, it's not a book for dummies, it's a book for ignorant dog-owner. To be honest, I stopped reading the book at the part with electric fences, shock collars, vibration collars, bark collars, citronella collars, scat mats, pet convincer.
    Mr. and Mrs. Volhard should use these collars on their own necks. May be than they will find out, to train a dog is easy, when you are clear and communicate in a way, a dog understands.
    Even taff dogs, which had a bad past, could be trained more dog-friendly. A trainer, who uses these instrument of torture is definitiv a lousy trainer.
    The title of the book should be:
    "How to ignore dogs needs and desires and how to torture them"
    Just one exemple for these authors: When a dog shall not sit on the couch, let it never be there. If you ar not at home, place a stool there, the dog will very fast understand, it is more comfortable, to lay on the dogbasket. Especially when there is sometimes some treat to find.
    Take your dog for interesting walks everyday, make his life exciting, find out his needs and learn to understand the way your dog communicates and there will be no need, to torture your dog, who depends to you and can not go away.
    This book is absolutely refusable.

    Nein, es ist kein Buch für Dummies, es ist ein Buch für ignorante Hunde-Besitzer. Um ehrlich zu sein, an der Stelle mit elektrischen Zäunen, Schock-Halsbändern, Vibrationshalsbändern, Bell-Halsbändern, Citronella-Halsbändern, elektrischer Vertreibe-Matte, „Haustier-Überzeuger“ habe ich aufgehört zu lesen. Das ist kein Buch, das es wert ist, zu lesen.
    Hr. und Fr. Volhard sollten selber dieses „Spielzeug“ um ihren Hals oder auf ihrem vermeintlichen Sitzplatz an sich verwenden. Vielleicht erkennen sie dann, daß es einfach ist einen Hund zu trainieren, wenn man klar und ehrlich in einer Weise mit dem Hund kommuniziert, die er versteht.
    Selbst Hunde mit einer schwierigen Vergangenheit können meist wesentlich Hundefreundlicher trainiert werden. Wer so etwas nutzt disqualifiziert sich als guter Hundetrainer.
    Der Titel des Buches sollte eher sein:
    „Wie man die Bedürfnisse und Wünsche eines Hundes ignoriert und wie man sie quälen kann“
    Ein Beispiel der Autoren, nur ohne Schocktherapie: Wenn ein Hund z. B. nicht auf die Couch soll, darf er es niemals. Wenn der Mensch nicht anwesend ist, dann legt man einen Stuhl auf die Couch, so wird der Hund schnell lernen, daß es viel bequemer ist, in seinem bequemen Körbchen zu liegen, besonders, wenn er hin und wieder dort auch ein Leckerlie findet.
    Nehmen Sie Ihren Hund zu interessanten Spaziergängen mit, machen Sie sein Leben spannend, finden Sie heraus, welche Bedürfnisse er hat und lernen Sie die Kommunikation Ihres Hundes zu verstehen und es wird keinen Grund geben, Ihren Hund zu quälen, der von Ihnen absolut abhängig ist und Ihnen hilflos ausgeliefert ist.
    Das Buch ist absolut nicht zu empfehlen.

    1 person found this helpful

Book preview

Dog Training For Dummies - Jack Volhard

Part I

Setting the Stage for Successful Training

600290-pp0101.eps

In this part . . .

Of course you want your dog to succeed at training. After all, a well-trained dog is a happy dog, and happy dogs have happy owners. However, you can’t expect a dog to do what you want him to do (or don’t want to do) unless you show him what your expectations are. And your dog won’t learn properly or be willing to heed your commands unless you use effective training methods.

In this part, we describe how to prepare yourself for training, including how to choose the right approach, how to adapt your methods to your particular dog, and how to become your dog’s teacher. Also, because feeding your dog foods that keep him physically healthy contributes to his overall well-being and behavior, we provide a chapter that explains everything you need to know. We round out the part with a chapter on training equipment.

Chapter 1

Dog Training: The Key to Your Dog’s Safety and Your Sanity

In This Chapter

Taking a look at what training truly is

Recognizing a well-trained dog

Reviewing the training models

Understanding the five basic commands

Becoming familiar with factors that influence success

Exploring additional training

Getting started

As a gift to yourself and your dog, as well as your family and your friends and neighbors, train your dog. Doing so means sanity for you, safety for your dog, and compliments from people you meet. Make him an ambassador of goodwill for all dogs. Your dog has a life expectancy of 8 to 18 years, depending on his breed and how well you take care of him. So now is the time to ensure that these years are mutually rewarding for you and your dog.

Some dogs don’t need much training, if any. They seem to just naturally fall into step with their owners’ daily routines. Most, however, need at least some basic training, especially with coming when called. After all, a trained dog is a free dog. Rather than being condemned to a life on leash, he can be taken for romps in the woods and accompany his owner to many public places.

You should start training your dog the day after you bring him home, and puppies are included in this rule. Just because puppies are cute and cuddly doesn’t mean they can’t learn. They not only can learn, but they also learn much more quickly than an older dog. That’s because they haven’t acquired any bad habits.

This chapter gets you started on how to teach your dog to be the well-trained pet you want him to be. Believe us when we say it’s well worth the investment.

What Exactly Does Training Mean?

Before you get started with training your dog, you first need to understand what training really is. The term training is used to describe two separate and distinct concepts:

To teach Buddy to do something that you want him to do, but that he wouldn’t do on his own: For example, Buddy knows how to sit and sits on his own, but you want him to sit on command, something he doesn’t do on his own without training.

This concept is called action training. This type of training relies mainly on using pleasant experiences, such as inducing your dog to sit with a treat. Teaching Buddy the commands Sit, Down, Stand, and Come are examples of action training.

To teach Buddy to stop doing something he would do on his own, but that you don’t want him to do: For example, Buddy chases bicyclists, something he does on his own that you want him to stop doing.

This concept is called abstention training. This type of training typically relies on unpleasant experiences, although it doesn’t have to. In other words, the dog learns to avoid the unpleasant experience by not chasing the bicyclist or doing what you don’t want him to do. For example, to teach Buddy not to pull on the leash, you can use a check. A check is a crisp snap on the leash with an immediate release of tension. In order to be effective, the leash must be loose before the check is made. Buddy can avoid the check by not pulling.

remember.eps Dogs already know that avoiding unpleasant experiences is advantageous, because that’s how they deal with each other. The training begins with the mother dog. When the puppies reach about 6 weeks old, she begins the weaning process. At that point in time, the puppies have sharp little teeth, which aren’t very pleasant for the mother when she feeds them. She begins to growl at the puppies to communicate to them not to bite so hard. She snarls and snaps at those who ignore her growls until they stop. An offending puppy may scream to high heaven and roll over on its back, having learned its lesso