Stop Your Puppy Jumping Up

Learning how to stop a puppy from jumping up is something you need to get onto straight away.

Puppies jumping up are a very natural thing that they do when they are little – to get attention – and in the wild to get fed by licking the Mother’s face to encourage food to be regurgitated. Showing your puppy that it does not get attention when it jumps is something that you should encourage from a very early age. Often it can seem like fun when a puppy is very small but when your dog grows to 35kg and can jump 5 foot high it is not so funny.

If you do not stop the jumping when your puppy is little then when your puppy turns into a larger dog it soon turns into a more dominant display of demanding your attention!

If your puppy is jumping up, simply turn and walk away. Ignore your puppy, no eye contact, no speaking and no touching.
Continue to ignore and then after your puppy has calmed down, wait for 5 minutes and then call your puppy to you.
If your puppy does not stop then isolate your puppy by either leaving the room or by putting the puppy in another room.
Puppy jumping up on visitors:

If your puppy is jumping on your visitors then ask them to do the same as described above. It may also help if you hold the puppy by its collar or on a lead until they relax – then release. If your puppy decides to mouth you then you should immediately isolate them in another room or a crate.
Puppy jumping up at you when you are getting ready for the walk:

Put the leash down and wait for 10 minutes or until your puppy is calm, then try again. This is important and although you are keen to go for a walk you should not rush it!
Important concepts:

It is really important not to speak – to stay calm and not say a word when your puppy jumps up. Remember your puppy is an attention-seeking machine!
Your puppy's jumping up and space invading is not its way of saying I love you!!
Space is very important to a dog and if she can invade yours whenever she wants then she will lose respect for you.
How would you feel if a human constantly invaded your space! It is more similar than you think!!
Start as you mean to go on. When your puppy is calm then you can call her and pick her up for a cuddle
When you are ignoring your puppy keep your arms folded and walk past the puppy confidently and assertively.
The two most common mistakes:

Inconsistency - sometimes puppy jumping up is given attention!
People make eye contact...This invites your puppy over, so do not make eye contact, focus on something else.
Another trick that will help is to train your puppy to sit for everything! If you can get your puppy to practise lots of "sits" then her default behaviour will simply be to sit when you call her, and not jump!

For more information on puppy training then check The Online Dog Trainer it is a great source of fascinating information that covers off everything you need to know about raising a happy puppy using videos. CLICK HERE

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Older Dog Toileting Inside

So your older dog is toileting inside and you don’t understand why? Okay. Let me explain. First of all I should confirm that what we are talking about here is a dog that has already been toilet trained and has achieved this for a considerable period of time say more than 6 months. We also need to be sure that the dog is not so old that it is incontinent or sick. If none of the above are the case and you feel that it is behavioral then I can assure you it most likely is and the problem is simply this.

Your dog is 99.98% the DNA of a wolf. For a minute think of your dog as a wolf, in cute doggy clothing. The way your dog still works and thinks is still like a wolf! Now the chance of you actually being the pack leader is very slim. Believe me….if you want to check out to see if you are the pack leader then there is an amazing video web site where you can see how you fair!

Anyway back to the toileting in the house, in the wild if a wolf puppy was lost and needed to find their way home how would they go about it? There are no GPS systems, no street signs or maps to follow…..the puppies would follow their nose. They would pick up the scent of the den and track it back to safety and the adult dog pack would make sure there was a good strong fresh scent to follow!

Now, for a second let me amuse you. You are not the pack leader, your dog is, and when you leave your dog it is doing exactly what it would do in nature to help you find your way home… and guess what?… you return home. Only thing is when you return you are all stressed and angry (because you were lost maybe?) – Nothing to do with the new carpet being ruined.

In order to help a dog you must first think like a dog. One of the most fascinating and interesting video sites is The Online Dog Trainer where every aspect of dog behavior is put into place and made sense of by professional dog trainer and behaviorist, Doggy Dan. CLICK HERE

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My Dog Doesn’t Come When I Call

One of the most common complaints is “my dog doesn’t come when I call”.

Training the recall is one of the funniest of all dog-training exercises because we do so much completely wrong! Let me explain.

This is what we want to achieve: When we call our dog “here Bella” we want Bella to come sprinting as fast as she can to us.

Now, in order to achieve this we must make “here Bella” the best command in the world. With the best result and rewards at the end!

So here are some tips!

Never call your dog if you are thinking of telling her off! You can undo months and months of hard work training your dog to come by telling her off just once. Suddenly coming when you call could be a really bed move!
9 times out of 10 make sure that your dog has a good experience when she comes if you call you. On the 10th recall if you need to put your dog on a leash then do so.
When you call your dog to you think of coming as more of a “check in with me” than a “I am calling you to stop what you are doing”.
Use a long line to keep control of your dog if you are unsure. A long line is a piece of line or rope that can be as long as you like that lies on the ground but you keep within reach!
If your dog hates returning to the car then reward your dog back at the car with water and a small feed and things will soon turn around!
The basic formula to any good recall training is:

CALL your dog to you, then
REWARD your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
RELEASE your dog.
In order to make your dog enjoy the experience you should learn the power of using affection and attention by withholding it and only giving it as a reward. This is one of the most powerful tools available to us and yet we get it all so wrong by giving the dog attention whenever they want and wondering why they don’t come when we call them!

All of the above are demonstrated live on video as well as how to establish yourself as the pack leader on The Online Dog Trainer. CLICK HERE

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How To Stop Your Puppy Toileting Inside

There are a few secrets to toilet training although much of the emphasis will always rest with you! Here are the facts about puppy toilet training:

Just as when a baby needs to go toilet they go, so it is with puppies - when a puppy needs to go they will go! So to start with you have to get them outside before they toilet inside. That is your job! If you fail, then blame yourself.

The best way to show your puppy where you want them to toilet is to show them the correct place. The best way to do this is to take them out when they need to go and then praise them when they go. You will be amazed how quickly they will learn if you give them an amazing treat for going in the right place. Think of it like this if the treat is a little piece of cheese, your puppy will after only a few toilets in the correct place start looking for the cheese treat saying “Hey where’s the cheese I just toileted on the grass!”

At a very young age 8 weeks or so a puppies bladder is very small and they can only hold on for sometimes 30 minutes or so before they may need to go again. So you must be vigilant.

After a meal, puppies will often need to go within 60 seconds so always take them straight outside. You should also take them outside as soon as they wake up, as their bowls will start to move and also last thing at night.

Associate a word that everyone in the house sticks to such as “go toilets” this way your puppy will start to hear the word and know what it means.

If you puppy does not go then be aware that they may still need to relieve themselves soon and restrict their movement to a smaller area that is easy to clean until they are taken outside and definitely toilet.

You should never rub a puppy’s nose in it to teach it a lesson. A puppy’s nose is 1000 times more sensitive than a humans and this will never teach them not to do it again. They will simply not know what they did wrong and do it out of sight the next time such as behind the couch!

There are lots more tips and tricks that you will assist you but these are the real basics. Take a look at The Online Dog Trainer for more fantastic advice about how to stop any puppy issue by watching videos. CLICK HERE

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How To Stop Your Dog From Pulling

Understanding how to stop your dog from pulling is something that every dog owner needs to overcome in order to be able to walk there dog in an enjoyable manor. Many dog behavioral problems also stem from the fact that the dog is dragging you along the street. To put it simply your dog thinks it is in charge of the walk or in dog terms it sees itself as the pack leader!

There are so many gadgets, leads and collars out there but none of them can solve the problem if your dog thinks it is in charge, all these devices will do is attempt to divert your dogs energy elsewhere or cause pain in an attempt to stop your from pulling.  If you find yourself having to correct your dog every 30 seconds then there is something fundamentally wrong. The funny thing is this, your dog knows how to walk nicely on the lead it is far more than simply training it, you have to at first convince it you are the pack leader.

Think of it like this. Your dog understands that on the walk, somebody has to be the leader, and your dog is simply taking the lead! It is more of a psychological battle than a physical one, at least it should be. This first stage of the walk is actually ensuring that you are the pack leader inside the house before you look to venture out as no dog will let you simply take control over the walk, (the most dangerous place compared to the den) if you are not in control inside.

Here are some key tips to try before you venture out:

After bringing out your dogs lead wait until your dog calms down even if this takes a while and only attach it when your dog is calm. Never rush this stage.
You need to first learn how to stop your dog from pulling inside your house or property before going outside – there are some fantastic videos that show all of this.
Walk first around the house going around the tables and furniture in your house with your dog following you.
If your dog pulls out in front of you then simply change direction, leaving your dog behind you.
If your dog drags backwards then gently hold the lead firm for 10 seconds then call your dog to follow. They have no other options and so will follow you if you are patient.
Control the doorways – you should always walk through the doorways first when your dog is on the lead
Practice walking in and out of the front doorway with you going first – keep doing this until your dog relaxes and gives up waiting for you to make the next move
Check your posture – make sure that you are relaxed and calm and that your shoulder is down and arm is straight at the elbow
Of course there is a big difference between actually watching how to stop your dog from pulling and reading about it! Whilst I can give you all the advice in written form there is nothing quite like actually being shown it on a video.

One such site is run by professional dog trainer Doggy Dan who uses a gentle but very practical approach to dog training. In the site you will learn exactly what steps to take to establish yourself as the pack leader. The site The Online Dog Trainer is great for owners who want to really understand and treat the cause of their dog’s problems and not just use a band-aid solution. CLICK HERE

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