Basic Commands for Puppy Training

You do not have to train your puppy to do tricks for amusement, but you should teach him how to sit and how to stay. These basic commands can make him a much more desirable pet as he gets older and grows into a dog. You do not want your dog to be jumping on top of people who come to your house. You need to teach your puppy how to sit.

Your puppy should also know how to stay. This is important. Imagine your dog following you across a street. You can potentially save his life if you can teach him to understand how to stay put.

You do not have to use force when training a puppy. You should not rub their nose in anything or hit them. Puppies react more to a stern voice. Severe punishment for a dog is being banished from the pack. If the puppy misbehaves, you can put him away from the family for a few minutes and he will get the hint. There is no reason to hit the puppy as this may actually hurt him and is really not an effective way to train the animal.

In particular, the Down and Come commands can potentially save your dog’s life. You want to ensure those two are well taught initially and reinforced continually throughout your dog’s life. Why so? Suppose your puppy’s collar suddenly breaks or comes off and your puppy heads straight toward the busy highway. In that event, an instantaneous response to either the Down or Come commands could well save your puppy’s life and you will be very grateful for the time spent the time on puppy training and the basic commands.

Puppy Potty Training

It may not be as easy as it sounds to carry out potty training for puppies. You need to carry out the process consistently so that your puppies will be able to familiarize themselves with the pattern. You have to be observance too as to know how your pets behave before releasing themselves as their behaviors can tell you a lot about what they are going to do or what they want. With consistency and observance, you can make the whole process much easier.

What we are talking about is house training your puppy so that it eliminates outdoors or in a designated indoor area rather than anywhere in the home.

• Don’t look on potty training puppies as the unpleasant or messy side of owning a puppy. Rather see it as the first stage of a bonding process. One that will result in a happy and healthy relationship. That is the real reward of house training a dog.
• Start potty training as soon as you get your puppy home. But remember they don’t yet have full control of their bladder and bowel functions.
• Feeding should take place at the same times every day. Do not feed with four hours of bedtime and withdraw the water bowl two hours before bedtime. A routine is essential. That means you too have to stick to a routine by getting up and going to bed at the same time every day.
• Take the puppy outside into the yard or for a walk first thing in the morning, 10 to 15 minutes after every meal or drink and last thing at night. Do not play with them until they have eliminated.
• If after 10 minutes there is no action take the puppy back to its crate. Wait 10 to 15 minutes then take them out again.
• Be sure to praise the puppy and reward them with a little playtime every time it does “the business”.
• Restrict your puppy to rooms with washable floors until he is house trained.

Potty training for puppies isn’t something easy and what you need are patience, consistency and observance to train your puppy well. The average timing for them to be potty trained is 6 months, so don’t expect your puppies to be trained overnight, it will never happen. However, if your puppies are properly trained, the end result would make you feel it worth a while.

Natural Balance Dog Food

All dog owners want what is best for their pets, and more and more have realised that natural homemade dog food is the optimum way of delivering them a healthy and nutritious diet.

Some of the ingredients that rendering plants deliver to dog food manufacturers will sicken and alarm pet owners. In the United States, these include feathers, blood, hooves, beaks, feet, hide, undeveloped eggs, and most shocking of all, euthanized pets.

The manufacturers bulk up their products with fillers with little or no nutritional value. The recent pet food recall in the US has highlighted the inadequate monitoring of the pet food manufacturing industry.

An alternative that a growing number of dog lovers are choosing is to make their own natural dog food. Although it does take some time to prepare, you will be saving not only dollars, but also the effort in hauling cans or packs of dog food from the supermarket.

When considering switching your dog to a natural dog food, always consult your veterinarian. They will advise you on the ratio of meat protein, carbohydrate and vegetable to use for your particular dog, and also suggest any supplements that may need to be added. This consultation results in the perfect food tailored for your dog.

Meat is the basic protein requirement of your dog, so choose fresh lean meat. The type doesn’t really matter – beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, goat or fish. Offal such as kidney and liver is also very nutritious and dogs love it. Be sure to cook the meat thoroughly before feeding it to your pet, so that any bacteria is removed.

Fresh vegetables act as antioxidants and add vitamins and minerals to the mix. Carbohydrates like rice and potato are also important ingredients, and the addition of garlic will help keep fleas at bay.

If your dog is used to commercially produced food, it may take a while for it to adjust to the change in diet, so initially mixing its regular food with the natural homemade food will help with the transition.

As you will now have total control over your dog’s diet, managing health issues like obesity will be much easier. It won’t be long before you see an improvement in his coat, breath and general well being.

Three courses of home dog training

Home study courses in the form of ebooks and videos you can use to learn to train your dog at home on your own schedule and for a fraction of the price of lessons.

Secrets to Dog Training

Secrets to Dog Training is made up of a comprehensive step by step manual combined with a very useful self help guide. These two resources provide you with all the essential knowledge needed to effectively and efficiently train dogs and to identify and rectify your dog’s problem behaviors. The author of Secrets to Dog Training is a very experienced and respected dog trainer called Daniel Stevens. His book provides you with everything you need to know in order to effectively train dogs quickly and easily as well as covering other aspects of dog ownership. Whether you need to deal with a specific problem or just want to be a better dog owner – Secrets to Dog Training will give you all the tools and information required.

Dove Cresswells Dog Training Online

Dove is a professional Hollywood North dog trainer with an impressive career as a dog trainer for feature films, television and commercials. Although she is only 25 years old, she has over 10 years of experience in training dogs of all sizes and from many different breeds. She has also trained other animals including cougars, large reptiles, rodents, birds, and deer. As a dog trainer for movies, she is expected to deliver fast results as time is money in the movie industry. You can expect similarly fast results with her online dog training course.

D.I.Y Dog Training Home Course

This course includes:

– a downloadable ebook
– several bonus ebooks and audios
– free email consultation with the author/dog trainer

You’ll even find that such courses can help you to correct specific behavior problems you might be having, whether your dog is knocking over every visitor who walks in the door or barking through the night.

4 Tips To House Train Your Dog

If you want to learn how to house train a dog, here are a few dog training tips that you can use.

1. Observation

The first thing you want to do when you want to house train your dog is to observe your dog behavior. For example, when dogs or puppies want to excrete or pee, they usually will show some signals such as walking round and round, sniffing a particular spot excessively etc.

You should take note of the specific time your dog wants to do excrete etc.

2. Be Patient With Your Dog

This is true especially if your dog or puppy is new to the house. Typically, they will take about a week before they settle. You should carry your dog or puppy to the designated place where they do their thing once they show some signs.

3. Do Not use Ammonia-based cleaners

The reason is because ammonia smells a lot like urine and you might end up confusing your dog as to where to urine. Generally, most dogs will sniff and urine at the same spot where they urinated before.

4. Do Not Beat Your Dog

I’ve seen some dog owners beat their dogs with a stick or broom and this is cruelty. Besides, beating your dog does not help either. Rather, the right way is you should be firm in your tone of voice and look into your dog’s eyes when they did something wrong. Dogs are intelligent animals and they can sense when they did something wrong. It may take a few days to weeks before they remember and won’t commit the same mistake again.

If you want to learn how to how to house train your dog, I highly recommend SitStayFetch by Daniel Stevens. It is an excellent book on dog obedience training and is especially suited for beginners training their dog for the first time.

Dog Food Tips and Recipes

In most cases, this means you should make your homemade dog food 40% meat, 30% fiber and 30% starch. This variable may change a little bit, depending on the breed and size of your dog, but it’s a pretty consistent guideline that can be used to make your own homemade dog food

Supplying fresh clean water daily not only helps keep her hydrated but helps nutrients and waste products flow through the body.

Protien plays a role in tissue growth and repair. Fats supply energy and vitamins as well as add flavour which can determine how much food they will eat. Fat also helps maintain a nice healthy coat.

Carbohydrates are an energy source as they are broken down and metabolized.

Vitamins and Minerals help the proper absorption of fats and carbohydrates and for the chemical reactions in the body. It is essential that you get enough vitamins and minerals in your homemade dog food. It’s recommended that you also include high quality dog food supplements to make sure your dog is getting everything she needs.

Vitamin A is essential for healthy skin, eyes and your immune system and can be found in:

• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Corn
• Asparagus
• Pumpkin
• Carrots
• Peas
• Broccoli
• Cabbage

Vitamin C is essential for a healthy immune system. Some examples of foods high in vitamin C are:

• Cabbage
• Spinach
• Peppers
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Oranges
• Zucchini
• Asparagus
• Cucumber
• Squash
• Green peas
• Green beans

Vitamin E is a valuable antioxident and helps repair cell damage and can be found in spinach, broccoli and other leafy greens.

You can also include fruits in your homemade dog food recipes. Dogs also like fruit and get the same benefits from them as we do. Remember that dogs can not have grapes or raisins!

Apples have vitamins A, B, C, iron, potassium and magnesium. They can help bring down bad cholersterol.

Bananas are good source of potassium, folic acid, vitamin A & B6. They are easily digested and high in fiber. They make a good energy boosting snack as well they can provide moisture in healthy treat recipes instead of adding oil.

Carrots are a nice crunchy snack raw. They are also full of nutrients and vitamins B, C, D, E, & K along with folic acid and the anti-cancer protecting ingredient – beta carotene. They also contain potassium, iron, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium and silica.

Strawberries is another popular one. They also contain cancer fighting beta -carotene, bone building calcium, potassium and iron and of course vitamin C.

Pineapples are packed full of vitamin C and fibre so they help the immune and digestive system. They also have anti-inflammatory effects.

Dog Food Ingredients

A well balanced homemade dog food should contain approximately 40% meat, 30% starch, and 30% veggie/fruit on a daily basis. To ensure a heatlhy nutrtitious diet just follow the basic formula for any combination of ingredeints.

Get a good dog nutrition book, written specifically by an animal nutritionist, and read up on the proper kcals (calories) per day per pound of your dog, so you will know exactly how much to feed per day. Also there are many excellent homemade dog food recipe books available now, especially since the dog food recall killed so many of our beloved pets. Many more people are making their own homemade dog food, because we have become much more aware of the commercial dog food companies practices.

Organ meat (liver, kidneys etc.) and occasionally adding eggs are very good for your pet, and as we all know variety in our diets is always nice.

There are three important ingredients that must be included in your dog’s home made dog food every day.

1. 40% meat – any lean meat of your own choosing, such as chicken, turkey, beef or venison.
2. 30% vegetable/fruit combo – cooked and pureed – your 30% vegetable portion can be just one vegetable such as mashed carrots, or combine a few veggies along with a small amount of mashed fruit. You can use frozen, canned or fresh, whichever is handy and on sale.
3. 30% starch – white or brown rice, barley, oatmeal, macaroni or other pasta, or potatoes.

An easy method is simply to make a one pot “stew” and cook everything together in enough water to cook the pasta and veggies along with the meat. Cook the whole batch in a covered pot, and add water as it is absorbed. You don’t want it to be soupy when finished. Then I use a fork and shred the cooked meat and mash the veggies all in the same pot. Done and delicious.

I also give a calcium supplement, along with a few teaspoons of flax seed oil, or a vegetable oil such a canola, drizzled over the top. An addition of iodized salt is also good for your dog in a quantity depending on your dog’s weight.
Feed two meals per day, rather than one big one,

Your homemade dog food can be prepared in larger batches and frozen in the proper serving sizes, ready to thaw and eat. Any hot food should be allowed to cool down before serving your dog. I usually leave the mixture on the counter for 20 – 30 minutes, and it is close to room temperature by then. Your dog’s stomach can be upset if they eat food that is too hot.

Give it a try, and you will find that it is not as time consuming as it sounds, once you get into a routine , and your dogs will live longer healthier chemical free natural lives.

How to Make your own dog food

Making your own dog food requires a simple mix of meat, vegetables and starches.

STEP 1: Know that it is wise to check with your vet before switching to homemade dog food.
STEP 2: Understand that dogs need a diet that consists of 40 percent meat, 30 percent vegetables and 30 percent starch. Follow this formula to ensure that your dog has a well-balanced diet.
STEP 3: Cook meat before feeding it to your dog.
STEP 4: Realize that organ meat (such as liver, kidneys, etc.) and eggs are very good for your dog.
STEP 5: Consider the fact that many experts believe commercial dog food is actually unhealthy for dogs. Often the meat that is used in dog food is of a quality considered unfit for humans.
STEP 6: Try making a mixture of ground turkey, rice and carrot for your own dog food. Meals made of ground beef, brown rice, brewer’s yeast and carrots are also popular.
STEP 7: Rotate the foods you feed your dog so that the dog gets a variety of foods.
STEP 8: Add garlic to your dog food. Dogs enjoy the flavor and garlic is a natural flea repellent.
STEP 9: Use oatmeal, pasta, rice or potatoes for your dog’s starch requirement.
STEP 10: Grind eggshells and add this to your dog’s meal. Eggshells have a lot of nutrients.
STEP 11: Keep cooked dog food in the refrigerator no longer than three days.

Tips & Warnings

When you first switch to homemade dog food, try mixing commercial dog food to the food you have prepared to help your dog make the transition. Do not feed your dog chocolate.

Learn more about home-made dog food.