• The most important tip for training your puppy is to be patient – cleaning poo 10 times a day can get quite annoying, but  it’s just a phase so remember to be patient – never punish your dog physically because he/she moved his/her bowls.
• You must have one of the following dog training tools : a crate/ a flight cage/ an empty room just for the puppy. Obviously, you can’t watch over the puppy all the time and you can’t leave him/her alone (he/she will make a feast out of your furniture) so a place of his own is crucial.
• You’ll be surprised how precise dog’s sense of time is so having a toilet schedule is a big part of our family dog training.
• Reward your  puppy every time he/she pees/poops outside – gather your happiest voice (like you just won the lottery) and praise him. When an “accident” happens shout at him/her, but only if you caught him/her on the spot. Dogs have short term memory so if you shout at them even 5 seconds  after the deed is done, they won’t understand what’s the fuss about. The same rules apply when they destroy your furniture.

Remember – dog house training is all about being patient and acting right on time… just like everything else in family dog training.

One major thing to remember about your dog is that it’s not a human being but a beast (shocking, isn’t it?). Many dog breeds are originally working dogs (shepherds, hunting dogs etc.), so they’re not supposed to sit on the sofa all day long. If you don’t give your dog the exercise he naturally needs and the opportunity to spend his energies in a positive way then he’ll just find his own way to spend his energies (and that’s where all the shenanigans come from…). Many of the dog behavior problems come from lack of exercise. They can’t help it – they must spend those energies in some way… it’s in their genes.

I recommend taking your dog to the nearest park and making him run (walking isn’t going to make your dog very tired unless it’s a really long walk). My best way of making my border collie tired is by playing fetch with a KONG frisbee. Beary loves his frisbee more than life itself (and it’s a nice toy for me, too =)).You can check out it’s amazon page here.

So what’s the connection between family dog training and the dog’s exercise? Well, if you make sure your dog isn’t pumped full of energy before training time, you’ll see that the training goes better.

Today I would like to talk about the essence of family dog training - pack leadership… Now, I know what you think - easier said than done, and I agree – it’s way easier.

But first of all, what does being a pack leader mean? Well… simple enough it means you’re the boss- the one calling the shots. Right now your dog thinks that he/she  is the head of the family. “Ridiculous, I put food in his bowl. How can he think that?” Dogs think diffrently than us – and unless you act by their rules you won’t have a fully trained dog. I mean, sure, if you will teach him the commands using positive dog training (telling him the command and then giving him a treat) he will probably follow it during lesson time. But unless you’re a pack leader, when you’ll give the command in a real situation (e.g. he just saw a cat he loves to chase) he won’t respond.

Infact not long ago my dog did’t respond either. He would  do good on training time, but as soos as he was off-leash and he heard/saw a cat, he would start runing after it and nothing I could say or do would make him stop.

The secret is, in my opinion, to rip out and unwanted behavior from the dog from it’s root.  Respond loudly and exagerrate on any bad behavior – leash pulling, jumping on the sofas, jumping on the table etc. Shout “NO!!!” as loudly as you can (the neighbors can go to hell when it comes to our family dog training) , make sure they understand that this kind of behavior wouldn’t be acceptable again. Don’t just say “no…” or “stop it” like they’re supposed to understande they make you upset. Dogs respond to sound (those big fluffy ears are there for something…), so you have to use your throat and be assertive. If every time they do something wrong you’ll shout and make a scene all over again, you will see improvement.

As one member of the family must take responsibility on the obedience training, all member of the family must take responsibilty  on the dog behavior training (jumping on sofas/table/beds etc). Evenyually the dog must become a follower of the pack – not the leader.

The thing to remember about dog training is that the little things are what dogs respond to the most. For you it’s just anouther time of them trying to steal your food, but for them, if you didn’t react fast enough and loud enough, it’s like you’re saying stealing food is OK.

Start acting now!

When I first brought Beary home, I was sure that training a dog is not a big deal… that I’d just have to follow simple instructions of the dog trainer and in 2-3 weeks  I’ll see real results. Now I know better – family dog training is hard!

There are so many dog training techniques out there , different opinions between dog traininers on how to train your dog – one trainer may tell you to use the command stay while the other will forbid it. (More on that in the tips page). It can get pretty confusing, so I opened this site to tell you what did work for me and what didn’t. I’m no dog trainer but I do have experience with dog training and I would like to share it with you.