Hunting dog training should be taken very seriously because it requires your dog being desensitized to gunfire that normally accompanies a hunt and still be able to keep its focus on the trainer’s commands. Before you begin hunting dog training there are a few steps that need to be taken such as the trainer needing to provide to the dog a solid foundation that ensures the safety of the dog during a hunt. You may choose to start the training when the puppy is no more than four to six months old by introducing it to whistles, check cords, birds as well as the hunting dog training commands.

Teach The Dog Not To Be Frightened Of Gunfire

In the beginning, you may expose to gunfire your puppy so that it can avoid becoming frightened which will come in handy when it becomes an adult hunting dog. You'll then need to provide a foundation for the dog/puppy which best suits the animal when it is aged between ten to twelve months and is taught to work in as well as out of the field, and generally become accustomed to whistles as well as commands given by the trainer. It should also help make the dog develop its pointing instincts and learn to be patient when pointing at the time of the hunting dog training.

You must then, after teaching the dog foundation basics, train the dog to remain steady to shot and wing. Commands such as “whoa” will be taught to the dog and it will also learn the basics of real world hunting situations. Once completed, the dog will have learnt to work off leash in the field as well as outside and will then be able to retrieve to hand, which is teaching the dog to bring back the hunt without damaging the hunt. In addition, this stage of the hunting dog training can also involve teaching the dog to respect another dog’s point as well as to refrain from flushing birds.

Any dog that is descended from parents that were hunting dogs will naturally be inclined to the pursuit of hunting and will have abilities that will help it in its hunting dog training. It is also obvious that the hunting dog training will teach the dog basic skills as far as its normal obedience is concerned and the dog should easily respond to easy commands such as “come, sit, and stay and heel”.

It is also not uncommon for the hunting dog training routine to require taking the dog into the field for getting it used to the full effect of hunting in a real situation. It is also normal for the hunting dog training to be performed under different weather conditions and different seasons will see the dog getting used to different game.

While training a dog you can make a number of mistakes. First and most important mistakes new dog trainers make is that they think that a dog, like a human, can effectively respond to their words. They sometimes think that they can scare their dog into doing something. For example, you might say something like stop sniffing every mailbox you come to. Does that ever work? Well to a dog, since they obviously don’t comprehend English he/she thinks you're saying “Stop pulling my leash, I’m just marking my territory. Are you yelling at me, you try basically living in the laundry room. And those healthy science diet food. My word it’s like trying to eat a sock. The walk is my only haven. Hey I need to mark my territory. Once I run away, key work once, I need to go somewhere. So before you yell at your dog remember, he no hablo Ingles.” (I don’t speak English.(In Spanish).)

Tweed and Twirls or Military Marching – that was the only choice of dog training clubs back in the 1980′s. The tweed and twirls brigade were the Ringcraft classes for the ladies of substance who lunched in between breeding and showing their pedigree dogs. The Military Marching were the basic obedience classes for the rest of us, with our motley selection of mutts and mongrels and for men with mad dogs that lunged at old ladies and kids in the street. These classes were usually run by ex-military dog handlers who could bark, growl and snarl more fiercely than most of their pupils!

The only other choice you had was which town you wanted to embarrass yourself in your own or the one five miles up the road. Yes, it really was that easy in those days!

Now here we are baffled by a choice of Ringcraft, Obedience, Heelwork to Music, Agility, Search and Rescue, Flyball and breed specific clubs. My advice is start with basic obedience class which forms the foundation of any advanced or competitive discipline. Then, when you’ve mastered the basics, you can move on to a specialist club or perhaps ask if your club could run a Have A Go at sessions.

If you're spoilt for choice for easily accessible obedience clubs in your area you should visit them, without your dog, to ask to watch a session take place prior to registering. You can check out the lesson times and prices at the same time. Does the training hall look clean and smell fresh or is it distinctly whiffy’ and wet underfoot? Find out how they register clients do they ask to see vaccination and insurance certificates? If they don’t walk away before you catch something nasty!

Observe how dogs are granted to interact with each other, is there much hostility in the room, is aggression being dealt with promptly by the instructors? Note what the pupil to teacher ratio is like, are pupils getting individual attention as well as group instruction?

How do corrections take place? Are you happy with their techniques or do you feel uncomfortable about witnessing that level of shouting, aggression or physical chastisement? How do they praise good behavior, is it regular and consistent or do they complete exercises without praising their dogs? Lastly, do they set homework’ for pupils to keep practicing exercises between classes because like learning any subject one hour a week just won’t work.

When you find the club you feel most comfortable with try to be a good pupil. Turn up, pay up, listen up and clean up! Join in their social activities, learn from their instructors and long-term members and most importantly have a great time with your dog who will be delighted at having their own social club membership!

Learning that your new pooch is deaf is the first hurdle any owner must accept. But then learning that training a deaf dog is not very different from training a hearing one, can take some of the sting out of learning that your dog is deaf.

/>
You don’t need to use any different methods in deaf dog training, only different cues. Training a deaf dog does not even take any more time or effort. The concepts are all the same, as hearing dogs learn the meaning of words and commands through repetition, deaf dogs learn the same way. Because we depend so much on speech to communicate as humans, we just assume that dogs do so as well.

Dogs don't understand the English language or any other language. When two dogs meet, there's very little verbal communication between the two. They use scent and body language to communicate. They tell each other almost everything through these two forms of dog communication. The barking, whining and growling that our dogs use as verbal communication are an additional form of dog interaction, but not the primary one.

Competition dogs who compete for Obedience titles are required to learn hand signals. Working dogs use either hand signals or body language cues to perform their work. Most trainers will instruct owners to use voice commands first and then move onto hand signals. Hand signals are by far, much easier for a dog to learn. Therefore, training a deaf dog is really not difficult at all.

ASL

Deaf dog training does not mean that you've to hire a trainer. There are many books on the subject of training deaf dogs and learning the hand signals can be done visually in the training book. There is a famous saying, “you can train a dog in five minute, it takes much longer to train the owner.”

Consistency is the first and foremost important thing about training a dog, whether the dog is deaf or not. There are no ‘wrong’ hand signals in training a deaf dog; you can use whatever feels most comfortable to you. Some people use American Sign Language or ASL. This is the same sign language that is used for deaf people. The advantage to using ASL in training your deaf dog, is that anyone who can sign ASL can communicate with your dog.

There are some dog owners who make up all of their own hand signals. However, most dog owners who are training a deaf dog, will use a combination of ASL and their own signals. Any hand signals that you choose will be fine for you and your dog.

On September 21, 2007, the Marysville Schutzhund Club hosted a helper seminar and certification with SV Judge Wolfgang Bttger and teaching helper Thomas Grewe as part of our September club trial. Our newest club member, Josh Coleman, worked toward becoming a certified club helper and our club President Thomas Sauerhfer worked towards becoming a Regional helper.

Teaching Helper Thomas Grewe had Josh out on the field first. Thomas Sauerhfer has been teaching Josh helper work for the last two months. Even though he has only been working for a short time, with Thomas’ expert guidance, Josh gave a solid performance, as he always does, and he became a certified club helper. Thomas Grewe told Josh that he hopes he sticks with working dogs, because with a combination of his natural talent and capability along with a few years of experience, and absorbing the knowledge that Thomas is passing along to him, he sees Josh going to a National level to work dogs. All of our club members are impressed with Josh and we look forward to a long future working with him.

After Josh was finished, Thomas Sauerhfer was out on the field. Thomas has over 27 years of experience working as a helper and a handler. As he performed out on the field it was obvious that working dogs is second nature to him. He makes it look easy. There was no hesitation from Thomas Grewe as he gave the critique and told Thomas that he was unquestionably a Regional helper.

The Marysville Schutzhund Club looks forward to the next year as we plan on hosting several events, including club trials and a show.

Congratulations to Thomas Sauerhfer and Josh Coleman from all of us in the club and thank you to both of you for all of your hard work and dedication to each of us and all of our dogs.

Most training revolves around giving the dog consequences for his behaviour, in the hope of influencing the behaviour the dog will exhibit in the future. Operant conditioning defines four types of consequences:

Positive reinforcement adds something to the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, giving a dog a treat when he sits.)

Negative reinforcement removes something from the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, releasing the tension on an uncomfortable training collar when the dog stops pulling on the leash).

Positive punishment adds something to the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, growling at a misbehaving dog).

Negative punishment removes something from the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, walking away from a dog who jumps up).

Most modern trainers say that they use “positive training methods”, which is a different meaning of the word “positive” from that in operant conditioning. “Positive training methods” generally means preferring the use of reward-based training to increase good behavior over that of physical punishment to decrease bad behavior. However, a good trainer understands all four methods, whether or not she can put operant-conditioning terminology to them, and applies them as appropriate for the dog, the breed, the handler, and the situation.

Rewards

Positive reinforcers can be anything that the dog finds rewarding – special food treats, the opportunity to play with a tug toy, social interaction with other dogs, or the owners attention. The more rewarding a dog finds a particular reinforcer, the more work he will be prepared to do in order to obtain the reinforcer.

Some trainers go through a process of teaching a puppy to strongly desire a particular toy, in order to make the toy a more powerful positive reinforcer for good behaviour. This process is called “building prey drive”, and is commonly used in the training of Narcotics Detection and Police Service dogs. The goal is to produce a dog who will work independently for long periods of time.

Some trainers believe that the toy acts as a positive reinforcer for the desired behavior, when in all likelihood the prey drive works on an entirely different level from standard training and conditioning techniques. This is seen most clearly in the fact that, according to the laws of operant conditioning, positive reinforcers lose their effectiveness if they’re given every single time a dog does what's desired of him; the more predictable the reinforcer, the less reliable the behavior. Yet detection dogs only work well when they are always rewarded with a toy, every single time they find drugs or explosives, etc. The reason for this disparity is that when a dog is trained through the prey drive, the training activates an instinctive, automatic sequence that has to be completed in order for the dog to feel satisfied. That sequence is: search, eye-stalk, chase, grab-bite, and kill bite. So when a dog searches and finds drugs or explosives, he feels he hasn’t completed his job unless he can bite something. This is the primary reason he’s always given the toy. It’s not really a positive reinforcer. If it were it would reduce the reliability of the behavior overall. It’s a means of completing the predatory sequence for the dog.

Punishments

“Positive punishment” is probably the consequence that is least used by modern dog trainers, as it must be used very carefully. A dog is generally only given this type of punishment if it is willfully disobeying the owner. Punishing a dog who does not understand what is being asked of him isn't only unfair to the dog, but can make the dog a fearful or unwilling worker.

Punishments are administered only as appropriate for the dog’s personality, age, and experience. A sharp No works for many dogs, but some dogs even show signs of fear or anxiety with harsh verbal corrections. On the other hand, certain dogs with ‘harder’ temperaments may ignore a verbal reprimand, and may work best if the reprimand is coupled with a physical punishment such as a quick tug on a training collar. Trainers generally advise keeping hand contact with the dog to positive interactions; if hands are used to threaten or hurt, some dogs may start to behave defensively when stroked or handled.

Avoiding punishment

Keeping a puppy on a leash in challenging situations or in his crate or pen when not closely supervised prevents the puppy from getting into situations that might otherwise invite an owner’s harsh reaction (such as chewing up a favorite pair of shoes).

Next: Dog Training part V- The command voice

A Part of the Family

As loyal companions and members of the family, dogs give so much to us and touch us deeply while bringing us comfort and joy. Our pets deserve to have the ideal we can give them in terms of happiness, freedom, safety and security. Our dogs show happiness when we come home, when we say nice things to them, and especially when we spend time with them. They seem to express sorrow when we are gone or get upset, and they even seem to sense when we are not feeling well. It is hard to envision that dogs really don’t know instinctively how to behave in our world. Despite all of the time we spend with our dogs and love we give them, we may not be able to effectively show them how we want them to behave in any given situation. A dog’s way of communicating, though it shares similar virtues, is very different from ours. We, as owners need to learn how to communicate with our dogs. The Sit Means Sit dog training method is fast, effective and produces a happy, healthy dog. When it comes to training your dog you want to choose a method of training that makes sense for you and your family. We comprehend that the outdoor recreational lifestyle that hikers, campers, horseback riders, boaters, anglers, and RVers love is greatly enhanced when the family pet is able to be a part of the experience. Having a well-mannered pet ensures the pleasure and enjoyment that both dog and owner get to experience together.

Dogs Are Social Critters

Because dogs are naturally social beings, they want to be with us. Often referred to as pack animals, dogs have an instinctive need to be part of a pack or group of other dogs. To ensure survival, dogs in the wild have a very strong need to have order and boundaries established by the pack. If they don’t have these hierarchies and boundaries their capability to survive is weakened. This innate trait makes dogs easily trainable and also provides us with a strong case for why we train dogs- because having order and structure is something the dog naturally needs.

Dogs are astonishing animals, but they do not arrive in our homes understanding the rules. No one has told him the mail carrier shouldn’t be chased down the block, or Granny should be treated with gentleness and not jumped upon with love, the lovely garden that mother just planted needs to stay earthed, and the sprinklers are not something to be killed. Your dog, with all his creative exploration of behavior options like the counter surfing, chasing cars, chewing your favorite leather shoes and so on, is really just that dog looking for a job, and if she doesn’t find one they're sure to create one. Your dog is looking for someone to show him about how things are, to keep him safe, to prepare his meals and most importantly, someone to spend time with them. All he really wants to know is what are the boundaries and rules. Dogs of all types, temperaments, and breeds will behave in this manner without a strong base of training and discipline from their owner.

Innovative Training Methods

Training a dog gives your canine friend a job and helps him understand what his boundaries are while providing him with a sense of safety and security, and it grants both of you to enjoy the freedom that comes from hard work and good training. Our training here at Sit Means Sit Training uses the No Limitations system of dog training developed by Fred Hassen. This dog obedience training approach utilizes an electronic dog training collar ( www.sitmeanssit.com). This collar allows us to train our dogs in a very effective, quick, and gentle manner because of the instant communication we're able to share with our dog. Our clients all receive a free training demonstration so they can see the initial response of their dogs first-hand. We demonstrate the training method in the face of all of the normal distractions that occur in the real world and allow you to see how your dog responds to our training with the collar.

Because many people are new to the electronic dog training collar, we ask our clients to feel the collar in operation. Many clients tell us that the pulse feels like a Tens Unit, or like other electronic pulse treatments used by physical therapists, chiropractors, and other medical professionals. In fact, in a conversation with a Tens Unit Sales representative, I was told that our remote dog training collars were not as strong as the feel of the portable Tens Unit he was selling. Innovation has always brought about controversy, and the idea of using a collar that promotes an electronic pulse can be an emotionally loaded and controversial subject for some. The controversy however, should pale, in comparison, to the results of our training method. Seeing your dog happy, confident, obedient and safe is a great result.

Making the Right Training Decision

One of the first questions a person new to dog training asks is, “Where do I start?” We know that with so many training methods available it can be overwhelming to find the ideal possible training method. Fred Hassen’s innovative method using the remote electronic dog collar combined with traditional techniques produces fast results. You'll be able to communicate effectively with your dog, eliminating the frustration of a difficult and disobedient dog.

At Sit Means Sit, our hands-on approach means that we evaluate your dog as an individual. Remember the safety and security of knowing that your dog is trained and able to face any situation with confidence will go a long way to help ensure a memorable and resting time on your outdoor adventure. If you're interested in a free training demonstration by a Sit Means Sit professional dog trainer please visit our website to find a location near you!

Having a well behaved, well mannered dog is a great joy and pleasure. While some dogs seem to “naturally” behave themselves and have a good disposition. Others need help. They need behavior dog training.

Here are four time-tested tips for behavior dog training. I remember them with the acronym “FARR”.

1. Flexible

As mentioned below, while you must assume the role of the “alpha” dog in all cases, you must understand that each dog has it’s own personality and the each dog breed has it’s own characteristics. A specific method that works with one dog may not work with another dog. Also, whatever is causing one dog to misbehave may not be the same cause for another dog to misbehave. For example, one dog may suffer separation anxiety, become depressed and frustrated and chew things. Another dog may be jealous of a newborn baby or another dog and chew things to gain attention. You must be flexible and willing to try different methods of behavior dog training to gain the behavior that you want.

2. “Alpha” Dog

Dogs are social animals. They've a pack instinct. They look to the “alpha” dog for leadership. Have you ever noticed that when two or more dogs are together, one is the leader. When the other dog(s) begin to do something that the “alpha” dog doesn’t like, the “alpha” dog will growl and show his/her disapproval. The “alpha” dog might even attack the misbehaving dog. For effective dog training in general and behavior dog training in particular, you must be the leader. You must assume the role of the “alpha” dog. You can't let your dog do whatever he/she wants to do. This isn't to suggest that you attack or beat your dog, but you need to show disapproval for misbehaving. For example, say “NO” in a very stern voice.

3. Reward

Rewarding your dog will give you superior and more effective results than punishing your dog. Notice that the stern “NO” mentioned above is not punishment. Punishment is hitting or beating a dog and isn't acceptable. The stern “NO” is to let your dog know that you disapprove of his/her behavior. Dogs generally want to please their owners. So when your dog does something right, petting your dog, saying “Good Boy” or “Good Girl”, and giving your dog a treat will make your dog feel good and encourage more of the same good behavior.

4. Repetition

Use repetition and be consistent in your behavior dog training. Dogs learn by repetition – doing the same thing over and over. When your dog does something good that you want it to do, reward your dog. Be consistent. If you reward your dog one time, but not the next, your dog may become confused. Your dog may not understand what you want him/her to do. After all, you rewarded him/her one time, but ignored the same good behavior another time. Was it good behavior the first time? Your dog may not know.

There you have it. For dog training in general and behavior dog training in particular, remember “FARR”: Be Flexible, Assume the role of the “Alpha” dog, Use Rewards, and Use Repetition.