Understanding Dog Behavior

Author: David Beart
Dogs are considered the most genuinely happy creatures on earth. Their entire day is filled with you whether you are there or not. They are waiting for you, sleeping on your bed, watching for you out the window, wondering where you are while they are patiently waiting for you in their crate.

Once you come home it’s all about you. Your attention, your love, your food, your commands, and of course, your time. For an animal that revolves his whole life around you, it can be confusing why he does some of the things he does. If he loves you so much, why is he destroying your shoes? If you are the light in his life, why is he ignoring you when you come home?

Dogs have a very unique way of expressing themselves. Most people believe that dogs have and show genuine emotion such as love and fear and even anger. We understand that when they sit at the door and bark they are telling us they need to go outside. We understand that when we have a leash in our hand and they get a little goofy that they are excited about the upcoming walk. Understanding their more subtle or destructive cues takes a little insight into your dog’s world.

Returning Home Behavior

Some dogs get so excited that you are home after a weekend away they completely get beside themselves with joy. They follow you around and may even be uncharacteristically clingy as you wander about the house. Others get so excited when you first walk in the door, and then leave you in complete peace for several hours. People usually say that he is angry with you for leaving in the first place.

Most experts say their behavior is more about security than anything. You are your dog’s entire world and when for some reason you disappear for a long period of time, and there is a sudden change in his routine, his security is thrown a bit. He is very happy to see you but he also needs a little reassurance that everything is getting back to normal. Some dogs do this by following you around the house until they are sure, and others do this from a more observatory stance. Either way your canine family member is just looking for reassurance and his typical routine to return.

The Canine Garbage Disposal

He knows better and he knows that you know he knows better. However, every chance he gets you see him scampering off with something that you just absolutely don’t want him to chew. He eats your best shoes while you’re in the shower, the corner of the bedspread while you’re getting dressed, and the phone cord while you were talking on it. And you haven’t even made it to breakfast yet. As much as you love him you are contemplating the moral issues of drop kicking him right out the door. You’ve tried everything that you can think of and yet he is still eating everything in sight. He is beyond the age where teething causes chewing but yet he still can’t seem to find his own toys to consume.

There are two key factors in a garbage disposal dog. The first and easiest to solve is a health problem relating to his teeth and gums. If his mouth is bothering him, he is going to chew on everything he can. Start with a vet visit to rule out any periodontal issues.

The more likely culprit of his unflattering behavior is stress and anxiety. Yes, your happy go lucky guy can suffer from stress. Has there been a change in the household such as a new baby, dramatically increased arguing or is someone who is supposed to be there suddenly gone?

For starter, confine him when you can’t watch him, although preferably with you. A puppy gate here can go a long way in simple things like keeping an eye on him while you are showering and watching his every move while you are getting dressed. Often the hurried morning is a higher anxiety period for your dog.

Then begin to address the problem. Make sure there’s an appropriate toy available to him at all times and make a big deal about it when he eats the right things. A sharp reprimand and a quick and immediate discipline is in order when you catch him at the wrong chew toys. You don’t want to stress him more by smacking him, although a rolled up newspaper banged on a hard surface is a quick attention getter. Never strike him with it. He will make it his mission to eat it if you do in an effort to eliminate an already stressful period.

Try to identify the stressor and relax him around the problem. If you can get him comfortable enough around the new baby to lie down even when the baby is crying, you have made strides. If there is tension in the house try to tone down the arguing, or take it to an alternative room. If your dog can be comfortably confined to an outdoor yard, that is the best option, but don’t get so wrapped up in your arguing that you leave him out there for extensive periods of time. Whatever the stressor is that is causing the chewing, try to get him comfortable and relaxed around it. This may take some time, but relieving his anxiety will also reduce the tension in your life as well.

Aggression

You know him as your sweet and loveable friend. Your friends and neighbors know him as the terror on your doorstep who wants to eat them. Aggression is not a nice quality in your dog. Aggression comes from the desire to protect, and anything perceived as a threat is going to be treated like one. For some dogs this means anyone and anything that doesn’t belong. He is only trying to defend his home and his human family, but aggression is a serious behavioral problem that needs to be nipped in the bud.

Check your own behavior. How are you reacting to him when he is growling and carrying on at the neighbor as she walks by your house? Make sure the words “good boy” are the last thing your dog hears. “Be a good boy,” or “That’s not a good boy,” are not deterrents. Neither is “Shh.”

Mild mannered people tend to have more aggressive dogs because their tones are not consistent with command. If your dog doesn’t believe you enough to listen to you, he certainly isn’t going to believe you can take care of yourself. I can’t tell you how many times our pups have been accosted on the street with an owner telling their dog that it’s ok. It’s not okay. The words you are looking for are firm and sharp and sound like “Sit” and “No.” One word firm commands are much more effective than reasoning. Aggression is a serious offense and it must be treated as one. We have one dog who got a little out of control. When sitting wasn’t getting him under control on his nightly walk we actually went to making him lie down. Right there on the street or sidewalk we commanded our German Shepard to lie down to get his attention and then added a “Quiet” command to get our point across. His aggression quieted down in a week.

Some dogs do better if they can at least see what’s going on even if they can’t be a part of the process. Aggressive dogs are really protective dogs. The delivery man might not want your growling, snarling beloved pet to join you on the porch, but he might do better if he has a place he can be directed to sit and watch provided he stays quiet. Constantly sequestering him does nothing to solve the problem.

The Overbearing Overgrown Puppy

He is happy to see you. You are his toy and his best friend and he will pummel you over in an attempt to play with you. He has run over the children and covered the cat with his doggie saliva. You love him, but wow does his energy get annoying sometimes. It’s hard to talk to someone one the phone when he’s jumping on you and wrapping his big paws around you and forget leaving the house looking presentable.

He is the puppy who never grew up. His body got big, but he seems intellectually stuck at four months old. Most of the time this behavior is a matter of dominance. When a dog views you as his alpha leader, he gives you respect. When you are his peer, you are his play mate. Alpha leaders are by nature a food related dominance. Of course other factors play into it as well, but to a dog food is leadership. If you are not already the dog’s food source, consider taking on that responsibility.

Establish yourself as a leader. This isn’t all that hard to do and you don’t even have to stop playing with him in order to do it. Start by giving him random commands, especially around feeding time. With his food in your hand tell him to sit. With the food in the bowl and the bowl on the floor tell him to wait, and then make sure he follows through. When he has looked to you for permission, allow him to commence eating.

Slowly add random commands throughout the day and rebuke rough playing immediately. If he wants to play, he has to sit and wait for things rather than tackle you. You can just as easily give him commands with playtime as you can any other time. A few commands before you throw the ball is usually enough to get the right message across as you are establishing dominance.

Interpreting Your Dog

Understanding your dog’s behavior isn’t quite as mystifying as it seems. He really is doing his best to tell you. Watching his communication with other people and animals in the household can really open your eyes to how he expresses himself.

A dog wags his tail to express happiness, yawns when he is content, and growls when he is threatened. With over one hundred facial expressions, he is constantly telling you something. The more you get to know your dog the more you will learn what he is telling you.

Owning a dog is a wonderfully joyous experience. They bring so much into our world which is why so many people have them. They look to us to tend to their needs. We owe it to them to give them at least our very best shot at keeping them safe, healthy, and happy.



About The Author

David Beart is the owner of http://www.professorshouse.com. Our site covers pets, dog training, finances, family, cooking and other household issues.

Should Your Dog Eat Table Scraps?

Author: David Beart
It’s a familiar sight to every pet owner who has sat down to a meal with their dog in the room: Your furry friend scoots as close to the table as he can get. His big, pitiful eyes stare longingly - first at you, then at your plate. He licks his chops over and over again, hoping to get just one bite of whatever you are eating. As hard as it is not to give in to those sad, soulful eyes, there are many reasons NOT to feed your dog table scraps.

The most obvious reason is because many of the foods that humans eat are just not good for dogs. The best diet for a dog is a consistent diet. Talk to your vet about how much food to give your dog, and then feed the same amount at the same time each day. There are ways to make his meals more interesting, such as adding gravy that is made for dogs, without sacrificing his good health.

Dogs that eat a lot of table scraps tend to be overweight. If you are eating a steak and want to give your dog a treat, what part of the steak does he usually get? The fat. Eating pure fat isn’t good for your dog’s weight. Dogs that are overweight have less energy and are at greater risk for developing health problems such as cardiovascular diseases.

Some foods are a direct threat to your dog’s health. Chocolate is the best example of this. Chocolate contains a substance that is toxic to dogs. While humans love this sweet treat, it can cause great harm, even death, to your dog.

Digestive disorders are another common problem among dogs that eat a lot of table scraps. Again, the healthiest diet for dogs is a consistent diet. You’re not doing your dog any favors if you feed him scraps that cause him to vomit or have diarrhea. Even a food that isn’t always toxic to a dog can upset his digestive tract enough to cause these unpleasant symptoms.

Table scraps do not provide the nutrition that dogs need. Tossing your dog a scrap of chicken now and then is different than feeding your dog a diet that consists mainly of table scraps. Dogs need different things nutritionally than humans do, and the best way for dogs to get what they need is to eat a food that has been formulated for dogs. Even if you offer him nutritious dog food along with an abundance of table scraps, he is less likely to eat his own food if he is filling up on yours.

In addition to the health problems, there are behavioral problems that can develop as a result of feeding your dog table scraps. You need to ask yourself the following questions.

Do you really want him to beg? You need to ask yourself this question every time you are tempted to give in to your dog. If you start feeding your dogs scraps from the table, he is going to sit there like Old Faithful at every single meal. Do not reward begging at the table unless you WANT him to beg at the table. Rewarding that behavior even one time may make it difficult to train your dog to stay away from the table. Even if it doesn’t bother you terribly, you may want to entertain guests in the future who won’t appreciate Fido sniffing their plates as they try to eat.

Help your pet be a good dog by NOT rewarding bad behavior such as begging.

Do you want your dog to be a picky eater? Since the healthiest food for you dog is dog food, it’s a good idea to make that dog food as appealing as possible. Setting his dry kibble next to a juicy steak probably isn’t the most effective way to accomplish that. By feeding your dog a lot of table scraps, you are helping him develop a taste for your food. In some cases, this will cause your dog to become finicky about what he eats, and his dry food will not seem as appealing as it once did.

Do you want a dog who steals? A dog who is allowed to eat human food on a regular basis will begin to assume it is his right to eat the pot of spaghetti you left on the counter. He may also be more apt to rummage through the garbage to get a hold of some of the scraps you neglected to give him. This may cause serious problems as many items found in the trash are very harmful to your pet.

There are many good reasons not to give table scraps to your dog on a regular basis, but there are ways to treat your dog that are not harmful and that will not encourage bad behavior.

If you want to give your pet an occasional treat of leftover meat, just follow a few rules.

* Be sure that small bones are removed. Never give your dog chicken bones. Some dogs have a bad reaction (severe vomiting and diarrhea) to other types of bones, so it’s best to remove the meat from the bones completely.

* Do not feed directly from the table. After the meal, when the dog has stopped begging, take the leftovers to his normal eating place and put them in his bowl. Do not let him see you walk directly from the table to his bowl.

* Do not do anything that causes your dog to see a relationship between his begging and you giving him table food. Do not feed him table scraps every day. His main diet should be of a food that contains all the nutrition he needs. In other words: dog food. Only feed hand selected table scraps as an occasional treat.

As much as you might want to give in to his begging, you must keep his best interest in mind. Dogs don’t know what is good for them. It’s your job to help keep them healthy and to help them behave, not give in to their every whim.



About The Author

David Beart is the owner of http://www.professorshouse.com. Our site covers pets, household finances, family, cooking and other household issues.

The Consequences Of Dog Worship

Author: Kate Loving Shenk
I found a rugged quartz crystal in our garden yesterday and brought it to my writing table, to gaze at its beauty and reveal its mystery as I write, like gazing into a crystal ball.

The five crystals in the center of it are perfect, in their own wild way, like the days I spent in total conflict with myself, with society and the world.

It brings to mind one of my favorite Alphia stories, my golden German Shepard Collie of the 1960's, the pre-Funk commune years, occurring several months after the communal caravan arrived in San Francisco.

We found our large Victorian house after several weeks of illegal camping around the jagged Pacific shore hideaways and in the many untamed parks for which the city is famous.

The caravan people had remained disgruntled in spite of the constant dog/God guidance surrounding us.

A chasm developed between those who wanted to join the ranks of the work-a-day world, and the four of us who went on to establish the Funky Farm community and knew that going to work was antithetical to living creatively by the seat of our pants.

I had come to a place within myself where I needed to live outside of the mainstream, established 9-5 ho-hum I'm beaten down, kill me now style of existence I imagined my father ascribing to for his thirty-five working years, at the same place, doing the same job, everyday. I'd think of an exhilarating alternative, bet on that.

My life as a rip off artist now began in earnest.

One day, I took Alphia Lee for a walk in Golden Gate park. A squirrel distracted her from the beloved stick, and damn it if she didn't run in front of a fast moving car. She crawled back to the side of the road.

I remember crying and kneeling beside her, going over her body, getting a sense of how badly she was hurt. A car pulled over and a young man asked to take me where ever I wished to go.

He had an old blanket and we carefully laid her on it.

Then he drove Alphia and me to the big rambling Victorian house that was our temporary abode.

We prepared a bed for her with old blankets and rags.

She'd look at us with a forlorn Muki eye, the dog who joined me 28 years later to show me true love.

That look inspired me to slip into the meat department of a local Safeway, and steal one steak a day for her, and for her only.

Then we'd sit with her for hours, stroking her neck and body and encouraging her to come back to us.

The long intimate times we spent with her were patient and happy. We did not desperately plead with her to live rather than die. Rather, we coaxed her gently, showing her our love, and gave her the great option of living with a handful of rogues completely alienated from society.

She opted to spend a few more years with us in our experiment of living--dangerously.




About The Author

Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover Your Calling and Destiny." Click here to find out how to order the e-book: http://www.nursingcareertransformation.com Check Out Kate's Blog: http://www.nursehealers.typepad.com

Get Your Dog Awards In Dog Shows – Get It Trained

Author: Wade Robins
To increase the agility of your dog, you require to harness the skills of your dog through rigorous training. Dog training for increasing the agility, is pretty same for almost all breeds of dogs only difference being the activeness of each individual dog. Contests are also based on the size and capabilities of the dogs. A number of dogs take part in such contests and compete with each other to show their skills. Dog agility training not only prepares the dog for the simple contests but even for the more difficult ones like hurdle race also.

The concept of horse training and competitions inspired the pet owners to get something similar for the dogs as well. Competition for dogs includes hurdle racing, wall jump, tire jumping and many more. The contests are designed in such a way that the dog completes various drills on the command of the trainer, and whoever finishes the drills fastest is the winner. Well the most difficult part has to be the 100-foot square course; here hurdles are placed across the course making it difficult for the dogs to move fast. In such competitions crowd enjoy and greet the winner with flowers (for trainer/owner) and dog food for dog.

A dog can be trained on the hurdle course by training him initially on one hurdle, by the time he gets used to jumping over one hurdle, many more could be placed on the running track of the dog. Care must be taken not to over exert on the training sessions, as long training sessions can even make your pet confused on the day of competition, he will expect the same long session and might not do good in small time bound contest.

Dull dog is a Sad Dog

Dog trainer is not the dog's owner and dog will perform on the command of his trainer. Trainer is one who has developed agility of the dog by providing adequate training. Dog under the command of trainer will perform the given task as trained. The nature of the dog also, in a way, shapes its chances to win any contest; an introvert dog may feel nervous in the presence of large crowd. Hence, these things are to be taken into account by the trainer while training the dog.

Trainer must gauge the ability and skills of the dog accurately to shape its flexibility and agility accordingly. There should be good communication and comfort level between dog and trainer so that both understand what they want to do. In the contests the trainer is allowed only to give commands and not touch the dog, making communication more important. For more info see on http://www.startdogtraining.com/Dog_Training_School on Dog Training School.

The contest is reviewed by experts and performances rated as per the parameters set. Dog is trained to finish the course speedily and on time. The dog finishing with the lowest time is adjudged the winner.

It doesn’t really matter the breed of the dog when talking about the developing of conditional instincts: since Pavlov made this Nobel worthy discovery, special trainers have used repeated behaviors to determine the dog to understand and to comply by giving rewards.



About The Author

Wade Robins

You can also find more info on http://www.startdogtraining.com on Dog Training and http://www.startdogtraining.com/Dog_Behaviour_Training on Dog Behaviour Training. http://Startdogtraining.com is a comprehensive resource to know how to train your Dog.

Choosing a Dog in Your Senior Years

Author: Andrew Kasch
As a person reaches their golden years they may want to have some companionship. Many of them look to owning a dog as a way to have a constant companion. This is a great idea, as a dog will give them unconditional and unrestricted love. Many people find that as they get older and they start to lose their friends that they need something such as this to fill a void in their life. If you are faced with the decision of choosing a dog to be by your side and to grow old with you then here are some things to keep in mind.

The first thing that you should consider when choosing a dog to have in your older years is how active you need that dog to be. There are seniors that are extremely active, sometimes more active than people that are 20 years younger than them. These seniors would benefit from having a dog that can be active for things such as walks but also would be happy just to lie around at their feet when necessary. Other seniors will benefit from having a dog that will just be a companion but does not need a lot of activity to keep it healthy.

Another thing that you would want to keep in mind when choosing a dog is if it will be around a lot of children. If you have an active family life and your grandchildren, or great grandchildren are around frequently the you would not want to choose a breed that has a reputation of not liking little children. Some smaller breeds that are perfect for many seniors also are very protective of their owners. While this can be beneficial, as the dog will no doubt be able to hear things that the owner can't, you also need to keep in mind that this kind of dog might not warm up easily to others.

All things considered, here are a few all around good dog breeds for you to choose from. These dogs make good companions that require little exercise and will give you many years of happiness.

The Chihuahua

The Chihuahua is a great choice for seniors. It not only requires little exercise but it is very faithful and will be a loyal companion that will stick by your side through thick and thin.

The Poodle

The poodle is one of the most intelligent dogs that there is. They make a fantastic pet, are very loyal to their owners and warm up to people easily. If you have family members visiting on a regular basis then a poodle would be a good choice for a senior dog.

The Papillion

The Papillion is a fantastic breed, although they do have a little bit more energy than other breeds. They will not only make an enjoyable pet but they will also be very faithful and are good around other people. At times they can be a little bit standoffish but all in all they make a fantastic companion.

These are just a few of the many breeds that are well suited for those who are reaching their golden years. It is a personal decision that you will have to make but by owning a dog at this point in your life you will have a constant companion for years to come.



About The Author

Andrew Kasch

To keep your dog healthy please visit the homemade dog food recipes at http://www.barkbarkimhungry.com/dogdinners.html