Here’s a little advice about how to train a puppy. Puppy training doesn’t have to be difficult. It may take a little patience, but dogs are smart and their goal is to make you happy. When you are about to get angry, remember that and walk away.

There’s loads of books, videos and free puppy training information online. First of all, you need to learn to reward good behavior and not to reward bad behavior. Always reinforce your dog’s desirable behavior through rewards and attention and ignore the undesirable behavior of your dog. You can use a crate, or a basket for a smaller dog. Crates are very helpful when housetraining, as well.

Puppy training begins with teaching him his name and a few simple obedience commands. Dogs don’t automatically understand “sit, stay or down”. They won’t learn to respond to their names, if you don’t use it regularly.

Most owners find that a dog will respond best to a short name with one or two syllables. That’s why the names Rover and Fido are popular. To teach your puppy his name, say it when you are petting him, grooming him or feeding him. It is particularly important when you place his food dish on the floor. Say, “Here Rover” or something similar. This will ensure that your puppy has a positive association to hearing his name.

Other than his name, the most important command that you can teach during puppy training is “down”. Down becomes even more useful as the dog grows. If you allow them to jump up on you when they are young, it is more difficult to break the habit when they get older.

Puppies are hard wired to jump up. So, when you see this behavior, take their paws. Place them on the floor and say “down”. Be consistent and repetitive. That’s how to train your puppy the correct way, regardless of the behavior you are trying to encourage or extiguish.

Teaching commands is one of the fundamentals of puppy training. Basically, you show the dog what you want and then you say the command. For example, when teaching “sit”, take a treat and hold it right up to his nose, but not close enough that he can take it. Raise the treat up and above his head, this should put him in the right position to push his bottom towards the floor. Once his bottom gets close to the floor, say “sit”. He will learn to associate the word with the action of planting his butt on the ground.

All other commands are taught in a similar fashion. You see, how to train a puppy isn’t as hard as you thought it was. All it takes is a little know-how, plenty of repetition and of course, some patience.

The speed at which a puppy puts on weight varies depending upon the breed of dog and whether or not it receives enough exercise or food. There are general puppy weight estimates you can use as a guideline for raising your puppy, however if you suspect that your puppy is either over or underweight, talk to your vet for a confirmation.

You can use the Internet as a resource for finding out roughly how much your puppy should weigh at particular age plateaus. Many veterinary office and websites have a dog weight chart you can look at, which determines a dog’s healthy weight based on an age to size ratio for each dog breed.

Many sites will publish a separate chart for each dog breed, or you can ask your vet for a puppy growth rate guide. If you are at all unsure whether your puppy is a safe weight, simply pop into the vet’s office for a check-up. If anything is wrong, your vet will be able to advise you of the proper foods your puppy should be receiving, and in some cases recommend a diet food brand or issue a nutrition supplement for under-nourished puppies.

It’s a good idea to understand the breed of a dog before taking on the care of one. Larger breed dogs will usually put weight on more quickly than a smaller dog, and breeds which are particularly athletic may weigh more due to their muscularity. For instance, a hunting dog, such as an English Springer Spaniel won’t put on as much weight as an English mastiff, because Springer Spaniels are wiry/athletic where mastiffs are extremely large and less active. Each dog growth rate depends upon the ultimate size of the breed.

If you can’t seem to find any information on your dog’s growth rate, ask your vet if they would be willing to give you a guide for your pup’s first two years of growth, make a record of it, and keep it somewhere visible where you can check up often. A good place would be near your dog food storage area or on the refrigerator.

It often takes a dog a while to adjust to a new home. A dog crate can help make the transition easier for your new dog. Crates allow your dog to feel like they have a safe place. They are also an effective way to house train your dog. To have the best experience with a dog crate you need to buy the right kind. Dog crates come in different sizes so be sure to pick one that fits your dog. 
 
You may want to buy a crate that matches your dog’s fully grown size if you have a puppy. You do not want a crate that is too large or the dog may make a small part of the crate to use as a bathroom. When you find the right crate you will need to make it comfortable for your dog. One thing it is important to add is a soft dog crate bed. This turns the crate into a cozy haven where your dog can grab a nap or spend the night. 
 
Most dogs will be fine with a regular crate bed. Think about getting orthopedic dog crate beds if you have older dogs. Do not leave an older dog in a crate for a long time as their muscles can cramp up. You should make sure that your older dog comes out of the crate every few hours or so to walk around and stretch his legs. Some squeeze toys make a great addition to your dog crate. It is a good idea to rotate a couple of toys in at a time to keep your dog from becoming bored. Food and water dishes can be conveniently left near your dog’s crate. Once you are certain that your dog is house trained you can remove the crate door and let your dog have the freedom to go in out as he chooses.

Many dogs, today, are being mistreated and trained to be vicious guard dogs. So when you encounter a noble canine, it is enough to make you wonder, just what motivates some modern day dog “heros” we hear about in the news. What heros, you say? This German Shepherd dog really fits the bill

The incident took place on the highways of New York City and show how the German Shepherd is truley a dog that lives up to its iconic past. An unfortunate but familiar situation unfolded. A German Shepherd dog was struck by a car and left injured and helpless. But to the supprise of many who witnessed the scene another German Shepherd approached the injured dog and began to stand guard over his injured friend. Snaping and barking at any who came near, he protected his fellow canine even holding off rescue personell for a short while. After things calmed down a bit, the injured dog was able to be reached and was taken to the vet for medical assistance.

This breed of dog possesses a unique instinct that has enabled them to become loyal companions and perform valiant acts of heroism for their owners, many of them treated like members of the family. There are many stories told of Shepherds jumping in water, pulling victims to safety and protecting their owners from attacks from thugs. But the most unique was the one in Argentina where a female saved a newborn child that was abandoned in a field by its 14 yr old mother, took it to its own litter of puppies and kept it warm until discovered by its owner. Another was in Florida where the canine chased a 200 lb bear that invaded their property up a tree.

When we became owners to a very unfriendly German Shepherd, I was a little skeptical at ever letting it near my children or myself. Each day I spoke gently to him whenever I went near his fenced area and especially so when I fed him. Finally the weather was so cold and he looked so pitiful out side that I decided to bring him inside the house. He cautiously stepped just inside the door and lay down beside it. No further. After a few nights spent there by the door, he ventured over to the fireplace when he came inside. I felt better and so each night we all said good night and left him by the dying embers. One night when we went upstairs, Fonzie (I know) went with us as far as the stairs and slept there. I gave it no thought when, another night or so, he slept on the landing where the stairs turned.  Nor did I give much thought to his move to the top of the stairs a few nights later, nor the move to outside my door. It was a few nights later when he scratched on my door and I let him inside and he promptly lay down beside my bed. It was then that I realized I’d been duped. Never under-estimate the intelligence of a German Shepherd and never let it go to waist. trained German Shepherd program|Learning how to train a German Shepherd] can mean the difference between a great dog and a disaster.

Get more information at the following link for Dog Training information

Does your dog or even worse yet, your neighbor’s dog bark all the bloody time?
If so it’s pretty easy to reach your whit’s end rather quickly.

After a while you really couldn’t care less why the little nimrod’s doing it, you just want to make the barking stop. Does that sound about right to you?

Trust me, I understand what you’re going through all too well.
How would I know these feelings of frustration so intimately?

Simple, my wife got a small Poodle and the little bugger absolutely would not stay quiet for 10 minutes. I swear, if an ant walked across the driveway he would carry on for 15 to 20 minutes strait. I was just about out of my mind with the little loudspeaker.

Now, please don’t get me wrong, I love animals and I especially love dogs (cat’s I could live without). I don’t know about you personally, but I like well behaved dogs. 
So, not really wanting to incur my wife’s wrath for suggesting Fido be relocated several States away just to make the barking stop, I started researching to find a solution or at least find some options and find them fast.

Here are a couple of the things to stop the dog barking that I discovered:

All the books said “You must to find out why the dogs barking in the first place”. And I’m thinkin yeah, right, sure! I don’t care why the little dim bulb’s carrying on like a broken record, just make him stop.

But I do have to agree with them, there is good barking and bad barking. So when training your dog it is important to teach your dog the difference between nuisance barking and good barking (like if  it’s 2 am and I’m snoring keep quiet, but if you see a guy with a mask and a sack, Bark!).

As it turns out there is actually a lot of different kinds of barking, there’s reactive, territorial, separation anxiety, fear and warning barking. And without becoming a Sigmund Freud for Animal Planet tm I really couldn’t tell you which was which.

I did find a few things that actually worked really well. What the heck it only took 5 hours of reading & video’s and it cost more than the dog did to buy all the books to find one that worked.

But here’s one of the tips that it said that worked really good. Every time the dog barks give it a piece of bacon with 1/2 a Prozac stuck into it (ok, ok, so that was my solution and not exactly what the book said, but the dog liked it!) Just kidding around!

No really, what the book said was give the dog an alternate outlet. And because it might truly take me an hour and a half to watch the Television show 60 Minutes, I’m thinking, alternate outlet, WHAT! they want me to plug the little bugger into a wall socket?

Well, turns out I was wrong, they meant every time he starts yapping give him a toy and shake it around for a second so he gets the idea to play with it. This way when the dog starts feeling anxiety, nervousness or separation it will look for the toy and find comfort in it.

There are a ton more tips that I got at => http://stopdogbark.tripleyourinfo.com/

But I sure hope this one helps, it worked for me even better than the Prozac and at a buck a pill that stuff gets kinda spendy after a bit.