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Once you have reached the level in training your dog where he is not fooled by distractions or temptation, you are then ready to proceed to the next level of training – how to heel correctly.

If your dog cannot walk comfortably at your side, there is no way you’re going to teach him anything about being obedient. He must learn to heel properly and focus his full attention to you.

You will be using a six-foot leather training leash for this phase. During this stage of training, you will teach your dog to walk beside you like a gentleman. He will learn to automatically sit at your side when you stop.

No Punishment Needed

The right attitude cannot be achieved if your dog is mistreated or abused. To restrain or choke the dog on a short, tight leash, to hit him in the chest, or to smack his face with the end of the leash while trying to teach him to heel will result, among other things, in a completely negative attitude in the animal.

Starting Position

To begin, you will notice that your leash has a loop in one end. Place your right thumb through that loop. With your left hand, grab the leash at the middle section and place it in your right hand. Notice that the dog is on your left side, but that the leash is held in your right hand. This will seem a little awkward at first, but your left hand will be doing other things.

Do not form the habit of trying to restrain your dog at your side by holding him up close with the left hand on that leash. Remember, you want to train your dog, not restrain him. Forget about everything that you were told or read about restraining a dog tugging at your side in the hope that he will get the idea that this is where you want him to walk. That idea will never occur to him.

There is an important characteristic of an untrained dog on a leash that will become obvious to you during this stage of training. This dog wants to feel a tight leash! If there’s a slack in the leash, he has no way of calculating its exact length. On a tight leash, he can lunge and pull and go through all kinds of twists and turns, because he has the security of feeling where the other end of the leash is. Therefore, it is very important that you don’t give in to your dog’s wishes by walking him on a tight leash.

Posted under Dog Training

This is the day of the final exam, and graduation!

Cut the long line in half, and allow the dog to drag about 15 feet of line. Have a member of your family release the dog in the front yard, still dragging his line.

You should position yourself in the backseat of your assistant’s car. Have your driver make as many passes as is necessary to convince you that your dog has kicked the habit, is now reformed, and views automobiles with absolute disgust.

The most hardheaded, stubborn dog, who views the short line, and your absence, as a reason to go charging, is in for quite a surprise. At his charge, have your driver stop the car. The shock of you emerging from the car will shock the dog even more than before. Now grab the line, jerk your disobedient dog toward you, making sure that his two front feet leave the ground and remain airborne, while you apply the loudest verbal assault you have even given him.

Really lay this disobedient chewing into the dog, making it count!

Keep in mind that this could mean life or death for your dog in the future so do not feel bad about laying your anger into him in order to communicate through the animal’s mind.

Remember that there can be no such thing as compromise. Your dog will either associate this experience with displeasure, or not. It’s up to you to make sure that it is as displeasing as humanely possible. Send the dog scampering back into his yard as you get back into the car and drive away.

A Final Word For All Of The “Humanitarians” Out There

For the humanitarians who will gasp and point the accusing finger at this perceived “inhumane” way of training a dog, let us remind you that we are literally training your dog to avoid a bloody, painful, flesh-tearing death. And remember that the dog will always be a victim, the car’s occupants will be shocked, and the culprit will always be the dog’s owner.

A few days of jerking your dog by the line, yelling and screaming, and using shock therapy to create the association of displeasure with a moving vehicle, is nothing compared to your family dog lying around on the streets for hours with broken bones, torn flesh, mangled body parts – all the while motorists drive-by without a care in the world until finally somebody stops, only to be too late as your lovable canine passes away.

Isn’t your dog worth it?

Posted under Pet Safety

On the second day of training your dog not to chase cars and other moving objects, the exact sequence should be repeated as day one – with the dog dragging the thirty-five foot line. In each instance where an automobile passes without the dog yielding to temptation, he earns your praise; genuine, enthusiastic praise!

Let him get started with his charge before you make a grab for the end of the line. If he detects you moving for the line and breaks off the charge, you must follow through with the sequence just as if he had gone all the way through the chase behavior. Any dog smart enough to sense a correction coming, and modify his actions accordingly, soon will be playing a game of “catch me if you can”.

Your dog must know that any infraction, however slight, automatically brings the full force of the correction. At the conclusion of the day’s lesson, confine the dog away from temptation as before.

Day 3

By the time the third day rolls around, your dog will be getting the idea that you don’t want him chasing cars, that his actions in doing so displeases you greatly and causes you to get angry.

So far, you have made the first breakthrough in communications with education. On the third day, you must broaden this education to include the automobile as an object of displeasure, and tied this in with your displeasure.

You will need the assistance of a friend or neighbor on the third day, who will volunteer to drive their car. You will also need a few additional training aids. Three or four tin cans tied together on a string should be in the front seat beside the driver, along with an empty aluminum soda can with about 10 or so pennies inside, and maybe a few water balloons.

Allow your dog to drag the line around the yard while you go inside and out of sight. Watch your pet from a concealed vantage point. As the dog charges the car, the driver should let go of the tin cans (without slowing down). You don’t want the cans to actually strike your dog, but rather scare the animal by the loud clinking noises.

This action is followed immediately you, the dog owner, emerging from your place of concealment, grabbing the line, and reeling the dog in for a good shaking and a verbal chewing out.

Meanwhile, the driver circles the block and you should retreat back into the house, leaving the dog alone for the next pass of the automobile. On the second pass, and each succeeding pass where the dog makes no attempt to charge the car, you should emerge enthusiastically, and give your dog an over-abundance of praise.

If the dog chooses to charge the car, the driver should let go with another shocking training aid. Four or five such passes should be all that is necessary. Even if the dog starts to charge, but aborts his goal before he gets close enough for the driver to let go with the tin cans or water balloons, you must emerge from the house, grab the line, and verbally chew out the dog once more.

You may be asking why should the dog be corrected if he changes his mind in the middle of the charge. In the mind of a dog, things are either black or white. There are no gray areas in between. To a dog, and owner who is willing to compromise is an owner who is willing to surrender unconditionally. Therefore, the dog must be corrected for any overt movement toward passing cars, so that he eventually comes to realize the necessity of ignoring the car altogether.

Posted under Pet Safety

As dog owners, we are left with the necessary task of finding a way to educate our pet to let him know that chasing cars, and bicycles, however thrilling and pleasing, simply will not be tolerated any longer.

Because we cannot appeal to our pet’s intellect, and share a cup of coffee together as we discuss the problem of car chasing, we must ensure that each and every instance of chasing culminates in a displeasing (and very humiliating) experience for the dog.

Because no two dogs are exactly alike in personality and temperament, neither can there be just a single method to accomplish educational lessons for all dogs. Your dog may respond to just one particular method, and he may get the message quickly. You may have to use a combination of several methods and the schooling may take up to four days because it takes the average dog approximately four to five days to learn the average thing.

An important key is consistency. Consistency here doesn’t mean selecting one method and sticking to it, instead, consistency is desired in that each instance of car chasing must culminate an unpleasant consequence which the dog must be able to relate to his action of chasing the car.

You can’t run out the door, after the fact, or even during the actual chasing, call your dog to you and beat him senseless, and expect them to learn anything. If that type of action resulted in learning, it would simply be his response in your command “come” would result in getting his brains knocked in. The dog must be able to relate the consequences to the act of car chasing, and nothing else!

Tackling this problem will require time, effort, and perhaps some creativity on your part. If you truly love your dog and are concerned for his safety, the safety of others, and your personal liability, you’ll devote the next four to five days to the task of convincing your dog that car chasing always will conclude in an unpleasant consequence.

Day 1

Tie a length of clothesline rope to your dog’s standard slip-chain training collar. About 35 feet of line will do just fine. Allow the dog to drag the line around the yard. Position yourself close to the end of the dragging line to await for your “opportunity”.

Act relaxed, but keep one eye on the dog and the other on the end of that line. Do not give any attention to your dog so when an automobile approaches, watch for the moment he starts his barking charge. You want your dog’s attention focused entirely on the car during that specific moment.

When that moment has arrived, pick up the end of the line and jerk it as hard as you can, giving it everything you’ve got. This jerk should put a shock into your dog as he is stopped in mid-air. Pull the line and when your dog is at your feet, give the animal an abrupt shaking, enough to really give him the message. Verbally shock him as well, with loud, angry words, showing your complete and total displeasure.

The foregoing procedure must be fast accomplished. Remember, the dog must be able to relate this displeasing series of events with his act of chasing the car. If you’re too slow to jerk the line then the dog’s mind will sidetrack to something else. And just as the timing of the pool is important, so is the importance of your verbal assault, ensuring that he knows you are unhappy with his decision to chase the car.

Posted under Pet Safety

According to the canine nutritional experts, a ninety pound adult German Shepherd can require up to seven cans of dog food per day. A sixty pound Collie can require five cans per day. For the average household, this can become an expensive choice.

Dry dog foods, on the other hand, contain only about ten percent moisture - the other sixty five percent having been removed intentionally during the dehydration process. The dog owner is expected to replace the moisture either by providing the dog with ample amounts of water alongside the feeding dish, or by adding it directly to the dry food. Feeding directions on labels of dry dog food are very explicit about this.

The drawback in feeding dry dog food usually has been caused by the dog owner having allowed the family pooch to enjoy table scraps. Eating people-food accomplishes absolutely nothing for Sparky’s nutritional needs, and simply creates the problem of the finicky eater.

Under the mistaken belief that he’s doing the dog a favor, the dog owner is really robbing the animal of nutrients that are rightfully his - taking food right out of his mouth, so to speak.

In the middle of the scale are the “soft-moist” products which contain more moisture content than dry foods, but considerably less than the canned foods. They are the easiest of all three types to prepare, but are far and away the most expensive. Probably, they are economically most suitable for the small dog.

A compromise solution for the family with the finicky eater as well as the family with a limited dog food budget might be a combination of both canned and dry. Mixing two types – each balanced nutritionally – does nothing to upset the interrelationships of the nutrients.

It’s much easier to control the weight of the family dog when this combination is used. Rather than cut down on the volume intake of the obese dog, a decrease in the amount of dry food, with corresponding increase in canned food will accomplish this without having a constantly hungry dog begging for handouts.

On the other hand, increasing the amount of dry food, with a corresponding decrease in canned, may help to bring the weight up on the dog that has a tendency to be skinny.

The diet of today’s pet dog has come quite a long way from the old days of being fed whale blubber, potatoes and cornbread. Now if manufacturers would take just as much interest in human foods… but for now, if your dog’s choice between caviar or a commercially prepared, balanced dog food, he’d be wise to select the dog food. Pound for pound – and dollar for dollar – the dog and his owner would be way ahead.

Posted under Pet Nutrition