“Today’s dogs suffer from a lack of mental stimulation and quality time spent with “their” people. The resulting boredom and anxiety can lead to no end of physical and behavioral problems. Brain Training for Dogs is the solution! In a clear and concise manner, Adrienne Farricelli walks owners through a series of puzzles and exercises that will challenge and entertain dogs of all abilities.”
Potty training is a behavior your dog can learn quickly, provided that you supervise your puppy, stick to a schedule and reward successes. Supervision requires that you pay close attention to your dog at all times so that you can pick up on pre-potty signals. Use a properly sized crate for those times when you can’t actively supervise your puppy, as well as for nap time and bedtime. Scheduling your puppy’s life will help make his days pleasantly predictable and will enable you to better track his potty habits. Schedule his meals, nap times, play times and, of course, his trips outside. Finally, make sure to accompany your puppy outside for every potty trip and give him a small treat immediately after he finishes his elimination. If you wait until you get back in the house, your puppy won’t make the connection between his potty and the treat. Find more tips, check out "How to Potty Train Your Dog."

You want your puppy to be able to respond to you in various situations and places, so be careful not to limit training to one room of your house or corner of the yard. Practice commands in your home, backyard, front yard, surrounding neighborhood, woods, park or in any other location you visit with your pet. There are different distracting smells and noises in new areas, and you want to be sure your dog can still perform what he knows in different environments.

I had our 5 year old black lab out for a walk. We were approximately 1/2 hour away from the house when it started to thunder. He was quite scared but there was nothing I could do to get home any faster than walking. I spoke to him in a calm voice and during the walk back to the house there were probably 3 or 4 more rumbles. When we got in the house he wasn’t shivering like he’d normally be with load noises but kept next to me. A couple of nights later we started out for our walk again. I didn’t think about the thunder on our previous walk and we weren’t half way when he stopped and wouldn’t go any further. We were following the same path as the evening of the thunder. I tried to coach him to continue but he wouldn’t budge. When I turned and started back the way we came, he started to jump up and down, tail wagging and visibly happy.

It typically takes 4-6 months for a puppy to be fully house trained, but some puppies may take up to a year. Size can be a predictor. For instance, smaller breeds have smaller bladders and higher metabolisms and require more frequent trips outside. Your puppy's previous living conditions are another predictor. You may find that you need to help your puppy break old habits in order to establish more desirable ones.

The Dog Obedience Club of Lee County is located near the Fort Myers area. Founded in 1983, we are an AKC sanctioned, not-for-profit organization dedicated to making dogs better citizens through training. Whether you wish to compete in obedience or just want a well-behaved companion and best friend, we can help you train your dog. Our instructors have all raised and trained dogs from a variety of breeds and have achieved AKC Obedience titles on their dogs. They actively compete in AKC obedience, rally, agility, tracking and more.
Hi is like some advice. We bought home our beautiful husky puppy 3 days ago. I know not long. And she is gorgeous :). She was displaying. Nervous behaviour towards my 5 year old daughter growing and Nipping at her. She seems to have calmed a bit my daughter is still a bit scared of her. Today we took her for her first set of jabs and her microchip. When we went in the room she instantly started whining and backing up. When the vet went to run the chip machine over her and she freaked out and tried to bite the vet. She hadn’t even touched her. The vet said she was very worried about her behaviour and asked me questions about the breeder. We met them a few times with the mom and dad and they all seemed fine I never saw any nervous behaviour in her. They did tell me she was a little shy since all the other pups left (she was the last to go). The vet even asked if I could give her back As I have two young children. I said we really didn’t want to and want to try and work with her. In the end we didn’t do the micro chip as our pup kept going to bite the vet. And we just quickly did the vac so she is started her protection. She seems ok at home and very calm when it’s me and my partner. I realise we’ve only had her a few days but I really don’t wan her to bite my kids cause she is scared and need to fix this ASAP. Help please
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform—and even transform—its intended audience. Her writing can be found all over the internet and in print, and includes interviews, ghostwriting, blog posts, and creative nonfiction. Erin is a geek for SEO and all things social media. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Reach out to her on Twitter @ReinventingErin or learn more about her at http://erinollila.com.
^{Noise anxiety can be reduced through desensitization, too. You can play tapes of thunderstorms while dogs experience some sort of pleasurable activity, like getting a belly rub or eating a treat, to help them associate the noise with something good. You can also try blocking the sound with a radio turned on during noisy days when fireworks or other scary noises are occurring.}
_{The Thundershirt is a popular solution for dog anxiety. It is a tightly fitting garment that wraps around your dog. The idea is that the feeling of continuous pressure can help calm a dog's nerves for things like travel anxiety and, as the name implies, noise anxiety among other issues. However, there isn't much definitive science-based evidence to show that these actually work. Some dog owners swear by it; others have found it hasn't helped. The effectiveness of the Thundershirt may also depend on when and how it is used, and the particular personality and needs of the dog it is used on. So, something like this could be helpful if used alongside other natural solutions with each helping to enhance the benefits of the other.}
^{Step 1: Give the command to sit. After waiting five to eight seconds, go ahead and use the vocal command with a hand motion of your choice to tell your dog to be released from his sitting position. If you act excited while doing this, your dog should naturally release. When he does so, click and treat. Repeat this step until your dog is consistently releasing.}
Practice everywhere, with everyone If you learn that two plus two equals four in a classroom, you’ll take that information with you wherever you go. Dogs, however, learn very specifically and don’t automatically apply their knowledge in different situations and places as well as people do. If you teach your dog to sit on cue in your kitchen, you’ll have a beautifully kitchen-trained dog. But she might not understand what you mean when you ask her to sit in other locations. If you want your dog to perform new skills everywhere, you’ll need to practice them in multiple places-your home, your yard, out on walks, at friends’ houses, at the park and anywhere else you take your dog.

Readers, you can use treats to train and it doesn’t cheapen your relationship. Your dog loves you unconditionally, remember? It isn’t “bribery” any more than using toys, attention, etc. is bribery. I can’t tell you how many times I stepped on my puppy’s toes while he was learning to walk on a leash, and he still loves me. And even if it were, your dog (and you too) deserves the best quality of life you can give him, which means clear expectations and an enriching life, which requires good citizenship. If you have one of those dogs that isn’t food-motivated, you can still use positive reinforcement.

_{A dog also used to become anxious when we leave the house. This is also called separation anxiety. I helped my dog with that by doing desensitization and counter-conditioning exercises. The important thing with desensitization however, is that I had to make sure to prevent panic attacks from recurring. Each panic attack will undermine my dog’s confidence, make him even more anxious, and his behavior will worsen.}
Every dog needs to learn to walk on a leash. Besides the fact that most areas have leash laws, there will be times when keeping your dog on a leash is for his own safety. Learn how to introduce your dog or puppy to the leash, then teach him how to walk properly on the leash. A loose leash walk teaches your dog not to pull or lunge when on ​the leash, making the experience more enjoyable for both you and your dog.