For the Dogz

The Right Leash and Collar for Your Dog

In the past, when people spoke of training collars, they really generally were referring to “choke chains.” A choke chain is a metal chain with a sliding ring that is attached to your dog’s nylon or leather leash.

There’s a reason it’s called a choke chain. Because there is no limit on how tight the training collar can pull against your dog’s neck, there exists a very real possibility it can choke him, as well as cause other injuries, such as:

• Severely sprained necks
  

• Tracheal and esophageal damage
  

• Injured ocular vessels
  

• Cases of fainting
  

• Transient foreleg paralysis
  

• Laryngeal nerve paralysis
  

• Hind leg ataxia

And if you think I’m kidding about any of these injuries: I’m not; they’re all well-documented cases taken from hundreds of veterinary practices who have treated the dogs injured by choke chains.

Bottom line? In the hands of an experienced trainer, a choke chain can be used appropriately, but for the most part, your average person has no idea what an appropriate use of a choke chain entails.

My own personal preference is for a flat buckle collar, either nylon or leather, which can be used for training and everyday use. It should fit snugly, but leave room enough for you to slide two fingers between the collar and your dog’s neck. Any looser than that, and it may slide off over your dog’s head. Any tighter and it may cause chafing and discomfort.

The choice of nylon or leather is simply a matter of personal preference – nylon comes in a variety of bright colors, and is a good choice for dogs that spend a lot of time in the water (or mud!) Leather is durable and will absorb oils from your dog’s coat, making it more flexible over time.

The width of the collar should be appropriate to your dog’s size. For example, a wide, heavy or thick collar just won’t work on a Chihuahua, in fact, it would look ridiculous. By the same token, if you have a Rottweiler, a diamond- or rhine-stone-studded poodle collar is going to look pretty silly. And don’t forget an identification tag – if your dog is lost or stolen, this is a quick way for authorities to notify you when your pet is located.

Another terrific solution is a harness – a device that goes around the neck and ribcage, thus eliminating the possibility of choking. Harnesses are an excellent resolution to the problem of having a large dog that hasn’t been well-trained and pulls or lunges when out for a walk. It’s a great way to restrain the pulling without getting in that choking “tug of war” that you sometimes see. Harnesses are also good for small dogs, which can have serious problems with collars pressing on their small and fragile airways.

Now for the proper leash. As with collars, you have a choice of flat nylon or leather (or braided leather is also available), and as with collars, it’s largely a matter of personal preference.

I use a 6 foot nylon leash for training my dog. I find it’s the perfect length for walking, heeling and virtually all of my training sessions.

Many dog owners prefer a retractable leash. These are nylon leashes that are encased in a plastic casing, and vary in length up to about 25 feet or so. The best models of this type have a one-button “braking” system that stops your dog from going beyond a set distance, as well as a spring mechanism that allows you to adjust just how far you want to extend the lead.

Retractable leashes are a good idea if you walk your dog in a variety of settings: you can “reel” him in if you’re on city sidewalks or in situations where there are a lot of people or other dogs around, then you can expand the distance between you when you get to the park or an open space.

(c) 2004 by Charlie Lafave, author, "Dog Training Secrets!"

To transform your stubborn, misbehaving dog into a loyal, well-behaving "best friend" who obeys your every command and is the envy of the neighborhood, visit the:

Why Your Puppy Nips - And 5 Ways To Get Him To Stop

Here’s a news flash – puppies nip!

Okay, I guess you already knew that. But here’s the surprise – you may actually be encouraging your puppy to nip. Let’s talk about how to stop this behavior before it grows up to be an adult-sized dog problem.

Puppies are a lot like babies – they use their mouths in part to explore their world. Little kids are forever sticking things in their mouth – from your favorite house plant to the bar of soap in the tub. That’s one of the ways they experience taste and texture, and figure out what’s good and what’s not. It’s all about experimentation.

Puppies are the same. They want to see just how soft your finger is, or what that leash tastes like. In addition, biting or nipping is an important part of learning social skills in their “wolf” pack – the social structure that makes up your dog’s life.

And with some breeds, such as Border Collies, biting or nipping is even more instinctive because of the nature of the breed – they’re born and bred to herd livestock, and that’s how a 50 or 60 pound dog will control a 1,000 pound cow – by biting at the heels or nose.

If your dog was allowed to remain with mom and his littermates for an appropriate amount of time (until at least 8 weeks of age), then mom should have taught him the beginnings of bite inhibition. As the pups began to grow and develop those needle-sharp little puppy teeth, mom would have disciplined him for being too rough, either with her or his littermates. Junior soon learns that all play will stop and he’ll get smacked down by mom if he gets carried away.

But when you get that puppy home, and he becomes part of the family, you may be encouraging him to nip by letting the kids run away from him, squealing and giggling in an effort to play “chase” games. While this is cute at the beginning, it can soon turn into a full-fledged problem when he’s no longer such a small, cute puppy, and views any child running away as fair game.

You can also encourage this kind of bad behavior by teasing him with toys – holding them just above his head and yanking them out of range when he jumps for the toy or nips at it. (This also encourages another bad habit: jumping.)

Here’s 5 things you can do to stop your puppy from nipping.

1. When your puppy does nip – stop all play

If your puppy nips too hard, say “Ouch!” in a loud-enough voice to surprise him (don’t start off by screaming!) and stop all play. Turn your back on him, and refuse to continue the game. He should come around to face you and find out what’s wrong – tell him “bad dog – no bite” in a firm tone of voice. Do this every time he nips until he gets the idea that nipping means no more fun.

2. Replace your flesh with a toy

When you’ve resumed play, and if your puppy tries to nip again, try replacing your hand or arm (or whatever’s being nipped) with a toy. Teach your puppy that you’re not the toy. Put a toy in between you and those needle-sharp teeth!

3. The Nose Tap

If your puppy nips turn to him immediately and give him the “sit” command. Take your forefinger and hold it up in front of his nose, then tap him on the nose and say “no bite” in a stern tone of voice. It’s important to note two things here: 1) the nose tap isn’t designed as a dire punishment – you’re not trying to hurt him, but rather startle him into stopping the behavior; and 2) your tone of voice is just as important as the nose tap. Don’t scream at him – your voice should be stern and give a clear warning – think of it as a verbal growl – something that he can understand as a dog.

An interesting result of this manner of breaking this habit is that down the road, when your puppy has learned to recognize the raised finger – he’ll usually stop whatever behavior he’s engaging in just because he knows what’s coming. You won’t even have to raise your voice – just lift that finger.

4. Don’t encourage biting or nipping in the first place

Don’t let the kids start “chase” games – that encourages dogs to think that the kids are prey. Don’t play games that involve waving your hands in front of your dog and encouraging him to jump or nip.

Don’t play tug-of-war with your dog – it will not only encourage him to think he’s your equal, it can promote nipping if you use a rope toy, for example, because he’ll try to bite at your hands to make you lose your grip on the toy.

Play games of fetch and retrieval, but be sure that your dog knows the “drop” or “release” command so you’re not fighting over the toy.

5. Be consistent

Stop the nipping behavior as soon as it starts, and be consistent about disciplining your puppy for it. Don’t let him get away with nipping on one day, and then discipline for the same behavior the next. Dogs don’t understand “sometimes it’s ok,” or “maybe it’s ok it you don’t nip too hard and I’m in a good mood.“ They understand “Don’t ever do that,” and “No more treats if you do that.”

(c) 2004 by Charlie Lafave, author, "Dog Training Secrets!"

To transform your stubborn, misbehaving dog into a loyal, well-behaving "best friend" who obeys your every command and is the envy of the neighborhood, visit:

5 Ways Your Dog Senses The World
Differently From You

Do dogs sense things differently than humans do? Well, yes and no. Dogs share the same basic senses with us: they see, hear, touch, smell and taste. But the level of their senses is different – an important distinction when you’re trying to figure out just what your dog is doing.

Sight

It was once thought that dogs were “color-blind” – only able to see shades of black and white with some grey, but scientific studies have found that’s not true. Dogs can see in color – ranging from blues and greens to greys and crèmes, and of course, black and white. It’s been estimated that humans can distinguish somewhere between 7 and 10 million different colors. (We don’t even have names for that many colors!)

Picture courtesy of Dr. P’s site: http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/dog.htm

But dogs have it all over humans in detecting motion – that’s one reason they can detect a cat up a tree at a much greater distance than you can! And their night vision is typically better than ours – dogs have an additional reflective layer in the eye called the tapetum lucidum, which reflects light back into the receptor cells of the eye, which not only increases their night vision, but gives them that spooky appearance of eyes glowing in the dark.

Hearing

When your dog is barking like crazy in the middle of the night, don’t just assume he’s lonely and wants you to get up and keep him company. He may be listening to something that you can’t hear, that’s extremely upsetting to him – like a burglar breaking in your basement window.

Dogs can hear at four times the distance humans can – that means you might hear something from a 100 yards away your dog could hear from a quarter of a mile away. Their ears are also better designed to gather more of the available sound wave – they have 15 different muscles that move their ears in all directions, plus they can move one ear at a time – and independently of the other to absorb even more information!

Touch

Dogs also have a well-developed sense of touch, surprising perhaps under all that fur, although this sense is much less sophisticated than a human’s. Puppies are born with sensory receptors in their faces so they can find mama even if they’re separated before they open their eyes. But they also can sense touch all over their bodies, just as humans can. One reason your dog flops down on the couch next to you and tries to snuggle up on a hot day (or any other day for that matter!) is because he likes the comfort of feeling that you’re right there!

Smell

We can’t even come close to our dog’s ability to smell things. It’s been estimated that a dog’s sense of smell is 100,000 times more powerful than a human’s. Scientists think that humans have about 40 million olfactory receptors, versus 2 billion for your dog! That’s part of the reason dogs make such good trackers, and can trace scents across all sorts of distractions – like across roadways or through dense woods.

Dogs also use their sense of smell as a communications tool – when they’re running around the park with their nose to the ground, sniffing everything in sight, they’re actually reading the calling cards of everyone – dogs, humans, cats, squirrels, and anyone or anything else, that has been there before him. Which is why he may not pay attention to you when you first get to the park – he’s trying to see if any of his buddies have been there before him!

Taste

Just as with humans, taste is closely linked to the sense of smell – the main difference is humans won’t eat something that smells bad; while dogs are the opposite – the smellier the better. Dogs will gulp first and ask questions later.

While humans many times won’t eat something that doesn’t look appealing, let alone doesn’t smell good, dogs are more concerned with smell, than taste. They frequently gobble down food before they have time to chew it, let alone taste it. But that’s ok – it’s why when we clean out our refrigerators our dogs think it’s time for treats.

So the next time your dog engages in some puzzling behavior, whether it’s barking for no reason, or ignoring you at the park, he might not be trying to irritate you – he’s just responding to a different level of senses than you are. Take a moment to look around and try and figure out what’s triggering his behavior before you get mad. Your dog could be trying to tell you something!

(c) 2004 by Charlie Lafave, author, "Dog Training Secrets!"

To transform your stubborn, misbehaving dog into a loyal, well-behaving "best friend" who obeys your every command and is the envy of the neighborhood, visit:

Dog Training Zone

5 Surefire Ways to Show Your Dog You’re The Boss

Do you have problems at your house with who’s in charge? By that I mean, does your dog think he’s the boss? In your effort to form a stronger bond with your dog you may have inadvertently told him he’s the Leader of the Pack. Here are 5 simple and effective ways to correct that.

You Must Be The Alpha Dog

First, let’s take a look at what a “pack mentality” means. Dogs are born into packs – in the wild, packs are the essential social order. Unlike humans, who use a variety of political processes to determine leadership and rank, dogs sort out their social order by dominance and power. In a wolf pack, there is a Top Dog – a clear leader who is the dominant, Alpha male. He’s the Big Dog, with pride of place at the dinner table (well, if wolves had a dinner table!), first in mating, first in decision making for the pack.

Whether you realize it or not, your dog views your household as his own personal wolf pack. The pack mentality is so engrained in your dog’s psyche that he will either view you as a leader - or a follower - depending on your actions. If you are to have a well-trained dog, you must establish that you are the leader, and he is the follower. Your dog has to know in his heart that you are the Alpha Dog, the Head Honcho, the Big Dog, the Top Dog – call it whatever you want, but your dog needs to know you’re in charge.

Dogs are a little like children in one respect – they’re looking for someone else to be the leader – they want rules and regulations because that makes their role in the pack more clear-cut and understandable. It’s scary being the leader – if you’re not up to it, your dog may assume the role – because someone has to be in charge!

If that’s what’s happened at your house, you need to re-establish your position as the Top Dog, or “Leader of the Pack.” But here’s an important note: being the leader of the pack has absolutely nothing to do with harsh punishment. It has everything to do with consistency and setting limits.

A simple rule to remember (and one people have great difficulty keeping in mind) is that you are the leader, not your dog.

1. You Go Through The Door First

Even something as straightforward as who walks through the door first can reinforce your position as “dominant dog.” Leaders lead. Followers follow. If you allow your dog to charge through the door ahead of you, he perceives that as asserting his dominance over you. Put your dog on the leash, and make sure you’re the first one through the door.

2. You Eat Before Your Dog

Who gets fed first in your house – you or your dog? In a wolf pack, the leader eats first, and when he is done, the rest of the pack can dine. Do you feed your dog first because he pesters you when you’re cooking your dinner, and it’s simply more convenient to have him quiet and out of the way when you’re eating?

Food is a powerful motivator that can be used to clearly demonstrate who is the ruler of the roost at your house. In no way, shape or form am I suggesting that you withhold food from your dog – that’s cruel and unusual punishment any way you look at it. What I am suggesting is that you control the timing of the food – you should eat first, your dog second, after you’re done with your meal.

3. Don’t Walk Around Your Dog

Does your dog lie on the floor and expect you to walk around him? In the wild, dominant dogs lie wherever they want, and dogs lower in the social order go around so they don’t disturb the Big Dog. If you walk around your dog, he will assume this to be an act of submission on your part; therefore he must be the leader, not you.

If your dog is lying in the middle of the hallway, or right in front of your easy chair, make him move. If he’s on the couch and you want to lie down, make him move. Don’t step over him. Just gently nudge him and make him get out of your way. You’re the Big Dog, remember?

4. You Determine When Your Dog Gets Attention

Even asking for attention or affection can be seen as an act of dominance from your dog’s point of view. Dogs that demand attention are asserting dominance, so if your dog gets pushy, ignore him. When you’re ready to give him attention or affection or pet or play with him, ask him to sit first.

Don’t run after him just so you can pet him. Make him come to you when you’re ready to give him attention, or play with him. And when you play with a toy, make sure that you end up with possession of the toy, and then put the toy away when you’re done. (Note: I’m not talking about his favorite toys that you leave in his crate. I’m talking about play toys that the two of you use for games.)

5. Don’t Let Your Dog Sleep In Your Bed

This is a tough one for a lot of people, but when you let your dog share your bed, at best you’re making him an equal to you. He should have his own bed, either a dog pad or his crate that he feels comfortable in – you can even put the dog pad next to your bed if that makes both of you happier – but don’t let him take over the sleeping arrangements. Before you know it, he’ll be trying to make you sleep on the floor!

Again, reinforcing or retraining your dog to recognize you as the Head Honcho has absolutely nothing to do with harsh discipline. These are changes you can make that will change the way your dog thinks about you. And making even small changes like these can have an enormous impact on the way your dog views the social hierarchy in your home – all without a harsh word being spoken!

(c) 2004 by Charlie Lafave, author, "Dog Training Secrets!"

To transform your stubborn, misbehaving dog into a loyal, well-behaving "best friend" who obeys your every command and is the envy of the neighborhood, visit: