5 Tips To Help You Get The Most Out Of Private Dog Training Lessons

October 10, 2016 by Fanna Easter

How to Prepare for Private Dog Training Lessons

Coming prepared to private dog training lessons will get you the best results. Private dog training lessons usually last 1-2 hours, and a great amount of information is discussed within that short period of time. To maximize private lessons, I recommend following a few tips to get the most bang for your buck. These tips will also ensure a smooth and stress-free private dog training lesson for you, your dog and your dog trainer.

Know Your Dog Training Goals

Before your first private lesson, really think about your and your dog’s training goals. Most pet owners focus primarily on what their dogs do wrong. Instead, flip your thought process around and figure out how your dog should positively respond in a situation.

Focusing on a solution is a game-changer because now you have a plan. Your dog trainer will teach you how to put your plan into action. A solution-focused example is teaching your dog to sit as guests enter through the front door instead of jumping on visitors.

Pack Yummy Treats

You’ll need at least 50-100 pea-sized training treats for each private dog training lesson. Remember, dog training treats are your dog’s paycheck, so reward with super yummy ones. Fresh treats always work best, such as chopped hot dogs, baked chicken or cheese.

Discuss 1-2 Topics Per Private Lesson

It’s so tempting to list all your questions and concerns during a private lesson because this is your chance to finally be heard. However, discussing too much information in such a short time will confuse you and your dog. Instead, choose 1-2 topics to cover per lesson. I ask clients to choose their most pressing issues, and we discuss them during our first private lesson.

Usually, once a pet owner’s main concerns are addressed, the other little things really don’t matter. If you have additional topics, I recommend scheduling another private lesson to discuss. Trust me, if every topic is discussed within a 1-2 hour time frame, it will leave your head spinning in confusion. 🙂

Have Realistic Expectations

Teaching new behaviors to your dog is a process; it will take longer than 1-2 hours. As professional dog trainers, we want instant gratification too, but dogs are living beings that need time to learn new skills. Think about it this way: if dog trainers could wave a magic wand or reset a few buttons on dogs, all animal shelters would be completely empty. 🙂

During private lessons, your dog trainer will show you how to teach your dog. Usually, a dog trainer will explain and demonstrate how to teach your dog a behavior and then provide feedback as you practice. It takes time for humans to learn too, so be kind and patient to yourself.

Move slowly, reward often and remember that practice makes perfect; hence, do your homework. Homework provides plenty of time for both pet owner and dog to learn together, so plan to practice homework 3-5 minutes each day.

Have an Open Mind

This is a huge tip! You’ve probably tried different dog training methods, suggestions or tips in the past, and they didn’t work out well. I highly recommend you open your mind and thoroughly listen to your positive reinforcement dog trainer’s suggestions.

Many times, certain tips and suggestions just need a few tweaks to clear up any confusion. Remember, each dog is an individual, so something that worked for someone else’s dog may not work for your dog. Your dog trainer will provide invaluable feedback, so absorb it like a sponge!

Preparation is key to success! Don’t be afraid to ask your dog trainer for additional preparation tips.

You may also like: Why Group Dog Training Classes are Worth It

Dog Shredding Paper Tips That Will Save Your Paper

October 7, 2016 by Fanna Easter

How to Stop Your Dog From Shredding Paper

Dogs love to shred paper. No one knows exactly why, but dogs just love it. Now, some dogs enjoy paper shredding more than others, and certain dogs enjoy swallowing paper once they’ve shredded it. When it comes to paper products, each dog has his or her preference. 🙂 Some dogs enjoy shredding and chewing tissue paper while other dogs enjoy anything made of paper. Regardless of your dog’s preferred paper product to shred, here are a few tips to stop your dog from shredding paper.

How to Prevent Your Dog From Shredding Paper

This dog training tip works best! If your dog has turned into a paper shredder, it’s best to keep paper products away from your dog. Keep extra rolls of toilet paper behind cabinet doors and place tissue boxes out of reach from your dog. If your dog shreds your mail, it’s best to keep mail on kitchen countertops or your desk.

Sometimes, dogs will raid your trash can too, so I recommend purchasing a heavy-lidded trash can. Now, if your dog is stealing paper from countertops or your desk (I know several dogs that are really good at this), I recommend placing paper products behind pantry cabinets or placing mail inside a lidded box.

Prevention doesn’t mean you’re ignoring your dog’s paper addiction. Prevention actually changes your dog’s behavior. When dogs are unable to practice a behavior (e.g. paper shredding or stealing), the behavior will go away. If your dog doesn’t have paper to shred, he’ll stop shredding paper.

Why Do Dogs Shred Paper?

Paper shredding behavior usually suggests a bored dog. I suggest providing different forms of daily mental enrichment, such as providing your dog with frozen food stuffed toys or puzzles. If your dog steals and shreds paper when you’re not home, it’s best to always crate your dog with a super yummy food stuffed toy. Prevention and mental enrichment are key.

How to Train Your Dog to Stop Shredding Paper

It’s going to happen; don’t worry. If you see or hear your dog shredding paper, here’s what you should do. Grab bits of cheese or lunch meat, and ask your dog to “trade.” Don’t chase your dog; just stand still and offer food from your hand. It may take a few seconds, but let your dog think through the situation.

The moment your dog walks toward the offered treat, toss the food in the opposite direction of the paper. As your dog goes for the thrown treat, grab the paper and discard it in a heavy lidded trash can.

Teaching your dog to “trade” is an invaluable skill. You never know what your dog will pick up and try to swallow. “Trade” isn’t bribery. You’re teaching your dog to drop something. After practicing the “trade” behavior several times, your dog will learn that “trade” means “drop whatever you have and get your reward for dropping it.”

What Doesn’t Work

Chasing your dog for shredding paper doesn’t work. It just becomes a fun game for your dog. Punishment doesn’t work either. If you yell or physically punish your dog for chewing or shredding paper, your dog will learn to shred and swallow toilet paper quietly in another room or when you’re not home.

Prevention and the “trade” game work wonders—even for the best paper shredding dogs in the world!

7 Tips On Being A Responsible Dog Owner

September 28, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Responsible Dog Ownership Tips

All dogs and puppies need a responsible pet owner. Responsible dog ownership goes beyond meeting your dog’s primary needs, such as fresh water, high quality food and climate-controlled shelter. Responsible dog owners need to meet their dogs’ emotional needs and keep their dogs safe and healthy too.

1. Meet Your Dog’s Emotional Needs

Dogs need more than water, food and shelter. They also need comfort, mental enrichment, kindness and compassion. It’s so important to connect with your dog daily. You can do this by taking a walk around the block, playing fetch in the yard, petting or simply talking to your dog.

When your dog is left home alone, it’s important to provide plenty of mental enrichment. Fill interactive dog toys with food, hide treats behind furniture or scatter your dog’s kibble on the floor. These simple steps will keep your dog mentally fulfilled even while you’re away.

2. Prioritize Regular Veterinary Care

Dogs are stoic, meaning it’s difficult to immediately notice that something is physically or mentally wrong with them. Even if your dog is rarely sick, you should bring your dog in for annual veterinary check-ups. During these check-ups, your veterinarian will carefully examine your dog, perform blood work and make recommendations if needed. When in doubt, have your vet check it out.

3. Keep Your Dog Leashed

Leashes are your dog’s safety lines. Dogs don’t understand that moving cars are deadly or wandering off is unsafe. Leashes keep our dogs safely with us. They prevent dogs from running off and unintentionally scaring or hurting other dogs, people or livestock.

4. Pick Up After Your Dog

No one likes stepping in dog poop. 🙂 Plus, dog poop spreads disease and intestinal parasites as well as attracts flies. Please pick up after your dog and properly dispose of your dog’s fecal matter. This responsible dog ownership tip even applies when you’re in your own backyard.

5. Train Your Dog

Just like human children, puppies and dogs need to learn polite manners. Enroll your puppy or dog into a group dog training class with a positive reinforcement dog trainer. Your puppy or dog will learn how to behave politely around other dogs and people. Plus, attending weekly group training classes will certainly meet your dog’s mental and emotional needs too. 🙂

6. Groom Your Dog

Regular dog grooming keeps your dog’s skin and coat healthy, and it provides a positive bonding opportunity between you and your dog. Remember, dogs are stoic. Responsible dog owners are more likely to notice lumps, bumps, swelling or painful areas during a grooming session. Brush your dog weekly and bathe your dog as needed. That could be weekly or monthly, depending on your dog’s coat needs.

7. Microchip Your Dog

Take 10 minutes and permanently ensure your dog can be safely returned to you if she should get lost. Collars with ID tags are great, but they can fall off or someone can take them off. It takes 5 minutes to microchip your dog and another 5 minutes to register the microchip with your contact information. Do it. It’s worth it.

Simple Solution To Stop Your Dog From Getting Into Your Trash

September 23, 2016 by Fanna Easter

How to Stop Your Dog From Getting Into Your Trash

It will eventually happen—your dog will attempt to or actually raid your trash can. While it’s annoying and gross, it makes total sense from your dog’s perspective. It’s a buffet in there! Unfortunately, dogs don’t understand that eating trash can make them really sick. Check out these foolproof and easy tips to stop your dog from getting into your trash.

Purchase a Trash Can With a Heavy Lid

You can certainly spend hours teaching your dog to leave a trash can alone, or you can purchase a trash can with a heavy lid. Honestly, purchasing a lidded trash can is a quick and extremely effective solution. It’s not fancy, but it stops your dog from getting into your trash!

A Little Story About Management

Let me tell you a little story about managing a dog’s environment. Years ago, I arrived at a client’s home for a private lesson. Before I was hired, this client spent thousands of dollars trying to teach his yellow Lab not to chew remote controls, yet it continued to happen. During our first consultation, I sat quietly for 30 minutes while my client explained that nothing was working. Clearly, this client was upset and his poor Lab was totally confused.

Finally, my client asked, “How would you fix my dog?” This was my cue to chime in. I politely and delicately suggested placing all remote controls inside a lidded box and keeping the box on the coffee table.

There was a long pause, and I held my breath. Did I offend my client? He sat down and began to laugh. After another long pause, he said, “Wow, I never thought of that. That would work.” Whew, and from then on, all remote controls were safe and my client’s yellow Lab lived a very happy life. Plus, the issue was solved within an hour!

Choosing a Lidded Trash Can

This is the most important step. I recommend purchasing a trash can with a heavy lid. You can tell when a lid is heavy when there’s a clanging sound upon the closing of the lid. Not all trash can lids are the same. It’s best to choose a smooth-edged heavy lidded trash can. That way the trash can is securely sealed. Even a tiny lip can easily be opened by your dog’s nose.

Put the Trash Can in a Cabinet

Dogs are super smart. When dogs practice a behavior for a long time, they get really good at it. If your dog has learned how to lift a heavy trash can lid, knock it over to open it or bump it just right, then try this tip.

Place your trash can behind a bathroom or kitchen cabinet. If your dog knows how to open your kitchen cabinet, place child locks or straps to ensure cabinet doors remain closed. Now, I’ve only seen this happen a couple of times, and both times these dogs were completely bored and left alone all day.

Will This Really Stop My Dog?

Yes, using a heavy lidded trash can really does stop your dog from getting into your trash. Rarely am I able to make suggestions that work this quickly. By taking these preventative measures, your dog will stop getting into your trash can. Imagine if your ice maker stops producing ice. You’ll keep trying to get ice from it until you learn it’s no longer working. And if you decide not to fix your ice maker, you learn to adapt your life around it. 🙂 It’s that simple!

What You Should Feed Your Dog for Better Health

September 16, 2016 by Fanna Easter

6 Ways to Boost Your Dog’s Health

As pet owners, we make health decisions for our dogs every day by choosing what they eat. We’re also responsible for preventing our dogs from getting sick. Boost your dog’s health with these dog health tips! As always, partner with your veterinarian when giving your dog any type of supplementation, especially if your dog is scheduled to undergo surgery.

Fresh Diet

We know fresh whole foods are better for us than ultra-processed or packaged foods, but did you know this applies to our dogs too? Feeding your dog a raw or home-cooked meal is a pretty important step in improving your dog’s health. Raw and home-cooked meals are made with real food that contain nutrients and fiber as opposed to kibble, which is cooked at high temperatures and loses its valuable nutrients.

Feeding raw or homemade meals will drastically improve your dog’s well-being. Within 30 days, you’ll notice:

Gleaming odorless coat
Supple skin
Odorless breath
Less itching

When feeding your dog, remember that balance is key.

Digestive Enzymes

If your dog has any type of tummy issues, eats dog poop or dirt, or has allergy issues, then you should add digestive enzymes to your dog’s daily meals. Digestive enzymes help your dog digest his food and utilize the nutrients. Just sprinkle digestive enzyme powder on top of your dog’s food, stir and serve. There are hundreds of digestive enzymes for dogs. Check out my favorites here.

Probiotics

This is a big one! Your dog’s gut is a vital part of his immune system, so it’s pretty important to keep it happy and healthy. Probiotics introduce good bacteria into your dog’s gut to keep bad bacteria in check. Plus, many foods need good bacteria to assist in digestion.

Most digestive enzymes already include probiotics because it’s good for digestive health. Select probiotics made for dogs because a dog’s gut needs different strains of good bacteria than that of humans.

Multivitamins

For years, veterinarians and pet owners debated whether or not they should add multivitamins to dog food, and I can totally understand their concern. Vets were worried about over-supplementation, which can be harmful and downright deadly when specific vitamins are supplemented. Since kibble (dry dog food) is processed, many vitamins are added back into kibble to meet a dog’s needs. However, not all dogs are absorbing and utilizing those vitamins.

Many veterinarians are now recommending whole food multivitamins for daily use with meals. As opposed to synthetic versions, these multivitamins are made from real foods, which is better for the body. Think about whole food multivitamins this way: our bodies utilize more vitamin C when consuming it from oranges than tablets. Plus, consuming real foods prevents over-supplementation. By far, my favorite multivitamin for dogs is Standard Process Whole Canine Support.

Fish Oil

Omega-3 and DHA are powerhouses for our dogs’ bodies. Just like the human body, fish oil reduces inflammation in the form of arthritis, allergies and chronic pain. Fish oil is also important for brain function of puppies and senior citizens, and promotes healthy skin and coat too.

When choosing fish oil, look for oils containing wild caught fish in capsule or liquid form. Start adding fish oil slowly to your dog’s daily meals. If you add too much too soon, it will cause your dog’s stool to be loose. My favorite fish oils for dogs are Ascenta Fish Oil and Nordic Naturals Fish Oil.

Vitamin D3

We all know the power of vitamin D, but we incorrectly assume that sun exposure provides our dogs with plenty of this vital vitamin. Our holistic veterinarian had recommended checking our dogs’ vitamin D levels, and both dogs had very low levels. Low vitamin D levels can contribute to congestive heart failure, thyroid dysfunction and many other serious health issues.

We started supplementing our dogs with vitamin D3 twice a day with meals. We noticed they seemed to be more relaxed, yet full of energy. Check out this article on the importance of checking your dog’s vitamin D levels and how supplementation will boost your dog’s health.

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