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4 Ways To Prepare Your Dog For Holiday Parties

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Preparing Your Dog for Holiday Parties and Guests

Prepare Your Dog For Holiday Parties
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Holiday season is in full swing, and everyone’s preparing their homes for festive gatherings. This week, I’ve been overwhelmed with private dog training lessons focused on teaching Fido polite manners during holiday parties. Before I share my recommended holiday safety tips for pets, it’s important that pet owners understand and set fair expectations for themselves and their dogs.

Having Fido lie leisurely under the dining table is a pipe dream. Yes, everyone wants this picturesque holiday moment, but it’s stressful and unrealistic for pet owners and their dogs. Additionally, holiday parties are noisy and confusing to dogs. And it only takes a second for your dog to run out the door while guests come in and out. Lastly, holiday guests can easily step on or unintentionally feed your dog dangerous foods.

By taking the time to prepare your dog for holiday parties, you can keep your dog safe and relaxed throughout the festivities.

1. Take Your Dog on a Long Walk

About an hour or so before your party guests arrive, take your dog out for a long walk. Ensure your dog has plenty of sniffing opportunities because sniffing is just as exhausting as walking. If the weather is terrible, play Nose Work, tug or fetch with your dog instead.

2. Prepare Pumpkin Stuffed Toys Beforehand

Giving your dog a yummy food stuffed toy will keep your dog’s brain busy during holiday parties. The night before your holiday party, prepare yummy food stuffed toys and freeze them overnight. In keeping with your holiday party theme, stuff bits of lean turkey (white meat with skin removed) and pumpkin into a food stuffed toy and store in your freezer.

If your dog is watching his waistline, mix pumpkin and blackstrap molasses together and stuff inside a toy. Pumpkin is a low calorie option and molasses provides a healthy, yet sweet taste that will keep your dog busy for hours.

3. Keep Your Dog Happily Contained

Place your dog’s crate in your bedroom and place cozy bedding inside. About 30 mins before your guests arrive, crate your dog and leave him with a food stuffed toy and a few treats. Close his crate door and turn on soft music. When leaving your bedroom, firmly close the door behind you. Post a note on the door saying, “Please don’t open.” This will ensure lost guests understand this door doesn’t lead to the bathroom.

4. Meeting Guests

Of course, you should introduce your dog to guests as long as your dog and guests are comfortable meeting each other. Once everyone has sat down with a beverage, bring your dog out on leash to greet everyone. Keep a stash of yummy dog training treats in your bedroom, and grab them as you’re walking your dog out to greet everyone. This is the perfect time to reward your dog for polite choices around guests and show off your dog’s skills. After 10 minutes, grab another frozen food stuffed toy and crate your dog in your bedroom again. Your dog will be exhausted after meeting guests.

Happy Holidays!

Is Your Dog Trainer A Bully?

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Signs You Should Find a New Dog Trainer

Good Dog Trainer
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Yes, you read that correctly. Some dog trainers are capable of bullying pet owners. Bullying behavior is common within all professions, and it happens within the dog training industry too. Some dog trainers can be downright mean to pet owners and dogs while others are sneakier about it. Is your dog trainer a bully?

Expectations of a Dog Trainer

Before discussing bullying behavior, it’s important to understand the expectations of a dog trainer. Dog trainers are hired to teach pet owners how to communicate with their dogs effectively. Of course, dog trainers can teach dogs polite manners quickly, but it’s pretty ineffective unless pet owners learn how to teach and reinforce polite behaviors themselves.

In essence, dog trainers teach people and not dogs. Since dog trainers teach people, they must have excellent communication skills. Professional dog trainers should treat pet owners and dogs with respect and kindness, set everyone up for success, use positive reinforcement training methods, and celebrate wins.

Belittles Pet Owners

When teaching pet owners how to communicate with their dogs, some dog trainers will belittle pet owners throughout the entire process. Dog trainers should not blame pet owners for their dogs’ behavior if pet owners are seeking professional help. Everyone makes mistakes; you do better when you know better. Dog trainers should acknowledge that, and then explain to pet owners what to do instead of focusing on negative behavior. Finger-wagging and blaming halts the learning process and teaches nothing.

Positive reinforcement dog trainers should treat clients with the same kindness and respect they would extend to their canine clients. Additionally, good dog trainers understand pet owners are learners, so they must adjust their communication style to ensure all learners understand the concepts. If your dog trainer is belittling you, then it’s time to find a new dog trainer.

Makes Questionable Choices

There’s no room for physical pain, force, fear or yelling in dog training. These methods do not work. Instead, punishment inhibits behavior and will cause anxiety and fear. Dog trainers should never recommend hurting dogs or putting dogs in a situation that makes their behavior worse. Additionally, dog trainers should not joke about a dog’s breed tendencies or assume all breeds of dogs learn the same because every dog is an individual. Dog trainers should never recommend physical corrections with collars, leashes, shock or force.

As an advocate for your dog, if something feels wrong, don’t do it and leave immediately.

Is Your Dog’s Behavior Improving?

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Improve Your Dog’s Behavior in 3 Steps

Dog's Behavior
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When teaching a dog one or several new behaviors, it can be tricky to gauge if a dog’s behavior has permanently changed. Dog behavior can fluctuate depending on the situation and your dog’s health (hey, he might not feel well that day). Before assuming your dog’s behavior has changed, it’s best to follow these steps to ensure your dog’s behavior improves. These steps will also help you identify where your dog’s behavior fell apart.

Step 1: Dog Readily Offers Learned Behavior

You’ll know when a dog has learned a new behavior when he readily offers it during dog training sessions. As an example, dogs learn how to “sit” pretty quickly, especially when they receive a treat for it. They will usually offer a “sit” behavior because it makes cheese appear. When teaching a new behavior, such as “down,” a dog should offer or can be easily lured into this behavior before you continue to step 2.

Step 2: Dog Responds to Cue

Once a dog offers or can be easily lured into a new behavior, it’s time to give it a “cue.” Putting a behavior on cue is extremely important because that’s how to ask a dog to perform a behavior (stimulus control).

If you would like your dog to “sit and stay” around guests, then these behaviors need a name, so your dog will know what to do when you say it around guests. Once a cue (sit) is paired with a behavior (sitting down), your dog should respond to the cue within a few seconds. Continue to practice until your dog responds within a second after hearing the cue. Rewarding generously will certainly speed up the process.

RELATED: Learn From Dog Training Mistakes

Step 3: Dog Performs Around Distractions

Most dogs can “sit,” “down,” “come” and “stay” at home, but can they perform these behaviors in the front yard or park? This is the most difficult part of improving a dog’s behavior. In fact, this is where most pet owners become frustrated and give up. As a general rule, when training your dog, 90% of teaching a new behavior is practiced around distractions. It’s great when dogs “sit” instantly on cue, but it’s even better when dogs can “sit” instantly when guests come over.

Moving from one step to the next certainly shows improvement, so keep practicing! 

Learn From Dog Training Mistakes

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Dog Training Mistakes Provide Valuable Information

Dog Training Mistakes
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When teaching dogs new behaviors, mistakes will happen. It’s part of the learning process. During a dog training session, either the pet owner (teacher) or dog (learner) will make a mistake. While identifying and overcoming mistakes seems complicated, it really is super easy with a few tips. When mistakes happen, remind yourself that they provide valuable information you can learn from.

Human Mistakes

It’s important to remember the dog is always right. Teaching is challenging, so reward your dog, especially when she picks up on a behavior quickly and easily. As the pet owner, it’s important to set your dog up for success by following these few easy steps.

  1. Always choose a distraction-free environment to begin training your dog a new behavior.
  2. Split the behavior into easy-to-understand sections.
  3. Encourage your dog by generously rewarding steps forward.
  4. Keep dog training sessions short (1 minute long).
  5. If progress stops, identify the issue and stop the training session immediately, then resume with an updated plan.

Here’s an example of setting a dog up for success when teaching her to lie down on the floor.

  1. Practice in your home with minimal distractions.
  2. Teach your dog to sit first. Once she sits reliably, lure her front half down with a treat. Click when elbows touch the ground and reward generously.
  3. Reward each step forward.
  4. Stop the session after 1 minute.
  5. If your dog won’t lie down, step back and figure out why. Maybe try teaching your dog with a mat under her elbows or slowing down your luring hand.

Dog Mistakes

When pet owners teach their dogs new behaviors, they are building a bond of trust between them as well as learning how to communicate effectively. Remember, dogs are considered learners during training sessions, so they can’t make mistakes. Dogs (learners) are always right even when they’re confused.

Pet owners (teachers) should remember that dogs are not choosing to be stubborn; dogs are genuinely confused in those situations. If this happens, end the training session and re-evaluate your training plan. If you find yourself frustrated because progress has come to a halt, seek advice from a positive reinforcement dog trainer.

Think about it this way: If you become confused while learning how to ski, then your ski instructor has not communicated how to ski properly. As a dog trainer, if my students become confused and make mistakes, that means I didn’t communicate how to do a behavior effectively—and I own it

Identifying Mistakes

This is the hardest part. Most pet owners immediately blame their dog when training sessions become confusing. Humans have huge egos. The best way to identify dog training mistakes is to record a training session on a smartphone.

Set up the phone, so both you and your dog are easily viewable, such as propped up on top of a table. Hit the record button, walk over and teach a 1-minute training session covering a difficult behavior. End the session, then watch the video to identify the issue.

About 90% of the time, pet owners immediately identify their mistake and adjust during their next training session. If you do this and are still stumped, send the video to a professional positive reinforcement dog trainer for advice.

Learn From Mistakes

Each mistake provides valuable information. When you learn what caused the mistake, you’re less likely to repeat it. Once mistakes are identified and changes are made, dog training success progresses quickly.

Why You Should Never Buy A Puppy Online

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Don’t Buy Dogs Online

Don't Buy Dogs Online
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Shopping online is so easy now; the world is literally at everyone’s fingertips. Online shopping offers varieties that were previously limited before. A perfect example of this is the variety of dog breeds available to consumers, giving rise to buying dogs online.

When searching for a puppy online, people usually select their preferred dog breed by reading descriptions and looking at the photos. Then, they click on links to breeders selling the puppies. This may seem convenient, but this is the worst way to bring a puppy into your life. Before buying a puppy or dog online, please understand these very common risks.

Are You Sure That Dog Breed is Right for You?

As a professional dog trainer, I’m shocked when potential pet owners choose a specific breed of dog based on Internet descriptions. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed senior citizens (in their mid-80s) purchasing robust Rottweilers, Bouviers and Belgian Malinois, all of which are large and highly energetic dogs that can easily knock someone over. Some people purchase Mastiffs because they wanted a large dog, but were unaware that this breed drools buckets of slobber every hour.

Most online breeders are trying to sell puppies quickly, so they will tell you anything you want to hear. These irresponsible breeders will tell potential pet owners a certain breed is perfect with children, other dogs, cats or whatever. There are pros and cons to everything, including different dog breeds.

How to Choose a Breed of Dog

Before choosing a puppy to bring into your home, take the time to meet several of these breeds in person. Local dog shows are a perfect place to meet and pet dogs, talk to knowledgeable dog breeders, and have all your questions answered. Another way to meet dogs is to contact reputable breeders from a specific breed’s AKC parent club (not the breeders listed on AKC’s website).

To find reputable AKC parent clubs, visit a search engine and type in your chosen breed’s name and “club of America” afterwards. Examples include: “Rottweiler Club of America,” “Bouvier Club of America” or “Belgian Malinois Club of America.” Reputable dog breeders will spend hours explaining the good, bad and ugly of a specific breed, and will always take their puppies back.

Online Puppies are From Puppy Mills

Puppy mills continue to breed dogs in horrible conditions to maximize profits. Online puppies’ parents are kept in rabbit cages, are rarely fed, and have never seen grass or sun. These poor dogs have no veterinary care and are treated as livestock. In the past, puppy millers would sell puppies on roadsides and to pet retailers that sell puppies. Due to the upsurge of protests from animal lovers, puppy mills now hide and sell their puppies online. Don’t let their prices fool you either. Many puppy mills sell their puppies at high prices, so potential pet owners assume they’re reputable breeders.

It’s a Gamble

Puppy mills select, and even steal, photos of cute puppies to post on their website or social media page. Irresponsible dog breeders will promise a perfect puppy and tell unsuspecting people whatever they want to hear until a money transfer has been completed.

Terrible breeders will convince them that their puppies were born and live indoors, which is never true. Plus, it’s impossible to verify because potential pet owners aren’t able to visit the puppy’s home.

Once people receive their precious puppy, most are shocked that their puppy doesn’t resemble the one in the picture. And it doesn’t stop there. They’ll soon realize their puppy has health issues after a well puppy vet visit, and feel like they’ve been bamboozled.

Fortunately, most pet owners won’t return their puppy because they feel sorry for him or her. It wasn’t the puppy’s fault the breeder didn’t care. However, for puppy millers, they’re beyond thrilled with your decision because they get to keep your money and will continue to pull the heart strings of other potential pet owners. It’s a lucrative business.

Only purchase a puppy from a reputable breeder or, even better, recuse a dog in need.

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

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