How to Get Your Puppy Used to a Collar

August 22, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Training a Puppy to Wear a Collar in One Week

Puppy Doesn't Like His Collar — ChrisLeRoy/iStock

Puppies aren’t born wearing collars, so when a collar is first fastened around a puppy’s little neck, it can feel strange for her. Most puppies will bite, scratch, turn circles or refuse to walk while wearing a collar. This is totally normal behavior. As pet owners, it’s our job to train a puppy to wear a collar.

How to Teach Your Puppy to Wear a Collar

Once your puppy is home, it’s time to teach her that wearing a puppy training collar makes good things happen. Move slowly and reward your puppy often while she’s wearing a collar.

Choose the Right Puppy Collar

Puppies should wear an expandable flat buckle collar without tags at first. ID tags can be a bit distracting, as most puppies will mouth or paw at the dangling bits of metal clanging under their chins. They’re simply too distracting for an inquisitive puppy. After a week of your puppy successfully wearing her collar, then you can add ID tags.

Puppies, or all dogs really, shouldn’t wear choke chains, cloth slip collars or prong collars. They need a flat buckle collar. Harnesses are OK too, but make sure the straps don’t rub against your puppy’s skin, apply pressure to your puppy’s neck or restrict her movement.

Give Her a Food Stuffed Toy

Before introducing a collar or harness to your puppy, fill a toy with food and freeze overnight. Now, fasten your puppy’s collar in place and immediately give her the food stuffed toy to enjoy while she’s wearing her collar.

Once she’s emptied all the food from the toy, remove her collar and toy and place both up high, so she can’t reach it. Practice this several times a day. Feel free to stuff your puppy’s regular meals inside of a food toy for additional practice sessions. By pairing good things with the sensation of wearing a collar, your puppy learns that collars are harmless and pretty darn fun.

Puppy Doesn’t Like Her Collar?

If your puppy starts pawing or scratching her collar, distract her by playing a 1-2 minute game of “touch.” Distracting her without saying “stop” or “no” gives your puppy something else to do instead of worrying about the collar on her neck.

Learn how to teach the “touch” behavior in the video below. This dog training game is easy to teach and extremely useful in many different situations. The “touch” behavior is vital—so much so that it’s the first behavior I teach during dog training classes or private lessons.

WATCH: Teach Your Puppy the “Touch” Cue

https://youtu.be/d-spTywRXEo

Teach Collar Pressure = Treats

Once your puppy is completely comfortable with the sensation of a collar, it’s time to teach her that collar pressure makes treats happen. Collar pressure can cause a puppy to freak out because she may not be used to feeling pressure against her neck, which limits her movement.

Collars can scare puppies so much that they will usually hop, buck, or “pancake” on the ground and refuse to move forward. If this happens, immediately stop the pressure by walking over to your puppy or letting go of her collar, and practice the collar pressure game.

When teaching collar pressure, you’re not pulling against your puppy. Instead, you’re holding your puppy’s collar in place while your puppy pulls against it. The moment your puppy stops pulling against the collar, you click and reward your puppy.

Pulling against pressure is a natural reaction to restraint; it’s called opposition reflex. Your goal is to teach your puppy to move with pressure. This is the first step when teaching loose leashing walking and teaching your dog to walk with you while touching her collar. Plus, every time your puppy pulls against her collar, it increases her chances of injury in her neck area.

Practice this dog training behavior several times a day with super yummy treats. If your puppy balks when you reach for her collar, take a step back and teach her that collar touches are a good thing.

WATCH: Dog Training Tip: Teach Collar Pressure

https://youtu.be/I39BE4xOnLY

Attach a Leash

Always teach your puppy how to wear a collar first, then master the collar pressure game before attaching a leash to her collar. On average, it takes about a week for a puppy to feel comfortable wearing a collar and respond well to collar pressure. Attaching a leash to your puppy’s collar is a completely different lesson. Check out this article on teaching a puppy to walk on leash for additional details.

Puppies are tiny little sponges. Take advantage and teach them that the world is full of fun!

DIY Comfy Alternative To The Cone Of Shame

August 18, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Homemade Dog Cone Alternative

Sooner or later, it’s going to happen. One day, your dog will need to wear the dreaded cone of shame. Honestly, I think an Elizabethan collar (plastic dog cone, cone of shame, e-collar, etc.) has earned a bad reputation. It’s all about perspective, right? In our home, we call dog cones “party hats” because we make them fun to wear. If your dog absolutely hates wearing a plastic dog cone, give this homemade dog cone alternative a try.

Disclaimer: Hands down, a plastic Elizabethan collar works best. There’s no comparison. Always follow your veterinarian’s advice. If you decide to try a towel dog cone alternative, partner with your vet first.

Meet the Towel Dog Collar

Last year, my Rottweiler chewed a couple of hot spots between both front paw pads. As part of our vet’s recommended treatment plan, we were told to focus on preventing my dog from licking the area. He’s pretty happy wearing a plastic dog cone, but I wanted to try a dog cone alternative—something that would be more comfortable while sleeping. I call this DIY dog cone alternative a towel collar and it works really well.

When designing this homemade dog cone alternative, I used the Bite Not Collar as inspiration. This dog collar resembles a human neck brace. It prevents dogs from turning their necks from side to side or downward, but this collar wasn’t perfect. The bottom edges would dig into my dog’s shoulders—ouch! Hmm, I thought maybe I could make something a bit better.

Using the Bite Not Collar design, I rolled up a thick towel and taped it into place. It took several days of trial and error, but I finally figured out how to keep the towel securely in place without putting too much pressure around Sobek’s neck, head and shoulders. Also, since the dog cone is a soft towel, no edges dug into my dog’s shoulders!

How to Create a Towel Dog Collar

You’ll need a thick towel, duct tape, smeared plate of peanut butter, friend to hold the peanut butter in front of your dog’s face and, of course, your dog. When picking peanut butter, make sure it doesn’t contain xylitol. If your dog is unable to stand still while you wrap the dog cone towel around his neck, check out these easy tips that will keep your dog happily standing still.

Step One: Choose a Towel Size

Depending on the size of your dog, choose a thick towel that can easily be folded into thirds and covers your dog’s neck area only. For my large Rottie, I used a super thick full-sized towel (a beach towel was too long). Several friends tried this method successfully using a kitchen towel for smaller dogs and a washcloth for very tiny dogs (under 10 pounds).

Step Two: Fold Towel

Fold the towel into thirds lengthwise. This way you can wrap the towel around your dog’s neck slowly.

Step Three: Don’t Wrap Too Tightly

Have your friend hold a smeared plate of peanut butter in front of your dog’s mouth, as you start wrapping the towel around your dog’s neck. When wrapping, make sure the towel isn’t too tight. Otherwise, your dog may choke or experience neck pain or breathing issues. Once wrapped, make sure your arm can easily fit between the wrapped towel cone and your dog’s neck.

For smaller dogs, make sure your hand or at least two fingers can easily slide all the way down between your dog’s neck and towel. If it’s too tight, rewrap until it’s just right.

Don’t worry. It will take a few tries to make sure the towel fits correctly, and hence the benefits of a smeared plate of peanut butter to keep your dog busy while you experiment.

Step Four: Tape in Place

Mimicking the Bite Not Collar straps, cut three pieces of duct tape to wrap 2/3 around the towel. Place one tape strip at the top edge of the towel, place the second strip at the bottom edge and, lastly, wrap the third strip around the middle of the towel collar. Stick your hand between your dog’s neck and the towel to ensure the towel dog cone wasn’t pulled too tightly while taping.

Was My Dog OK Wearing This Dog Cone Alternative?

Thankfully, my Rottie, did well with his homemade dog cone alternative; and it stopped him from chewing on his front feet. He was able to sleep, eat, drink and potty comfortably, and he looked adorable wearing it too. 🙂

Every day, I would remove the towel dog cone and rewrap it. If you don’t rewrap it each day, the towel will lose its fluffy thickness and your dog will be able to turn his neck around. Throughout the day, make sure the towel doesn’t twist and tighten. If the towel gets dirty, take it off and wrap a new towel in its place; it’s super easy.

If you decide to give this DIY dog cone alternative a try, supervise your dog for the first few days of him wearing it and always partner with your veterinarian first. If your dog has neck pain during or after wearing his towel collar, remove it and contact your vet immediately.

WATCH: How to DIY Dog Cone Alternative

https://youtu.be/M4LzVp3vLMI

Building an At-Home Dog Agility Course

August 4, 2016 by Fanna Easter

How to DIY Dog Agility Equipment

It’s super simple to create your own dog agility equipment for your home. All you’ll need is your imagination, a few PVC pipes, broom sticks, laundry baskets, lots of super yummy treats and your dog. If you’re not the handy type, you can certainly purchase dog agility equipment. However, DIYing your own agility equipment for dogs is super fun. 🙂

Dog Agility Training

Dog agility has been around for years, and it’s a blast! Both handler and dog must complete a dog agility course in the shortest amount of time without knocking over any equipment. The handler points her dog in the right direction, and the dog soars over, under and through agility obstacles in seconds. It’s amazing to watch, participate and teach. I look forward to teaching dog agility classes every week!

Great for Shy Dogs

While agility is a super fun and active sport, it’s also great for timid or shy dogs that need to build confidence. When a timid dog is able to have fun crawling through an enclosed dog tunnel, his life changes for the better! He learns that things really aren’t as scary as they seem. The timid ones eventually soar through the agility course alongside the gregarious dogs!

Popular Dog Agility Equipment

For the most part, dog agility requires a few standard obstacles, depending on a dog’s skill level. It’s important to keep things super simple in the beginning until your dog builds confidence and is comfortable enough to walk on obstacles off the ground. I recommend the following dog agility equipment.

Just as a reminder, make sure all dog obstacles are on a non-skid and soft surface, such as grass. For indoor versions, you should add soft rubber non-skid rugs on both sides of or under an obstacle.

Jumps

Easily the funniest part of dog agility training and one of the most popular parts of dog agility equipment are jumps. Everyone enjoys watching her dog fly over jumps. There are so many different types of jumps, and most can be made with everyday household items.

How to Create Jumps

If you’re on a budget, you can purchase two plastic laundry baskets with multiple holes on all sides and a broom. Push the broom through both laundry baskets, and move both baskets toward the end of the broom. Voila, you have a jump! Always start on the lowest level (i.e. broom stick on the ground). Once your dog aces jumping over a low broom handle, you can move the broom up gradually.

Never force a dog over a jump. It’s important your dog learns how to jump over an agility jump on his own. Try tossing a treat over the jump, so your dog is forced to walk over the broom to get the treat. If your dog goes around the jump (smart dog!), try luring him over the jump with a treat. Additionally, while we want to challenge our dogs, always keep safety and your dog’s abilities in mind.

Ladder/Cavalletti

An agility ladder is a bit different than a regular ladder in that it’s placed flat on the ground instead of against a wall. By placing a ladder on the ground, your dog learns to pick up his feet as he walks over each rung. For this dog obstacle, you can use a regular ladder placed on a soft non-skid area.

Cavalletti refers to single pole jumps that are slightly off the ground. It’s a common term in the horse world.

How to Create a Ladder

If you want to get super fancy and raise the height of a ladder rung for cavalletti, create an agility ladder with PVC piping. You can also use the above jump idea as inspiration by purchasing 10 laundry baskets and 5 wooden poles (or brooms), and set them up as a jump.

Move the jumps close together with a six-inch or one-foot gap between each jump (larger gap for bigger dogs). Always start with the poles on the ground. Once your dog progresses, move the poles up the laundry baskets in small increments. Don’t forget to lure your dog over each rung. Better yet, place one treat between each rung. This will slow your dog down, so he doesn’t walk on the rungs instead. 🙂

Dog Tunnels

I’ve never figured out how to make a DIY dog agility tunnel that lasts more than a few sessions, so I recommend purchasing an agility tunnel. Once your dog becomes addicted to running full blast through a tunnel, a DIY or cheap option will shred in minutes.

High-quality dog tunnels usually cost more than $100. These are made of super durable material, can expand from short to long and can take a beating. If cost is an issue, the HDP 18-Ft Dog Agility Training Open Tunnel is a great buy for under $40. It can be purchased on Amazon. Just make sure to shorten the tunnel when teaching your dog to go through it.

Dog Tunnel Training Tips

Teaching your dog to walk through a tunnel can be tricky. When dogs balk at agility equipment during class, it’s usually the tunnel. Please, never force your dog through a tunnel. Shorten the tunnel and grab lots of yummy treats. Toss treats through the tunnel, so that your dog must step through it to eat the treats.

You can also ask a friend to stand on the other side of the tunnel opening and call your dog through it. Expand the tunnel in small increments once your dog willingly and happily walks through the tunnel.

Where to Store

A dog agility tunnel is super addicting! When not in use, fold the tunnel up and store in an area where your dog is unable to reach. Trust me, if you keep a dog tunnel available in your backyard at all times, your dog will likely be running through the tunnel instead of pottying. As for indoor tunnels, I leave ours out in the formal dining room (that’s what formal dining rooms are for, right?). We were woken up by the sound of our dog gleefully running in and out of the tunnel at midnight. 🙂

Dog agility is fun and very addicting—I’m just warning you!

Dog Shock Collars are Cruel and Unnecessary

July 20, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Dog Shock Collars: They Hurt and They Don’t Work

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a news article in which a mother was accused of shocking her toddler with one of these dog shock collars. What? Is this article for real?

Unfortunately, it’s very real and the mother is being prosecuted for child abuse. She had witnessed a pet owner using a shock collar on his dog to change the dog’s behavior. She thought the collar would change her toddler’s behavior too, so she shocked her child whenever he wouldn’t swallow food or didn’t potty in the toilet. I’ll spare all the gory details because it’s truly disturbing. However, if you want to read the full article, click here.

The world and I were disgusted that a mother would shock her child, but don’t we use shock collars to train dogs every day? Is there a difference?

Why It’s Upsetting

As a positive reinforcement dog trainer, I don’t use shock collars for dogs and stay clear from people who use them. I guess it’s my way of ignoring the problem. However, when I read this news article pertaining to a mother shocking her child, my heart dropped and that angry fire started burning inside me again. I asked myself, “Why are we still using dog shock collars?”

Everyone has a right to do as he pleases unless he’s harming someone else. For the most part, adults have a voice and can defend themselves if someone hurts them. They’ll fight back or press charges, or even do both. I don’t pick sides and I try to stay out of other people’s business, but when a voiceless and defenseless child or animal is hurt, I get really angry.

Dog Shock Collars Cause Pain

There is no reason to shock an animal. I’ll never be convinced that shocking or physically hurting an animal will teach it quicker, faster, more efficiently or more humanely. I’ll never believe any and all other buzzwords that further defend the use of pain during training.

Dr. Karen Overall, MA, VMD, PhD, DACVB, believes everyone should understand that:
“The use of shock is not treatment for pets with behavioral concerns;
the use of shock is not a way forward;
the use of shock does not bring dogs back from the brink of euthanasia; instead, it may send them there, and;
such adversarial techniques have negative consequences that those promoting these techniques either dismiss or ignore.”

I Used to Train Dogs With Shock Collars

You’re probably thinking I’m that dog trainer with limited dog training experience who has only used positive reinforcement methods. That’s not true. More than 25 years ago, I trained dogs with electronic collars (or e-collars), pinch collars and choke chains because that’s all I had known.

As I became more experienced, I knew something was wrong. I felt icky shocking a dog if he made the wrong choice. The look in his eyes would say everything. After a decade of training this way, I learned that rewarding good behavior instead of correcting bad behavior was the best way to train dogs (or any living creature for that matter).

Not only did my dog training skills improve, but my group classes were much happier too. We celebrated wins instead of waiting for bad things to happen, so we could correct them.

Oh yes, I’m on my soap box! If everyone clasps their pearls when they hear a mother shocking a defenseless child, why don’t they react the same way when a pet owner shocks a defenseless dog? Dog shock collars hurt. I’ve tried them on my leg, arm and neck at the lowest settings possible. Even knowing the shock was coming, it would still hurt. Shock collars don’t deliver a tickle, vibration or a buzzing sound. They stinking hurt.

Research Proves Shock Collars for Dogs Hurt

If you don’t find dog shock collars painful, you’re fooling yourself. Research has finally caught up and proven that shock collars do cause dogs harm. If you’re interested, you can find the latest research here and here. There’s more than a dozen research findings by real experts in this article too. The results all point to the same painful conclusion.

You may also be interested in: The Real Reason Why Dog Trainers Dislike Cesar Milan

Shock Collars Aren’t the Last Resort

Dog shock collars aren’t the last resort for saving a troubled dog’s life. I highly doubt you would consciously choose shock therapy to save your life. However, you have a choice whereas a child or dog doesn’t. Positive reinforcement dog training works better and quicker and changes dog behavior.

All creatures should be treated humanely because it’s the right thing to do regardless of your beliefs. I’m stepping off my soap box now and I strongly hope this article will stop at least one pet owner or dog trainer from purchasing or using a shock collar on a dog. As for new dog trainers entering the pet industry, you don’t have to use these painful collars. You can find much better ways to train dogs.

Choose to be kind. It’s the right thing to do.

Does Your Dog Pull On Leash? Try A Double-Ended Leash

June 3, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Stop Your Dog From Pulling With a Double-Ended Leash

When dogs pull on a leash, it’s dangerous for both the pet owner and his dog. This is especially scary when a dog is much bigger and powerful than her pet owner. I’ve witnessed dogs pull their pet owner right out of their shoes while waiting for class to begin!

With that said, there are so many new tools that really manage leash-pulling until a pet owner teaches his dog how to walk politely on leash. For example, front clip harnesses and head halters work well, but I learned a leash technique from an old-time dog trainer that still works like a charm today. So, when double-ended leashes debuted several years ago, I was thrilled!

Remember, dog leashes are used for safety, meaning they’re used to stop a dog from pulling you toward another dog or person, running away or into the street, or whatever. Leashes shouldn’t be used for corrections.

My Old Dog Leash Trick

Back in the day, I would clip a six-foot leash to a dog’s flat buckle collar. Then, I would place my left hand on the leash about three feet up and loop the remaining part of the leash in front of the dog, so it would rest on the dog’s chest. Now, both of my hands were holding the leash and pressure was applied on the flat collar (left hand) and chest (right hand holding the leash loop).

It worked magically, especially while standing still. The only drawback is 90% of pet owners would forget how to loop the leash loosely in front of their dog. Now, with double-ended dog leashes, there’s no more guesswork.

How Double-Ended Leashes Work

A double-ended leash has one leash with two clips on each end plus a handle in the middle. Sounds crazy, right? Basically, you’re attaching one end of the leash to your dog’s flat collar and the other clip to the front of your dog’s harness while you hold the handle. It looks a bit odd, but it works wonderfully.

Double-ended dog leads make it easy to manage your dog until he learns how to walk politely on leash. When used correctly, double-ended leashes apply evenly distributed pressure to the front of your dog’s chest and collar, which stops excess pressure from being applied to one specific spot. If your dog pulls away, the harness clip and neck collar will turn your dog’s front (shoulders) back toward you.

You’re probably thinking that a front clip harness does the same thing, but it has its drawbacks. Some dogs will continue to pull so much they will stretch out the side straps, which renders the harness useless. Hence, the beauty of a double clip dog leash because the other end is attached to your dog’s collar, which evenly distributes pressure to several areas and not just one spot.

No More Yanking Back

With a double-ended dog leash, you’re not applying pressure in just one area, which can cause injury due to a yanking motion. Instead, you’re applying pressure evenly to bring your dog toward you if she pulls forward. Think about it this way: if a man was walking into oncoming traffic and I grabbed his arm, it would be really hard to stop his forward movement. Plus, grabbing his arm would cause him to spin around and he would still move forward. However, if I grabbed his shoulders and waist at the same time, he would stop on a dime and it would cause less exertion from me.

When to Use a Double-Ended Leash

Remember, dog training equipment is used as a tool to keep your dog safe while teaching her polite behaviors. Once your dog learns to walk politely on a leash, you can switch to a single-ended leash during walks. Even when your dog learns to walk politely, feel free to use a double-ended leash during walks, especially when walking near distractions, such as squirrels.

Brand I Recommend

By far, my favorite double-ended dog leash is the Freedom Harness (one end attaches to the front of the harness and the other end clips to the top part of the Freedom Harness). While I think the Freedom Harness is an excellent idea, I really like the security of attaching to two different items because some dogs are really good at getting out of a harness when they need to. 🙂 Do know, I don’t work for this company, but I highly recommend their dog leashes and harnesses to clients. Plus, you can order these products on Amazon too.

Give a double leash a try. Let me know what you think!

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