Dog Bath

Our dogs can sometime smell and look dirty but how often should we bath a dog? As a general rule, we must understand that we must not attribute any human values to it. You might even make this theory that dogs should bath everyday but they don't. Some would like to bath it once a week, others might do it monthly or yearly. It all depends on your dog's skin. My Thai Ridgeback dog can't stand frequent baths like once a week or earlier than that because his skin might begin to shed in some parts and might cause him to have some baldspots in certain areas. So I changed it to once a month. If you would like to know how often you should bath your dog, test his skin ability to withstand to bath time. If you do it once a week like me and he starts to shed, change it to once a month. If once a month might not do, set a longer period if you would like. For instance, 3 months once.

You might also think of giving him a shower without soap definitely when he gets dirty in a mud puddle or something dirty. Use water to rinse and scrub the dirt off his body.  The reason we shouldn't apply soap too often to dogs is because they may have skin problems after using the soap like dry skin, shedding skin and so on. So, remember to set a time interval for a dog bath that is suitable for him. This might require some time and experimenting.

A quick fact about dogs

It is very common for dogs to jump on people when they meet us. They do that as a sign of greeting someone like saying "Hello, nice to meet you!" Although it might be annoying or unacceptable for some people, especially with their dirty paws! Anyway, the reason they do that is because when our dogs were puppies, they feed on their mum by standing up on the legs to obtain milk. When they grow older, they start to greet people that way. So now you know why dogs jump on people. If you would like to break your dogs habit from jumping up on people, the "sit" command can be very useful.

Come and join Dog Forum!

http://www.dogforum.com/

Come and join Dog Forum which is a site that dog lovers go to discusss about dogs! It is FREE and I am already a member of the forum. My username is dogsareourfriend just for you information. So what are you waiting for? Click on the link on top now to join!

Amazing dog trainer and his dog!

Wow! I am very impressed at how this dog can perform that many tricks. We can conclude from this that "you CAN teach an old dog new trick." There are no stupid dogs only stupid owners really. No offence but thats a real fact. If you failed to teach him tricks take responsibility for it and this is not because your dog is too stupid or stubborn to learn but it is because your method or technique might be wrong or might not apply to his understanding. So keep trying and best of luck with all of you in training and bonding with your pet!

Clicker training vs normal training

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC367wKGi4M

Using a clicker can be very effective when training your dog. The general rule on using the clicker should be to "click then reward" and not the other way around. The clicker is used to tell him that he had responded correctly to your commands and that he will receive a reward.

For more about clicker training you can go to http://www.clickertraining.com/

Normally training without a clicker can still be fine if the dog owner has the consistency in his body language and tone. For example, when I want my dog to sit I would put my hand above his head pointing my finger and say "sit" or either way he would sit. He won't sit when i say something else or if my body posture is different. For example if I sit down while giving him the sit command he won't sit. So both consistent body posture and tone give us consistent results from our dog. So use consistent words to and don't confuse him (e.g If your command to release him from a sit is "Free", don't say "Break" after that since it might confuse him and he might not respond to your command.") So be consistent with your normal training techniques that you apply to get the desired response from your dog.

Dog Training : Sit

Sit is one of the most basic and easiest command you can teach your dog to obey. The video above is a video that I made to teach you how to get your dog into a sit position.

The right technique to keep in mind:
1) Showing him something he likes treat or chew toy (petting can also be used after your dog understand sit)
2) Move your hand position to the top of his head and say "sit"
3) When he does that you can give him a reward and praise him (e.g Good Boy!)

If you have trouble getting him to sit, tuck him into a sit positon and give him the reward him. Other problems might be because of too many distracting things around your dog so move your training to a different area of the house or place.

Dog's personality

Dogs can come in different sizes, shape and behaviour.

Have you seen some dogs who can get along with cats and some who will bark at cats?
This occurs because they have a different personality and background.

I classify them into 2 groups: Tame and Aggressive

Tame characteristics: They are very calm, always smiling, wagging their tail often and friendly to you. The ideal pet for most dog owners.

Aggressive characteristics: They bark with a high-pitch tone when they sense movement like when a cat is around, they sniff a lot when they walk, most of the time they pull the leash real hard when untrained.

These are the 2 most common groups I notice from my observation. Tame dogs are ideal pets whereas aggressive ones are more like a hunting dogs but can be still kept as ideal pets if trained properly. Take advantage of your dogs aggressive characteristics as he can be a good guard dog when you are away or asleep. Tame dogs are less likely to bark at people, for example, everytime I go to my cousin's house, his Golden Retriever would not even bark at us (definitely tame) whereas his other dog would bark at us (definitely aggressive.) His Golden Retriever jumps on us when we come near her as a sign of saying "hello" and his other dog (aggressive) once bitten my aunt when she wanted to feed him when my cousins were away from home.

Learn to read your dog as this might benefit you during your training later on.