July 2009

Should you get a dog to teach your children responsibility? Getting a dog is a big responsibility for anyone or for any family. There are many things to consider: who is going to feed the dog? Who’s going to walk him or clean up after him? Who’s going to groom and bathe him? Will you and the rest of the family have time for the dog? If you work and your kids go to school, when will you make time for the dog?

Depending on your child’s age, you, as a parent, should be aware that you will probably have to do most of the work involved in taking care of a dog. Even children with the best intentions can fail to follow through and, where a dog’s concerned, someone has to be there to make sure the dog is fed, watered and cared for.

If you have a young child you can assign some of the chores involved in taking care of your dog to your child. If you think your child is responsible enough, you can assign them the job of keeping your dog’s water dish filled with clean water. For older children you could give them the task of picking up after your dog in the backyard or giving the dog a bath once a month.

Some teenagers may be eager for more responsibility. If they love dogs and they wish to be involved in all aspects of your dog’s care there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be given that responsibility. They can feed the dog, groom the dog and even become involved in training the dog. Many families with a teenager who’s crazy about dogs go to the ultimate extreme of getting the teenager their own dog for competition events. Teenagers can excel at events like Junior Showmanship, offered by the American Kennel Club, obedience, rally, agility and other events with their dogs.

Some people still think it’s a good idea to have a litter of puppies to teach their dog about “the miracle of birth” and responsibility but this is usually a bad idea. Pregnancies can sometimes be difficult and raising a litter of puppies is a lot more work than it may seem. Plus, you then have to find homes for all of the resulting puppies which isn’t always easy. If you don’t find homes for the puppies you may have to take them to the animal shelter where they could be put to sleep. So, it’s usually not a good idea to consider breeding as a way to develop responsibility in your children.

Owning a dog is a big responsibility but there are some good ways that you can include your children in the work to teach them about the responsibility involved in pet ownership. Allow them to help with some of the basic care of your dog and you will be teaching them that animals need care and work to be happy pets.

Tell us how you have used your dog to teach your children responsibility.

Until next time……….

Just about all dog owners have to consider the issue of containment for their dogs. Allowing a dog to run loose is a sure way to invite trouble. Your dog could be killed, injured, picked up by animal control, or cause damage or harm to property or other animals or people. That makes it imperative for every dog owner to find a good way to keep their dog safely contained at home.

One way to keep your dog at home is by using an invisible fence. If you’re not familiar with how an invisible fence works, a wire is buried along with perimeter of the property you wish to use for your dog. A transmitter is installed in a quiet location near the boundaries. This transmitter emits a radio signal along the wire. When your dog wears a special lightweight collar, the collar emits a gives a warning signal when the dog gets too close to the boundaries. If the dog ignores the warning signal and tries to cross the boundaries of the invisible fence line, then the collar puts out a slight shock, similar to what you would receive if you your feet across carpeting and touched a metal doorknob. The feeling isn’t enough to hurt the dog but it does get his attention. Dogs are trained for 2-3 weeks so that they learn where the invisible fence boundaries are with the use of flags in the yard.

There are many positive things about using invisible fences. They work very well for keeping most dogs, of all breeds, contained in their yard. Dogs are trained to respect the boundaries and the warning signal, so once they learn where the boundaries are they don’t usually try to leave the yard. By contrast, some dogs contained inside fences don’t really respect the fence. They may keep trying to find ways to get out.

Invisible fences also work for multiple dogs as long as each dog is wearing the special collar. You can also use an invisible fence to contain cats. You can even take your invisible fence with you if you decide to move. You simply take the transmitter and dog’s collar with you and have new wire installed at the new location.

Invisible fencing claims an extremely high success rate when it comes to containing pets — as high as 99.5 percent.

Invisible fencing can even be used indoors to keep pets from going into certain areas of someone’s home.

There are, however, concerns about using invisible fences. Some people don’t like the idea of using a collar that emits a shock to the dog, even for training purposes, and even if it’s very mild and brief.

One of the biggest criticisms of the invisible fence is the fact that it keeps an owner’s animals inside the fence but it does nothing to keep stray animals or people out of your yard. Your dog could be kept at home but your neighbor’s dog could come and go freely into and out of your yard, which could upset your dog.

Although most dogs trained to stay inside an invisible fence do obey it and remain inside, there are always exceptions. Some dogs may be hard to train and insist on going through the boundary line. If the transmitter or collar stops working your dog might be tempted to go for a run.

Many veterinarians and dog professionals recommend invisible fences to dog owners. Ultimately it’s up to a dog owner to decide whether or not they feel comfortable trusting their dog’s safety to an invisible fence.

Why not let us know your thoughts and experiences with invisible fences by leaving a comment below!

Until next time…..

So many people have great intentions when it comes to training their dog. After all, training a dog is not that hard. You are simply communicating to your best friend that you want him to sit, to stay, to come. Your dog even knows some words of English already. (Try saying “cheese” to a dog!) He’s smart. You’re smart. But then you start off trying to train your dog and by the middle of the second lesson your dog is bored and you’re frustrated. You give up. Why does this have to happen?

The single biggest reason people give up training their dogs — and dogs get bored — is because dog training isn’t fun for them. But it can be fun! You can make training your dog fun for both of you. If training is fun then you will stick with it and your dog will enjoy learning. That’s what it’s really all about. You and your dog will be having a good time together.

So, how can you make training fun?

First of all, keep in mind that your dog learns everything from you. That means that he picks up on your attitude about training. If you think its boring then he will, too. If you approach training with a positive attitude and you’re cheerful about it, then your dog will be a lot happier about his lessons.

There’s an old saying that what you’re feeling goes right down the lead to your dog and that’s completely true. Your dog can pick up on everything you’re thinking and feeling. Dogs are extremely perceptive. So, if you want your dog to have fun with dog training, the change in attitude has to begin with you!

Secondly, make training a game! You don’t have to train your dog with boring repetitious exercises. You don’t have to demand that your dog behaves like a robot. Instead of giving your dog a command and a simple “good boy,” you should really be happy about what your dog is doing. Then reward him with something that he really, really cares about! Some dogs are strongly motivated by food. That’s great. Don’t just pop a piece of hotdog in his mouth. Make a big production out of it and tell him how great he did! Make him remember how wonderful it is to get it right when he does this exercise.

Other dogs are less food motivated or they may like something better than food. For these dogs you can pull out their favorite toy or a sock. These things may make them happier than anything. That makes it fun for them — and for you! Other dogs may like it best when you spend a couple of minutes really focusing on them and petting them. If that’s what makes your dog happy, that’s what you should do as a reward.

By meeting your dog’s special likes you are making him very happy when he does what you want with the training exercise. This makes training extremely fun for him and it should make it more fun for you because a) you have to be more involved in the training — you’re using your brain to train your dog instead of just going through the motions; and b) you are making your dog very happy and this makes most dog owners happy. All of these things combine together to make dog training a lot more fun.

You should also make sure that you don’t overdo things. You only need to train in one or two short 15 minute sessions per day. Anything longer than that and you will be overtaxing your dog’s attention span. Dog training should never be drudgery. It shouldn’t be repeated so often that your dog’s attention (or yours) wanders. Keep it fun, keep it short.

You should also move on to new lessons once your dog has mastered a command. There is no reason to keep repeating the same command over and over. You should go back to it to make sure that your dog remembers it, but endless repetition is not necessary and it’s boring for both of you.

Look for ways to make training fun. You can end your training sessions with a play session, too. Your dog will enjoy playing with you after your lessons.

If you keep a positive attitude and stay happy yourself you will do a lot to improve your dog’s attitude about training. Find the things that make your dog happy. Once you do these things training your dog will be a lot more fun.