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Doggy Steps

Does Your Pet Have Difficulty Climbing Up To His Favorite Spot?

The solution is Doggy Steps. It’s just the right height to help smaller and older dogs step up where they want to go - up to couches and beds. It’s also great for pets to step up into cars or trucks.

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Labrador Retriever: Types of Training

Training is a multi-faceted art and not one the easiest of things to do. Especially when it comes to training a species that does not speak your language. Dogs have their own instinctive and natural code of conduct. They also have their own unique attitudes and mindsets too. When you take up the challenging task of training your pet dog, you will be faced with all these challenges. Your dog might even be stubborn, moody, or domineering too. Such a situation will dwell upon all your resources to do a good job of extracting the best from your dog!

Fortunately for you, a Labrador Retriever is a very intelligent animal. So you can put him through various types of training. This will bring out the sterling qualities of this lovely animal. Various types of training include the following.
  • a) Behavior training
  • b) Obedience training
  • c) Activity training
  • d) Show training
  • e) Trick training
  • a) Behavior Training

This training is all about behaviors that teach your dog to become a good canine citizen. It teaches him the nuances of learning what is acceptable and what is just not accepted in human society. Some etiquette that you can teach him to be a well behaved dog includes the following.
  1. 1 How to behave with other dogs and other people.
  2. 2 Behavior with other people.
  3. 3 Appropriate behavior when you take him out on a leash.
  4. 4 Housebreaking.
  5. 5 Food training which includes not to beg, not to eat off people’s plates, and not to ‘steal’ or ‘help themselves’ to food that may be lying around.
  6. 6 To resist running out of open doors or gates.
  7. 7 Refrain from chasing kids or cars.
  8. 8 Abstain from chewing or scratching household articles.
  9. 9 Not to bite.

All of the above training schedules will help in making him more acceptable and likable among your friends and family, as well as with other dogs.

b) Obedience Training

Obedience or etiquette training includes obeying simple conventional commands such as the following.
  • Sit
  • Down
  • Heel and many more.

It provides a foundation for dealing with canine related issues. Training opens up channels of communication with your dog. Communication enables you to convey to your dog what exactly it is that you want him to do.

With this type of training your dog will be prompt and precise in executing your order. This type of training is very essential for your daily co-existence with your dog. This training truly makes dogs obedient to their masters. It is necessary for the safe survival of your Lab. It is not some kind of forced and artificial activity. Obedience training can prove to be instrumental in helping to keep your dog safe and well too. Once your Lab has learned to respond to your verbal commands, he will listen to you under any circumstances. Thus if one day he gets out on a busy road without his leash, you will be able to ask him to stay at one place until you go and fetch him.

Besides day to day household survival commands, obedience training covers lessons for professional dogs such as dogs used for sniffing out narcotics, bombs, etc. Service dogs used to help handicapped people and search & rescue dogs also need to be trained very well in obeying commands. This makes them very useful to human beings.

Here are some major advantages of obedience training.

1 Obedience training helps solve doggie behavioral problems. When you teach your Lab something new and he does what you want and you praise him for it, a lovely new personality emerges from your dog.

2 A wonderful feeling of bonding and great friendship grows with obedience training. The bonding enables you to recognize your pet’s needs and interpret his behavior as well.

3 When your dog obeys you, he gets a natural instinctive feeling of belonging to a pack and following a leader.

4 Your already intelligent Lab’s intelligence levels will rise even further with the obedience training that you give him.

c) Activity Training

This type of training refers to specific activities such as search and rescue, hunting, and retrieving. Nowadays with hunting being restricted to preserve wildlife activity, training includes sports such as Agility, Frisbee, Fly ball, and so on.

d) Show training

As the name suggests this training teaches your pet how to conduct himself when you allow him to compete with other dogs in the show ring for Dog Shows and Competitions.

e) Trick training

These tricks are good stimulants for your Lab’s mind. This intelligent animal’s mind definitely needs stimulation. They keep him from getting bored. Besides mental stimulation the physical exertion of these tricks exercise the dog’s muscles too! The tricks add fun to your life as well as to that of your dog!

Trick training is fun. It builds strong and lasting bonds between the trainer and the trained. It stimulates the body and the mind. It instills discipline. The positive behavior it reinforces spreads friendliness and good cheer.

Now as a dog owner, your mind will probably be swamped with questions regarding how to go about imparting the most appropriate training to your pet. Earlier on, dogs were trained by just sheer instinct or trial and error. Today the world has changed tremendously. Training methods available today are all tried and tested and very well-documented too.

In order to find the right method you must get an exposure to the various methods of training available. You can read books on dog training. You can contact your local kennel club, local breeder, or local training school for necessary information. Talk to other dog owners about how they went about training their dogs. Pay attention when they tell you about the various kinds of experiences that they encountered during their dog training days.

This kind of background search will give you a fair idea of where to culminate your search. A very reliable source of information will be from the owners of the parents of your pup. The advantage here is that you will be able to learn about the hereditary traits that your pup might have inherited from his parents.

Your search for the right training school for your dog should be as meticulous as the search you would conduct in finding a suitable school for your child. Then the entire training process should be a fun filled experience for both you and your dog.

A formal training school will certify your dog for the following characteristics that indicate how well-trained you have trained your dog.
  • Accept friendly strangers.
  • Sit politely when being petted.
  • Good grooming.
  • Easy walking on a leash.
  • Well-mannered walk amidst a crowd.
  • Response to obedience commands such as sit and stay.
  • How he interacts with you.
  • How friendly he is with other animals.
  • His reaction to distractions.
  • His behavior when isolated.

7 Why should I put my pet Lab through the rigors of trick training? After all he is just a domestic pet!

Your pet is first and foremost a domestic pet and I am sure you love and care for him very much. So you really need to know that trick training acts as a means of reinforcing positive behavior in your pet. Here are a few important aspects to encourage you to impart trick training to your dog.
  • 1 You communicate in a clearer and more consistent manner with your dog. Your understanding of each other improves by leaps and bounds.
  • 2 Newer and more challenging tricks give your pet a positive new sense of purpose and help him exercise better self-control.
  • 3 Trick training helps increase your Lab’s attention span. And this is really a great achievement, because normally a dog’s attention span is rather short.
  • 4 Training also enhances your Lab’s faith and trust in you.
  • 5 Your position as the pack leader is established in your dog’s mind.
  • 6 Clear channels of communication are established between you both.
  • 7 You both experience a heady sense of achievement when your understanding of each other improves and your dog is able to respond to your signals.
Don’t you feel that all these positive points definitely warrant your spending some amount of your time and energy in trick training your dog?

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