Dogs have a significant capacity for training their trainers. Apart from making us wave our hands and bark odd words, we regularly fetch treats and run after tennis balls. Not useful to us, but the dog enjoys it. To put things back the way they’re meant to be, assert your alpha status. One of the [...]

Dogs, like humans, show a wide range of tolerance for others. Some are immediately friendly with every new dog, while others are forever hostile to even the opposite sex of their own breed. Dogs are by territorial by nature, but with some training you can successfully socialize your dog. Naturally, animal lovers like to have [...]

Dogs can learn an amazing variety of behaviors, but few so fundamentally important as the ‘sit’. Beyond the basic need to establish that the human of the pair is the alpha (leader), it has a number of practical benefits. When a dog sits he’s more attentive, making it easier to follow further commands. His eyes [...]

Teaching your pet tricks is easiest when you work with their nature, not against it. Most dogs are eager to please and respond enthusiastically to rewards. Teaching tricks is often as much a matter of simply using those rewards to direct or build on a spontaneous behavior as it is teaching an entirely foreign one. [...]

It is important that your dog have regular check-ups to make sure his health is in top shape. One of the most important places on your dog to monitor during these check-ups is on the dog’s skin. There are many different types of infestations to beware of from parasites like the flea, ticks, lice, hot [...]

No training is more important and more basic for dog owners than that first important lesson: Do it outside! Teaching your pet to eliminate outside the home, not in it, usually starts between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks have been started on the program, but at that age [...]