Dog Obedience Training For Your Pet Dog

I’ve had a lot of people pay me a lot of ways over the years, but one of today’s clients did it up right!

Here’s the setup:

A great golden retriever puppy that is 14 weeks old.
A very cool client family with 2 kids which are fantastic and work a lot with the puppy.
A lot of hard work done over the last three weeks training with the puppy.

So, after the lesson today the Mrs. says “hey, we need to pay you for the lessons, let me get the checkbook” and walks inside the house. When she comes back outside Stella (the puppy) runs over to her on the front porch and waits while she writes the check. After she finishes signing everything she rips the check out, hands it to the puppy and yells at me to call Stella over. One quick “Here” command and Stella flashes across the yard to bring me the check! No chewing, no slobber, no running off with a multi-hundred dollar check, just straight to me in that wonderful Golden Retriever “I’m doing the right thing” way. Amazing.

Now, I ask you, is that a well trained puppy or not?

So, if I can have a wonderful ending to any Monday I think this would be it. A Golden puppy running across the yard bringing me a check. That makes today a VERY good day indeed.

Steve Haynes
A very PROUD Austin dog trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com

Steve,

It was a very effective and useful lesson we had yesterday, and I learned a lot from it, I really appreciate your service. Vocal & Skinpy are behaving much better now. I will keep practicing on all you’ve taught me and let you know how it goes in the near future.

Thank you and Vocal & Skinpy want to say thanks to you too!

Carol

Steve,

I was walking Niko last night when a loose dog ran up behind us - you should be so proud of us - I used my big dog voice and Niko went into a down without me saying anything to him and waited for me to deal with the other dog. He didn’t even woof! This morning he got up on the bed, after sleeping in his crate all night, for his early morning cuddle and gave me a “loving” ear nibble - I really love him.

I could email you all the time with these moments and I don’t think any of them would be possible without the help you gave us - thanks.

We adopted all three of our dogs from an animal rescue service. Ali, our first adoptee, came from a puppy mill environment. She used to go ballistic every time she saw another dog. She’d start foaming at the mouth and snarling, and I had trouble keeping her on a leash. She nipped the dog next door, and even threatened one of our neighbors. Then, when we adopted two more dogs, they all forgot they’d been house-trained. What a nightmare!

Not only did Steve solve the house-training issue and help the dogs accept each other in our home, he changed Ali from a maniac into a calm pet. Now, when other dogs come around, I can tell her to “sit” and she’ll obey me.

Steve knows his stuff inside-and-out. When one of our dogs started peeing in the house, he diagnosed that the problem wasn’t emotional – it was a bladder infection. He has a solution for everything. His methods are so creative, and they always emphasize positive reinforcement. His training is very gentle and loving. He helps me to think like my pets, and understands the psychological and emotional reasons for my dog’s behavior. I would recommend him to everyone who has a dog.

When he was in the house and with family, Cosmo was wonderful. But there were a lot of problems the minute I walked him out the door. He wouldn’t heel, he was aggressive toward other dogs, he cut himself on his leash, and he dragged me around my neighborhood for eighteen months – Cosmo weighs 55 pounds! I just couldn’t reconcile the two halves of his split-personality.

When Steve told me he could fix Cosmo’s problem in one session, I laughed. So did my friends and neighbors. I worked as a Humane Society officer for ten years. I’d trained dogs before. I even had the equipment – but I didn’t have the technique.

Steve was very confident dealing with Cosmo. He understood what my dog was thinking, knew exactly what to do, and fixed the problem in one session. The next time I walked my dog, my neighbors thought I’d put him on sedatives. I was so impressed with Steve’s training, I hired him for two more sessions. Now, I can walk Cosmo off the leash most of the time.

Rikki was donated to us by the animal shelter to serve as a friend and companion for over fifty teenagers at our drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. She was very shy around the kids before Steve started his training program.

He worked so hard, not just with Rikki, but with all the kids and staff, to make everyone feel important and valued in the process. The patience, care, and enthusiasm he showed us was absolutely artful. I wore out before he did, and I work with these kids for a living!

Since Steve’s training, Rikki is much more sociable. The kids love her, and they can really communicate with her. Even our staff members who used to be afraid of dogs enjoy spending time with Rikki. She’s like a member of the family.

Before meeting with Steve, my husband and I thought we might have to do the unthinkable – find a new home for our dog Gloria. She and our older dog Dora began to fight on a regular basis. One time, my husband was bitten breaking them up. Gloria was always a sweet puppy but as she got older she wanted to stake her claim as alpha dog. She also had a hard time in public. She would become very nervous, almost frantic.

Steve came over for a visit to examine Gloria’s behavior both in and out of our home. He also examined our behavior and Dora’s. He gave us some very simple rules to follow and some new rules for the pups. Not even one week later, the change in Gloria was amazing. Four months later, my husband and I are very happy. There have been no fights, and for the first time ever we had a group of people to the house and Gloria behaved like a saint! She wasn’t uncomfortable or scared, and was quite happy with all the petting she was got.

Steve was wonderful and we have recommended him to many people, including our vet’s office. He makes it very easy for dog owners to take charge of their furry friends without upsetting the pups. Our cats even liked him!

Steve was great with both my dogs and me. I am an extensive reader and have read more dog training theories than I can even begin to count. Steve knew all of them and more. He was gentle-yet-firm with my dogs, and left every step of their training up to me and what I wanted. After three visits, Steve left me with enough information and guidance to keep me busy training the dogs on my own.

I will definitely use Steve’s services again, and would highly recommend him to anyone who wants a trained family member. Steve is the type of trainer for someone who wants a family member, complete with all their faults and idiosyncrasies. He trains family members, not automatons.

But those few couple of months can be a challenging. There will be some training issues that you will need to deal with. These will be no problem, but the earlier you can train your little puppy, the more you will be able to enjoy him/her later on.

For example, those little puppy teeth can be sharp! When puppies play together, they naturally bite and mouth each other. This is not a big problem for them since their skin is relatively thick and it causes no discomfort whatsoever.

But when you are teaching them to socialize with adults and children, this is not the kind of behavior that is acceptable. And although this kind of biting is cute when the dog is just a few pounds, it ceases to be cute when they are 25 pounds or more. Controlling this ‘biting reflex’ is an important first step in teaching the little puppy.

It would be good to have the puppy socialize with other puppies if at all possible. Puppies will bite each other as they roll and play. But this also happens to be the best way to train the puppy out of their biting habit – especially if they are playing with already socialized pups. The group will mildly punish the puppy that becomes to aggressive while playing and teach them to suppress their biting habit.

The socialization they get with other dogs also teaches the puppy not to be fearful of other dogs and it helps them drain off their excess energy. Puppies that do not get the opportunity to socialize with other dogs also tend to be more hyperactive as they develop fearful and aggressive habits. A dog will tend to react aggressively in a new and unfamiliar environment if they had never been socialized.

A puppy should also be socialized with adults so that in order to become a member of the household and neighborhood. Introduce your puppy to both children and adults and help them to make the distinction between those who are their owners as well as other people.

The ideal time to teach your little puppy to be socialized is when they are 3 months old or younger- this is when they catch on very fast. This is even more important when dealing with breeds that are typically less passive.

The best way of training your puppy not to bite is to get them to trust you. Never strike your puppy as this will not help them to trust or respect you, It will simply cause them to distrust you – which is not what you want. The confused little puppy won’t really grasp why you did this and it will be counterproductive to their training.

Most of all, enjoy your puppy, he/she will bring endless enjoyment to you and your family.

One recent example of this was a dog left alone and unfed, reduced to eating the plaster off the wall. How can owners be reduced to this level of uncaring? Simply that under pressure, the dog becomes the least cared for member of the family.

There is nothing new here. Dogs have often been left by the roadside in times of hardship. What happens then is they become wild and the sole reason is that they have been abandoned. It is in this state that they need protection.

If you want evidence of a lack of care, consider the recent case of a man now under arrest for suspicion of torturing his dogs. The evidence against him is 40 suffering dogs still in his property and the skulls of dead dogs found nearby. As you might expect many of these dogs are totally frightened of humans. It is believed that the only reason for police intervention was due to vigilant neighbors.

Animal lovers everywhere will be upset by this story and rightly asking how they can stop further dog abuses. The answer is to get more involved where things do not seem to be right.

Watching for tell-tale signs is one way of finding out if an animal is suffering. If no one has been at home for a few days and you know there is a dog inside, then it is not hard to investigate a little, by ringing the doorbell and listening for an animal crying out.

There are animal support hot lines you can call to help. Al these organizations care very much about the welfare of dogs and animals and will respond to your call.

The humane society is an organization specifically set up to help in these cases. If you were to offer to look after the dog for while they will help by supplying food. It all starts with taking an action that could save a dog from suffering because you suspected something and reported it.