And then you discover that you are pregnant. You are again filled with joy and love. You slowly get bigger and anticipate the arrival of the new baby. You move furniture and buy baby items, you paint the nursery and decorate it perfectly, and finally you go to the hospital and bring home your brand new baby. You are so excited and can’t wait to enjoy every day with this new little bundle.

“Um…..what is that? It’s so little…and smells REALLY funny!” Max is a little confused. He has never been around children before and does not really know what to think. You have to introduce him to your new baby with confidence and soothing words. Max is loving and affectionate, but his whole world consists of his mother and his father. You. Suddenly there is a new person in his life that is nothing like the two people that he is used to. It is your job as a good puppy parent to make sure he understands that this new baby is a brand new, but vital, part of the family circle.

“Mom! I wanna play!!! Put that down and come play with me!!! We haven’t played in SO long!” Max is used to being the center of attention in your home. Bringing a new baby home will change all of that for him and it is something he will have to get used to. Because you are his parent and you love him, you want him to be well adjusted and to love the baby as much as he loves you. The last thing you want him to feel is neglected. Make sure that you spend time with him whenever you can. Include him in your time with your new baby when it is possible. If you are sitting on the floor dangling toys over your child’s head, make sure that your furry child knows he can come and lay beside you and get some attention, too.

“NEW TOYS!!!! WHOO HOO! I wanna chew em, I wanna chew em, I wanna chew em!!!” Puppies love to play and chew. Whether Max is playing with his own toys or he has gotten hold of the cord to your brand new digital camera, he will toss it and throw it and gnaw on it until it has become just a few tiny little pieces of material. While you are used to disciplining him over playing with your belongings, your first instinct may be to overreact if you catch him playing with one of the new baby’s toys. Max is your child and feels that the things in the house are his, so it is logical he will want to play with these new toys. You need to be a fair and reasonable puppy parent in this instance. Try to keep the baby’s items up where Max can’t reach them. Because these kinds of things always end up on the floor, no matter how hard to try to keep them up, simply admonish Max and let him know that those things are not his. Repetition and consistency are the key to showing Max what he can and cannot play with.

Your new child is a very important member of your family, but so is the furry one you already have. In order to ensure that every single member of your family, whether two or four legged, knows how essential they are, you have to take the time to show them. Make sure Max knows that he has not been replaced…his family has simply grown.

Your drill should include clear instructions that even your 5-year old can understand, as well as a list of important numbers that are at the eye-level of your youngest, with photos beside the name if he or she can’t read.

At minimum this phone list should include:
• Your Vet’s
• Your neighbor’s
• Mom and Dad’s mobile and work

Below are some tips of what do if these common situations occur:

Your Dog Is Stung
A small population of dogs and cats is allergic to bee stings. It’s approximately the same percentage of humans for whom a bee sting can be deadly.

If you notice redness and that’s all, the immune system will eventually work the histamine out of his or her system. If you notice redness accompanied by swelling, check with your Vet and administer 2-3 CCs of children’s Tylenol.

If you notice excess swelling and labored breathing, call your Vet immediately. Your dog or cat may be having an anaphylactic reaction. This is as rare in dogs as it in humans and is extremely life threatening and means requires medical attention.

The problem with anaphylaxis is that you don’t know your pet or human for that matter, suffers this until it happens. Immediately take your dog or cat to the nearest animal hospital. The tricky thing about anaphylaxis is that the first time is serious; the second or third time is often deadly. It’s important to follow your Vet’s sound medical advice on what to do in the event of a future bee sting.

Your Dog Is Bitten By A Rattle Snake
Unlike a bee sting, the venom in a rattler is deadly to everyone. Carry your pet, do not allow him or her to walk as this allows the venom to spread more rapidly. Time is of the essence, as such, you have little time to spare to get him or her to the Vet.

Your Dog Is Hit By A Car
Car accidents are tricky because your dog or cat may get up and walk and appear to be fine. However, he or she may have internal bleeding and could be dead within hours of the impact. Your Vet is where your dog needs to be in this instance, especially if your animal is non-responsive.

Death By Chocolate
There should never be an instance where your dog eats chocolate by mistake. You may be lucky the first time and all that happens is that your dog has a seizure. However, chocolate, even in small doses can kill your dog. Never leave chocolate lying around. This means, no chocolate bars, no ice cream, cocoa powder, nothing. The first time you see this seizure is memorable and will stay with you for a very long time and will serve as a deterrent to ensure that your pet never eats chocolate again.

There are several different types of dog beds available. Depending on how much you want to pamper your pet, you have a lot of choices in the types of beds you can supply for your pet.

Types of Dog Beds
1. Basic Mat
The most common type of dog bed is the basic mat. Rectangular in shape, these mats are not the most comfortable beds in the world, and they rarely hold up well to chewing, but they are a better option that sleeping on the floor and can be warmer for your pet’s skin.
2. Plush Dog Beds
One of the simplest, yet most comfortable type of dog bed available is the plush dog bed. These beds are usually round in shape and loaded with soft, gentle material that your dog will love. These are easily the softest types of dog beds available, but though they are generally fairly simple in design they can cost as much as $200.
3. Donut Dog Beds
Another type of dog bed is the donut dog bed. Donut dog beds are, as the name implies, made with more of a donut shape. They are also filled with soft material that is perfect for your dog’s skin and comfort, but they are designed with enclosures that provide the dog with a specific place to curl up and sleep rather than having it sprawl out all over the bed.
4. Orthopedic Dog Beds
Orthopedic dog beds resemble the basic dog mat in shape, but they are designed in a way that is far more comfortable to dogs that have serious joint or bone health issues. In many ways they closely resemble a “Memory Foam Mattress” in that they are thick and designed to gentle sink without putting the dog in an uncomfortable position.
5. Fancy Shaped Dog Beds
There are a variety of dog beds available that are designed to with fancy shapes that resemble human furniture. Many of these beds are designed like couches, while some are designed more like chairs or love seats. Your dog probably does not care that its bed is that well designed, but it is fun to have these types of beds in the house and they are surprisingly priced around the same as some of the plush beds.
6. Raised Dog Beds
Another type of dog bed is a “Raised Bed.” These beds are designed to look like bunk beds, except without a bottom bunk and often with easy to use stairs leading to the top. Dogs are known to be more comfortable in high places, and raised dog beds also keep dirt and hair off the carpet. They may not be comfortable for all dogs, however.
7. Heating/Cooling Beds
The last type of dog beds are beds with their own heating/cooling features. These beds are designed like flat beds/orthopedic beds, but contain little machines that cool or heat the dog (depending on the type of bed). They are useful for climates that have harsh winter and summer weather conditions.
Overall, dog beds come in all shapes and sizes. Your dog will be pleased with even the simplest of dog mats, but splurging on a nice dog bed may be more comfortable for your pet and more fun to have in your home.

• Make sure it is a name that you will stick with – Changing your dog’s name can lead to a great deal of confusion and frustration that will make it hard for your dog to understand commands, and make it difficult for your dog to recognize that the word you are saying is meant to be a way to call your dog.

• If the dog already has a name, keep it – If you get a pet that has had a previous owner, keep your pet’s original name. The dog likely knows (or has an idea of) its name, and trying to change its name all over again is once again going to lead to more confusion, which will make it especially difficult to help your dog feel comfortable in its new home.

• Don’t give your dog a long name – You want to have only one name for your dog. A long name may appear fun and cute in the beginning, but chances are you are going to want to shorten your dog’s name in the long run and give your dog a nickname to save time, and that nickname is going to cause further name confusion. If you like a nickname, name your dog the nickname. There is no reason to give your dog a name that it is not going to use.

• Choose a name you like to say – It sounds silly, but your dog will pick up on the emotion you have behind speaking the name, so you want to be fond of the name throughout your dog’s life. If you name your dog after an ex-partner, chances are you are not going to say the name with the love and affection necessary to properly train the dog.

• Your dog’s name should be two syllables – Research has shown that two syllable dog names are the best for your dog’s learning. Names like “Spike” – one syllable names – sound more like commands than names. Notice that all commands are designed with a single syllable (“Sit,” “Stay,” “Down,”). That is because single syllables resemble barking – the way that dogs give commands in the wild. Your dog’s name is not a command, therefore a two syllable name is far more effective for dog training.

Teaching Your Dog its Name

Many dogs do not actually know their names. Instead, they respond to inflections in their owner’s voice that occur when the owner says their dog’s name. However, dogs do have the ability to learn their names, provided they are taught correctly by their owners.
To teach your dog it’s name, the first thing you want to do is say the dog’s name and giving the dog a treat over and over and over again. This will get your dog responding to you calling its name. Then, every time you train your dog, use its name before the command. For example “Fido, Sit!” instead of simply “Sit!”
Over time your dog will learn that “Fido” is its name, and designed to call your dog’s attention, while the following word is the command, if any. A dog that understands its name has an easier time learning tricks, will respond to commands more easily, and will do a better job listening to guests and strangers. As long as you choose a multi-syllable (preferably 2) name that you enjoy saying and will never change, your dog will learn its name in no time.

Basic Command Learning Tips

1. Mix Up a New Trick With an Old Trick

As soon as it appears that your dog understands its new trick, mixing it up with another command that your dog already knows is a good way to help your dog recognize the differences between the two tricks. For example, say you have taught your dog to turn in a circle using the “Turn” command, and you are trying to teach your dog to bow on command using the “Bow” command.

As soon as it appears that your dog is learning “Bow,” try saying “Turn” and then only after your dog turns, say “Bow” again. This will help your dog understand that Bow is a command that you expect your dog to answer in any situation, and it will help associate the behavior with the command more easily. If you do not do this, then your dog may bow often, but not necessarily due to the verbal command you are giving it.

1. Try the Tricks Outside and/or With Distractions

Dogs can learn indoors very easily. There are no distractions, you are the person they want to pay attention to anyway, and they have all of the freedom in the world to think. But when there are distractions, or when they are outside, they do not have that same focus, and it is more difficult to get them to do a trick. However, if you take them outside and teach them the trick outside as well, or add a bunch of distractions in a room and continue to reinforce the trick, your dog will learn to focus in those situations as well.

1. Vary the Ratio For Longer Lasting Tricks

Once your dog has learned the trick, take the clicker away and start varying how often you give them the reward for doing the trick. Dogs that are rewarded at random times are more likely to continue to do the trick for longer, even without a reward. Ideally, you want your dog to continue to do the trick for months or years, but if your dog expects a treat every time, then if your dog stops receiving a treat it will stop doing the trick. If you dog never knows when a treat is coming, it will continue to perform the behavior for longer.

Reinforcing Your Tricks to Help Your Dog Learn

Each of these tips is designed to help make your trick training more effective. They should work well with the clicker training that you already use, because they are helpful for getting your dog to truly recognize the command and focus on the behavior you are hoping to achieve. If you are able to combine these tips with effective clicker training, chances are you will be able to easily get your dog to not only learn these tricks, but keep performing them for longer periods of time in almost all situations.

Those that understand dog training recognize that positive reinforcement is not only the most pleasurable form of dog training, but easily the most effective. Rewarding your dog for its good behaviors has time and again proven itself to be the only truly effective method for training dogs.

On the flip side, positive punishment (striking your dog for poor behaviors) is completely ineffective. Dogs that are hit or otherwise punished rarely understand what the desired behavior should be, so the end result is a dog that is now both confused and abused.

However, though positive punishment may be completely ineffective, “negative punishment” has its uses when it comes to obedience training your pet. It does not have the same results as positive reinforcement, but it is a good way to make sure your dog stays well behaved, and it is neither cruel nor painful to your pet.

What is Negative Punishment?

Negative punishment is when you take away something your dog likes in order to punish your pet. An example with children would be taking away your child’s dessert because they did not finish their vegetables. Dogs recognize when good things have been taken away from them, and they start to recognize the behaviors that they need to exhibit to continue to enjoy their activities.

Tips for Using Negative Punishment

Negative punishment is a useful tool for training your dog, but in order to work effectively it must be used correctly. Here are several tips for how to utilize negative punishment effectively in order to get the behaviors you desire.

• Negative punishment is how you teach what “no” means. Before you perform the negative punishment action, say “no” firmly so that your dog recognizes that when it hears that command, whatever it is doing is an unwanted behavior and the object is likely to be taken away from it.
• Negative punishment is most effective when an alternative behavior is immediately presented. For example, if your dog is chewing on your chair, it is likely enjoying itself. Move your dog away from the chair (negative punishment) and immediately provide it with something it CAN chew, such as a toy rope. Your dog will learn that chewing on the rope is a good replacement behavior.
• You also want to try to combine negative punishment with positive reinforcement whenever possible. If your dog is on its leash and about to go for an enjoyable walk, and then it starts performing an unwanted behavior like barking loudly, you simply take the leash off and walk away (removing the good thing – going outside – from your dog). However, as soon as your dog sis silent again, then you can put the leash back on and take your dog for the walk, rewarding it for its better behavior.

Negative punishment is not the most effective training method alone, but dogs understand it quite a bit – especially with regard to obedience and reducing unwanted behaviors. Dogs will learn to understand the “no” command and what behaviors they can replace it with in order to enjoy themselves in an uninterrupted manner. While it still should be paired with positive reinforcement whenever possible, negative punishment is still a good way to get your dog to understand what is and is not okay in your household.

In addition, taking items away from your dog that it is enjoying continues to help your dog recognize that it is the subordinate in the pack, and at any point you can take away the good things in its life, helping establish yourself as pack leader.

Dogs are extremely behavioral creatures. The principles of behavioral psychology play an incredible role in how a dog is trained. However, only certain aspects of behavioral training are effective with dogs, while others are considerably less effective.

The main behavioral principle use for training dogs is known as “operant conditioning.” Operant conditioning is when you reward or punish based on a behavior your dog exhibited in order to get a desired behavior (either by continuing the good behavior or altering the bad behavior). There are two aspects of operant conditioning – reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is when you want a behavior to continue, while punishment is used when you would like a new behavior.

In addition, these two principles are broken up into 4 separate types. The four types of operant conditioning are as follows:

-          Positive Reinforcement – Giving your pet a treat or affection when they perform a good behavior that you like. For example, if your pet sits on the “sit” command, and you give it a treat, that is positive reinforcement.

-          Negative Reinforcement – Taking away something that is harming your pet to make your pet happier. For example, if your pet whines when it has a thorn in its foot, you take the thorn out and now your pet knows it SHOULD whine whenever it has a thorn in its food. It is called “negative’ because something is taken away, even though the end result is positive for your dog.

-          Positive Punishment – The “Giving” of any form of punishment, such as hitting your pet or yelling at it loudly after it performs an unwanted behavior.

-          Negative Punishment – Taking away something your dog likes as a form of punishment. For example, if your dog is chewing on your shoe, and you take away your shoe, that would be negative punishment – you have punished your dog by taking away something good.

Positive reinforcement is known to be the most effective form of dog training. Perhaps more interesting is that positive punishment (hitting or striking your dog after an incorrect behavior) is far and away the least effective form of training. While your dog may be a little less likely to do the behavior, it does not understand what behavior it should be doing, so it will simply replace it with an equally bad behavior. An example is a dog that is hit for peeing on the carpet. The dog will know that urinating was wrong, but not know how to replace it, so rather than learn to urinate outside, it will simply try to hide its urination from you and go in places where it cannot be caught. These dogs also often suffer from self esteem issues that can lead to other behavioral problems.

Negative punishment, on the other hand, is an effective way of training dogs – though not as effective as positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is moderately effective, but there are rarely opportunities to use it effectively, making it relatively irrelevant (though it should be noted that a dog that whines in order to get out of its crate, only to be released due to the whining, will whine more because they have been negatively reinforced – the bad thing, being in the crate, was taken away).

Understanding Dog Behavior

For obvious reasons, it is cruel to hit or strike your pet when it misbehaves. Still, perhaps more interesting is that not only is it cruel – it is also an incredibly ineffective training method. Dogs that are punished rarely learn how to respond to the punishment correctly, and often their behaviors continue to degrade over time. They may also fear for the punishment and rarely display any positive behaviors around you, fearing your anger rather than seeking your approval.

If you are training your dog, remember to stick to positive reinforcement, as well as negative punishment when necessary. Positive punishment never works, and negative reinforcement is uncommon and generally unused in dog training.

Whether you got your pet from the pound of from a breeder, some dogs naturally show aggression to other dogs. This can occur for a variety of reasons:

-          Your dog has a bad experience with another dog in the past.

-          Your dog was not properly socialized and did not learn to be used to other dogs.

-          Your dog may be a breed that is wary of other dogs.

-          Your dog may have been trained to treat other dogs poorly, or rewarded for poor behavior.

Whatever the cause of your dog’s poor behavior towards other dogs that aggression is something that needs to be stopped. The more aggression your dog shows to other dogs, the more situations may occur where your dog injures another dog, or gets into a fight with a dog and ends up injuring itself. Dogs that show this type of aggression are dangerous to other pets and difficult for their owners, and it is important to work hard to reduce dog aggression behaviors.

Tips for Reducing Dog Aggression

Reducing dog aggression towards other dogs is a step by step process. Your dog is used to the idea of showing aggression. It may never be able to be “friends” with other dogs because it does not feel a connection between them. But, at the very least, it can stop being a danger and ignore the canines around it.

It should also be noted that dog aggression can come from both fear and from issues with dominance. Though both need to be treated the same way, it should be noted that a dog that is aggressive towards other dogs may simply be fearing for its own safety.

• The first step is to carry a great deal of treats with you that your dog loves. As soon as you notice a strange dog coming toward you, have your dog sit or lay down and continue feeding them treats until the other dog has completely passed from view. This first step is designed to train your dog to ignore other dogs when they pass by.
• The next step is to teach your dog to happy at the sight of other dogs. Once your dog has become used to other dogs passing with treats, you should start rewarding your dog for the appearance of these strange dogs. When your dog looks at the strange dog, that is when you immediately give your dog a treat. Every time your dog looks over at the other dog, you provide your dog with a treat. The first step was to get your dog to ignore other dogs, while this step is designed to get your dog to be glad another dog is in view.
• The final step involves finding a friend with a sturdy and friendly dog to walk towards your dog in an enclosed area. While you are feeding your dog treats, you should have your friend slowly bring their dog towards you, all the while giving your dog enough treats to keep them occupied. Once the other dog has been brought to you, you should feed both of them treats in front of each other until both dogs are right next to each other, eating treats from the ground.

Each of these steps is not immediate. You should do each step multiple times before you move on, ensuring that your dog understands the purpose of the step before you have taken on the next one. Once you are seeing positive behaviors from your dog, especially any time of friendliness to other dogs, you should reward your pet for its good behavior by showering it with praise and affection. Over time your dog will learn to enjoy the presence of other dogs, and while not all dogs will play with other dogs, at the very least the behavioral issues will become a thing of the past.