How to Train a Dog

I’ve never had to know how to train a puppy before. I’m not a dog trainer! I couldn’t tell the difference between breeds of a dog if I’m honest. Of course now we have to train a dog and I blame Toto out of The Wizard of Oz.

Why poor Toto I hear you ask?

Well we went to see the The Wizard of Oz for my daughter’s birthday with some of her school friends and family. Toto got the biggest cheer at the end and caught the eye of my mother and father in law. They’d had two dogs previously that had lived to ripe old ages of 19. In the programme they discovered poor Toto was from a dog shelter, so enquired about his availability. Not surprisingly he was taken but they had other dogs looking for homes.

As they don’t drive my wife took them along with our three children. Now you can guess the scenario when they returned!

I didn’t want a dog, it would be like having another child in the house. I had very little time as it was. I was quite happy without a dog, even though there were always persistent murmuring of how lovely it would be for the kids. Yeah! and I can guess who’ll end up walking Fido.

Don’t get me wrong I like dogs but not the responsibility. If you’re going to have a dog I realised it’s a serious commitment. Pooch will rely on you to look after him and then there’s training for your dog. I stood my ground for a good 3 hours. Then my eight year old daughter came down the stairs holding her piggy bank in floods of tears offering to buy the dog herself. Emotional blackmail, that’s what it was. Works every time on a soft touch Dad like me!

My wife was on the internet no sooner had the words passed my lips. She found a dog in a CAARS Santuary in Wolverhampton and within 2 days I was getting my first introduction to the little fella.

He was a 9 months old Cairn terrier and I had no idea of where to start when house training a dog? Fortunately for us he was already house trained. Although he already had a name he wouldn’t respond to any commands at all so we decided to call him Hamish.

The first few weeks were very difficult for my wife, Hamish and I 토토사이트 The kids however were in their oil tot with their new found friend. Meanwhile he would bark at my wife and I if we challenged him, could not be allowed near an open door or would make a bolt for freedom, and constantly refused to do as he was told unless you had a treat in your hand.

Although treats are useful when training your dog to follow commands, I didn’t want him to assume he would receive a treat each time.

No matter how we tried to train Hamish we were unwittingly making all the same mistakes that most, if not all novice dog owners make.

We looked at dog training schools. Most dog owners I spoke to however said that their dog was well behaved at puppy class but then reverted back to their old habits once they got them home.

I’d frequently scour the internet picking up tit bits about training for your dog and advice on how to stop our dogs bad behaviour. There are some good websites available like eHow offering free information on how to train a dog to heel, teach dog to come and explain some common problems with dog owners.