Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Using a Confinement Area, featuring Monroe


Meet Monroe!

Monroe is a 13 week old Puggle mix with a lot of things in life to love; his new family, his bed, his treats, and the couch (which he isn’t supposed to go on)! When you bring a new mischievous puppy into your house, it's often hard to teach them our rules!

Zen Dog Training helped Monroe quickly learn the rules of house and rules of the world outside with an In Home Visit. Successful puppy training depends on having the proper Management Tools. With a new puppy full of innocent curiosity, a confinement area is a must!

A confinement area is a small, gated off, puppy-proof area where your dog can be restricted from wandering unsupervised. You should find a room with easy-to-clean floors and decide how best to puppy proof. For smaller or younger dogs an exercise pen or plastic play area works great!

In some cases we put up baby gates around the kitchen (a high-traffic area). It helps to remove books or anything low to the ground. Be careful with wooden furniture, wires -- remove anything tempting for a puppy who loves to explore the world with his mouth!

Confinement Areas bring many benefits. They prevent mischief by restricting your puppy to an area without too many things for him to destroy. They also prevent house-training accidents because we can more easily watch him. Finally, mistakes can be quickly cleaned and easy to see since they are limited to just one room.

Having a confinement area also helps teach independence, as soon as you bring a new puppy home you should start leaving him alone in his  confinement area for short intervals of time while you are home to get him used to not being the center of attention all the time. 

Finally, having a confinement area is a MUST if you have small children or other animals, like cats. Play can be limited to the confinement area and if rough puppy behavior gets out of hand -- small children can simply leave the room!

The idea is to encourage good behaviors by preventing them in the first place! Monroe now stays in his confinement area at times when it is difficult to monitor him, like: when answering the door, getting ready for work, or cooking dinner.
The best part is that housetraining, home alone training and even rough play with children can be managed with little effort from our part! 

For more information on Confinement Areas, Management Tools, and Puppy Training, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

My Walk, featuring Sully

Meet Sully!

He's a puppy Labradoodle who is growing fast and pulls hard on walks. If walking on a leash is a challenge now, it will be much harder when he's a full grown dog! Sully's owners often take him on walks with the baby in a stroller so if Sully thinks he controls the walk, it might be dangerous for the baby!

A game we call My Walk can mean the difference between a frustrating experience and a care free outing. To teach Sully how to walk on leash, we imagine that a tight leash means "red-light" and we stop the walk. A loose leash is a "green-light" and the walk continues. This teachs Sully that -- his pulling makes the walk stop!

The trick to this game is noticing every time Sully reaches the end of the leash. The instant he starts to pull, we say "UGH" and stop walking! 

Once Sully makes the decision to make the leash loose again (walk back a step), we say, "YES." Using clear sounds and words helps him understand what we want. Remember: if leash is loose -- continue to walk at a fun, brisk pace!

If Sully sits down, it's OK to slowly step back to encourage him to come back a step and make the leash loose. This is important because the behavior you want to reinforce is walking! It is essenital to continue walking and not stop and sit down every few minutes.

This simple overview is nice, however, to learn all the rules and tricks that make walking your dog easier, see My Walk, on Zen Dog Training Online.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

How to Hold the Leash During Walks, featuring Penny



Meet Penny!

Penny is as sweet as they come. She is a gentle, lovable, cuddly 8 year old chocolate lab with owners who give her all that love right back. It wasn’t until they moved to the city, that they realized Penny had a problem. She pulled hard on walks. In fact, she pulled so hard, she even knocked her owner to the ground! 

In a case like this, we teach a solution called My Walk; a game designed to show Penny she must listen to the rules of the person holding the leash. The game is pretty easy to learn, anytime Penny pulls on the leash, the walk stops. Doing this teaching teaches Penny that she doesn't lead us on walks. It's "my walk" and she doesn't get what she wants by pulling.  

Learning how to handle and hold the leash on walks is the foundationIt is especially important to hold the leash correctly considering Penny's past history with dangerously pulling so hard.

In order to prevent falling over, we hold the leash with both hands and stand with our feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. The idea is to use our center of gravity (our core) for strength. When we stop, we take a grounded stance, essentially, instead of using your arms, stopping the force of the pull with your entire body. 

Additionally, if we hold the leash with both hands and rest our arms on our body, we can depend less on our shoulders and more on having good balance and a strong foundation when she starts to pull.

It takes practice but if you are conistent she'll learn who’s walk it really is: it's your walk - not her's! 
 
For a complete explaination on  How to Hold the Leash and My Walk, including how to interrupt unwanted behaviors and how to walk a dog who doesn't want to walk - please visit Zen Dog Training Online.