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If I knew then what I know now. K9 Magazine is proud to offer these pearls of wisdom, plucked from the knowledge banks of the many dog behaviour experts and trainers who have lost blood, sweat and tears in discovering some of the best dog training tips ever for puppies…

The 10 Greatest Puppy Training Tips of All Time According to Dog Training Experts

10) When trying to settle a puppy into a new home, providing them with a warm hot water bottle and placing a ticking clock in the room where they sleep will help to replicate the body heat and heartbeat of their litter mates and can really help them to relax in their new environment.

9) When taking your puppy to the Vet for its first inoculations, health checks etc, it is good practice to sit with your puppy on your lap and not have him or her on the floor. Apart from being able to comfort and re-assure the puppy easier in this position you must also consider the fact that there may be a number of sick animals in the surgery and your puppy is vulnerable if they come into direct contact with infectious animals that may also be in attendance at the same time as your pup. Make a very deliberate effort to ensure your puppy’s trips to the vets are as fun as you can make them. Don’t allow your puppy to think you are nervous or concerned, instead make a game and even take a toy to amuse the puppy with whilst they sit on your lap.

Always ensure from the earliest possible moment that your puppy is given his or her own, private sleeping place that is not used by anyone else in the family or another pet. Your puppy will benefit from short periods left alone in his or her ‘den’ with you always returning to reward the pup when he or she is relaxed and quiet.

7) Try to make sure your puppy is entertained adequately for short but regular intervals during the day. Long periods of being left unstimulated may lead to destructive or disruptive behaviour later in life. Little games playing ‘fetch’ with the pup’s favourite toy will have the beneficial affect of stimulating the pup, increasing his or her bond with you and allowing the pup to expend short, sharp bursts of energy.

6) Don’t over-train your puppy. Remember, a one-year old dog is, effectively, the same as a seven-year old person. It is a good rule of thumb to keep reminding yourself ‘would I expect a three, four, five or six-year old child to accomplish some of the tasks I am asking of my pup?’ Manners, house-cleanliness and the very basics (including socialisation) are all you should really seek to instil in your puppy until such a time, as they are mature enough to undergo a more formal training regime. Puppies can deceive you into thinking they are ready for training but will ultimately ‘rebel’ against discipline as they get older. Ensuring you have taught your puppy to respond to his or her name, what is and is not acceptable in terms of house-manners and establishing an uninhibited relationship with your pup is more important than any other discipline in the early stages of any dog’s life.

5) OWWWW! Teach your puppy that biting or nipping is not a pleasant experience for you by reacting as if in pain to their playful nips. Rather than scold the dog, let him or her know that nipping is not a pastime that you wish to engage in. Letting out an over-exaggerated expression of pain will more than likely shock the puppy into ceasing this behaviour. You will be glad you put an end to this behaviour early on instead of confronting a ‘playful’ 2-year-old with a full set of adult teeth!

4) Decide early on what is and is not acceptable in your house. If you don’t want your pup to use the living-room sofa as a raised dog bed when they get older then don’t encourage him or her to come up for fuss when they’re young just because they look sweetly at you and are small enough to pick up.

3) Jumping up. All puppies love to jump out when greeting anyone. Rather than reprimand the pup, simply ignore the behaviour and wait until he or she settles down and is not jumping up before lavishing any attention on them. Above all else, don’t encourage the behaviour by patting or praising the dog when they are in the ‘jump-position’ or you may run in to problems as the dog gets bigger and views jumping up as an easy way to receive attention.

2) The puppy’s name will be with them for life, make sure they know it by associating it with all things pleasant and fun. In the same way dog’s cotton on in a very positive way to words such as ‘walkies’, ‘biscuits’ or ‘dinner-time’ they should be given the same association with their own name. Too often the only time the puppy hears his or her name is when they have done something naughty. ‘Jasper, stop doing that!’ ‘Buster, leave that alone!’ It’s tough but try to ensure that you NEVER use the puppy’s name in a negative scenario only positive ones. Instead of ‘Jasper, leave that alone!’ simply, ‘Leave that alone!’ or better yet ‘No!’. And instead of ‘walkies’, biscuits or ‘dinner-time’ try ‘Jasper, biscuits!’, ‘Jasper, walkies!’, ‘Jasper, dinner-time!’ Golden rule. Your puppy should associate his or her own name with all that is pleasant and fun and nothing that is negative. The word ‘no’ is negative and it is enough to cover all undesirable behaviour.

1) From the moment your puppy comes into your life teach him that coming to you when called is nothing short of being the best thing in the world. Puppies can’t resist humans who sit down on the floor with legs spread apart so, while they’re easily persuaded to come by this very simple gesture, make the most of it by using their name, sparingly, but making a huge fuss when puppy arrives. Try it at times when pup is pre-occupied with something interesting and make coming back to you the most enjoyable and rewarding experience in the world for him or her. You will really see the benefits as the dog gets older.

The older dog is approached with the same basic techniques as his more youthful counterpart, but certain compensations should be made. Hand signals need to be more distinct, to accommodate a gradual failing eyesight. Verbal commands should be extra clear and lengthened to counteract any possible hearing impairment. When in doubt, the learning or placing phase of obedience can and should always be carried on for an extra few days to an extra week. We don’t want to encourage resistance by exerting weak corrections, so we must compensate with extra placement.

A dog who is older will not move as quickly as he did in his prime. If your dog is not taking advantage of you but is simply sitting more slowly, then you must allow those extra few seconds before exerting a sit correction. Should the dog be arthritic or suffer from serious hip dysplasia, you may want to dispense with the SIT command altogether and just have your dog do a Stand-Stay at your side when you stop. In this way you will have heeling control without discomforting the dog unfairly. Once your older dog is sitting with reasonable speed and comfort, it takes very little extra effort to make him stay. A Sit-Stay increases your control over the sit.

A dog who finds it hard to negotiate walking, or one who lies down and gets up very slowly, will have to be placed on the down for an extra week, on a soft surface, so he won’t resent it. When you return to heel your dog off, he may very well require more time to get up from the Down-Stay than from the Sit-Stay. This holds true even with a young healthy dog. So you must have extra patience allowing him to rise as you give the command to HEEL.

More commonplace canine calamities such as cut pads, gastrointestinal problems and joint disorders don’t come cheap by the time the vet has seen the animal a few times and possibly carried out procedures to correct any problems.

In fact, a recent survey carried out by the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) estimated that the average claims cost per year has risen to over £110 for a dog and £90 for a cat. Vet fees in general have risen enormously over the past 15 years mainly due to advancement in technological procedures and specialist treatments.

Thankfully, gone are the days when owner’s regularly had to have their cherished pets put to sleep because of a lack of expert treatment for certain debilitating conditions or serious injuries. With improving animal medical research, skills and resources what were once incurable, life-threatening ailments can be dealt with effectively by many vets. With most owners, the price of treatment is secondary to preserving and enhancing their pet’s quality of life.

It is estimated that the average cost of owning a dog is around £10,000 for the duration of its life, with a whopping 40% of that total (£4,000) going toward unforeseen veterinary bills. It is known that one in three pets will require some form of extensive surgery before they are two years old and 50% of pets in the UK need extensive surgery at some point in their lives.

Pet insurance policy’s can cost as little as £8.00 per month for a dog and £5.00 per month for a cat. With an average canine lifespan of 13 years, that’s just over £1,300 for the whole of a dog’s life - a serious tumour could end up costing well in advance of £2,500 for proper treatment.

No animal lover need ever be in the awful position of having to choose between the burden of expensive medical treatment or the loss of a beloved pet if they have taken out an effective pet insurance policy in the beginning. As well as the obvious benefits of being able to cover medical expenses, many pet insurance policy’s also cover much more, such as advertising for a lost pet, payment for boarding fees should you ever become hospitalised and payment of (usually up to one million pounds) third party liability cover should your pet ever be the cause of an accident.

Discover how your cat can cost you thousands of pounds, and why one third of cat owners will need to take out pet insurance. This guide to cat insurance explains the benefits of insurance and why it is a financial win win situation.

Calamitous cats are not that uncommon. As with all animals, cats do not have the same concept of danger as humans and therefore are more at risk from injury. Added to this, there is always a risk of illness to your cat, and with the recent advances in veterinary medicine, there are a lot more treatments available to your cat should she become ill.

On the surface this seems to be good news, but how would you, a responsible and caring cat owner, feel if there was a treatment available today for something which would have killed your cat ten years ago, but you couldn’t afford to pay for it. Logic dictates that the more advanced the treatments and procedures on pet animals on the vets operating table become, the more damage your cat can do to your wallet.

Over the past twenty years more and more people have taken to insuring their beloved moggies. This is a sensible precaution to take, as domesticated animals today are more popular as companions rather than practical additions to a home. The point being, if a cat was bought for no other reason than to catch mice, it would not make financial sense to spend a lot of money an a sick cat, when she could be replaced by a healthy cat for less. However, nowadays cats are more often than not irreplaceable family members rather than pest control delegates. This is why pet insurance has increased, and with cats overtaking their canine counterparts as the world’s most popular pets it is no wonder insurance companies are offering more and more attractive policies to today’s cat owner.

Statistics gathered from the leading insurance companies suggest that 33% of cat owners with insurance will make a claim against veterinary bills procured by a sick or injured cat. This tells us that at least one third of cats will visit the vet for something other than a vaccination booster. The trend for pet insurance began in Europe and gradually spread to the USA where it is now less common not to insure your cat.

Cat owners can expect to shell out anything between £1 thousand and for £4 thousand to treat a cat with cancer or heart problems. The simple fact is, not everybody can afford this and sometimes cats will have to be euthanised for financial reasons rather than ethical ones. For a modest premium, this type of heart-breaking scenario can be avoided.

What if you pay a monthly premium to cover your cat against illness and injury and nothing ever happens to her, have you wasted your money? The simple answer is no. What you will have gained from taking out insurance is peace of mind, you will simply not have to worry about losing your cat should anything happen to her which could be rectified by a trip to the vet. Many insurance companies will give a lump sum to cat owners who have never claimed upon death of the cat.

Insurance is a concept based on risk. Gambling is based on calculated risk. You would not gamble on your cat becoming injured or ill so why not insure against it and enjoy peace of mind each time you let her out at night.

” Years ago when we were kids, if the family ever holiday, the dog would go to a kennel, and the neighbour would feed the cat, and hopefully water your plants. There weren’t many burglaries, then, so not much consideration was given to security. And not much went wrong. Buster occasionally brought home fleas plants were over - or under-watered, and Fluff ignored us for several days, but the system worked okay. After all, we didn’t leave home much in those days, and they were only plants and animals, anyway. No one ever heard of professional pet sitters!

Times have changed. British society, today, is much “higher tech.” People work longer and play harder. They leave home often, traveling tens, hundreds of thousands of miles on business and pleasure. Having values and goals different from those of past generations, young couples today often postpone or forego having families. They - and an increasing number of single adults - turn to pets for affection. But these aren’t back-yard dogs, barn cats or the often-ignored animals we called “pets” when we were kids. Instead, they’re highly pampered and well cared for, often treated like children. They’re a very important emotional part of their owners’ lives.

Changing Times

Traveler anxieties…The Professional Pet Sitter In today’s society, how are pets cared for when their owners travel? That can be a problem for a number of reasons:· We’re more aware than we used to be of trauma animals can experience when removed from their loving homes and familiar environs.

We’re more critical of the care quality our pets receive. With frightening increases in crime, another anxiety travellers have, beyond their pets’ welfare, is leaving the home an unattended target for burglary. One solution to both problems is to find someone to live in the home and care for the pets while owners are away, but live-ins can present problems, too. How about the neighbours?

Today, as the companies we work for move us around the country, we tend to live away from families and friends, and we rarely know the neighbours well enough to ask for or trust their care of our pets and home. And so enters The Professional Pet Sitter!

What is a “pet sitter?” Someone who, by agreement and for fee, goes to a traveller’s home, provides basic and specified pet care, basic home security and anything else which he/she and the client have agreed to. The pet sitter may define and offer any services he chooses: some provide garden care, others clean homes. Some care for all animals, others only cats, for example. Grandma would say it’s preposterous to pay someone to feed Buster and Fluff! But pet sitters do far more than that. They provide companionship, love and home care.

And Grandma, look at the home services people pay for, today, in order to squeeze a little leisure time into busy professional schedules: gardening, cleaning, ironing, window cleaning, indoor plant care - even catering of each night’s dinner! The professional pet sitter provides loving care and peace-of-mind. And busy people today, travelling for business or pleasure, are willing to pay commensurately for that important peace-of-mind.

How To Locate And Select A Pet Sitter

So, having established the roll of the pet sitter, how do you actually go about finding and choosing one? You should make best use of today’s modern resources such as the World Wide Web lists literally hundreds and thousands of pet care businesses and organisations including pet sitters. Also ask your vet and pet owning friends or neighbours if they have any recommendations. Pet sitting agencies have different procedures so contact them all and gather as much information as you need.

Remember, having someone stay at your home while you are away has more benefits than just allowing your pet to stay in his or her own home, your house will also be occupied, your mail can be collected, curtains opened and closed and in some cases housework and shopping can be done for you at extra cost.

Pet sitters, like all other animal care services should be selected carefully. Using a pet sitting agency (Pet Care Services.co.uk) you will be guaranteed a high level of service and a pet sitter that will have been police checked, trained and subjected to a high level of inspection in order to become a registered pet sitter with the agency in question. It is the reputation of the pet sitting agency that is at stake when they place someone in your home to care for your pets, 99.9% of agencies value this very highly and will therefore do all they can to take the risk out of your selection. All you should concern yourself with is selecting the right agency for you and your pet(s).

Don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as you wish. Questions such as how the potential sitter would handle problems such as a medical emergency or the escape of your pet or how they have dealt previously with pets in their care or in a difficult situation. Satisfy yourself thoroughly with an interview of the prospective sitter. Most pet sitters will request you leave them with an up to date copy of your pets vaccination card, your vet’s name and contact details as well as a routine feeding and exercise guide.

Pets can often cope a lot better with your absence if they are allowed to remain in their own environment and keep to their established routine. Some pets actually love going to boarding establishments but for others it is a double trauma with you not around and them being place in a completely alien environment with strange smells, lots of noise and a new routine. It is up to you to decide if your pet would benefit from the extra care and attention that can be administered by a pet sitter or if they are perfectly happy to go on a holiday of their own to a boarding kennel, cattery or pet hotel. Either way, we should appreciate the choices that are now available in today’s pet care industry.

Many people do not understand the depth to which a person may feel the loss of a pet as they do when we have lost a human loved one. In some circumstances, we may be left to deal with the loss without human support and consolation.

Nothing can replace a beloved animal and the grief we feel when they pass away is often crushing. There are though, many ways in which we can help keep the memories alive and be comforted by them. You may wish to try one of the following as a means to help you cope and pay tribute to your dearly departed friend.

1. Keep a journal that describes the things that your dog did as a way of remembering the good times you had.

2. Create a photo album or photo montage of your dog.

3. Have a local artist paint a portrait of your dog.

4. If you are handy with crafts, needlepoint a picture of your dog with his birth and death dates.

5. Place a stone with your dog’s name in your garden.

6. Hold a memorial service for your dog that includes family and friends.

7. Plant a tree, bush, or flower in remembrance of your dog.

8. Make a donation to your favorite animal charity in your dog’s name. Inquire if they have special donation categories such as putting a dog’s name on a shelter cage or on a brick that becomes part of a new building.

9. Gather up your dog’s belongings and store them in a special container that you can retrieve when the pain heals.

10. Place your dog’s ashes in an urn to keep near.

11. If you prefer to bury your pet in a cemetery, check local ones for those that have special pet burial locations, or contact your local animal welfare organisation or shelter to see if they provide pet burial services. Put a memorial stone on his grave.

12. Contact your nearest animal welfare organisation to see if they have a support group in which people meet to share their experiences. Often, it helps us deal with the loss of a pet to talk about it with other pet people who understand what we are going through. The BlueCross are one such organisation who offer grief counseling for coping with the loss of a pet.

1. Dogs, especially puppies, love to put things in their mouths just as small children do. Once swallowed, the object of their curiosity can become lodged anywhere along their digestive tract and cause damage. In some cases, surgery may be the only way to remove the offensive item. Keep items small enough to be swallowed out of reach. Such items include rubber bands, coins, paper clips, staples, nails and screws, pieces of string, yarn, thread, or dental floss, earrings and other small jewelry, bells, small balls, sewing needles, pins, and the eyes pets may pull off pet toys.

2. Chocolate contains the active ingredient theobromine, which can be toxic to dogs if enough is ingested. It is difficult to estimate how much is required to cause death to a dog because the concentration of theobromine varies with the formulation of the chocolate; milk chocolate will have less theobromine than baker’s chocolate, for example. To keep your dog completely safe, do not allow him to eat any chocolate.

3. To keep your dog’s tags from getting caught in a heating grate when he lies down, place them in a Pet Pocket, which attaches to his collar and lies flat rather than having his tags dangle from a collar.

4. To keep your dog from chewing electrical wires, buy plastic decorator shower rod covers and insert the wires inside the rod covers. Rod covers can be cut to size. An alternative for covering electrical wires is to purchase plastic strips designed to conceal wires running across floors, across baseboards, and up walls. Concealing strips are available in hardware or office supply stores. They come in a variety of colors and can be cut to size.

5. To protect the pet that likes to chew electrical wires, a newer product to come on the market is the “power strip with a brain” that detects insulation aging, damage, and penetration by such things as dogs’ teeth. If your dog tries to take a bite out of this type of cord, the cord will shut off and prevent serious shock. Check your local hardware or builder’s supply store.

6. If you use an automatic flushing toilet bowl cleaner, put the seat down to keep your dog from drinking the water. Sew a large pom-pom to your toilet seat cover to prevent the lid from staying up in case you forget to lower it.

7. Keep chemical cleaning products out of your dog’s reach. When possible, substitute nontoxic cleaners such as vinegar and water mixtures and baking soda.

Firstly, yourself and your family should make a decision on what type and age of dog you would like to bring in to your home. This is not a decision to be made lightly and should be taken under advisement from experienced dog owners or, indeed, the shelter where you are intending to acquire your dog from. Dog shelters, quite rightly vet prospective owners to make sure that they have all the suitable credentials and facilities to care for a dog.

By taking some advise from a friend or suitably qualified professional who has good experience of dog ownership and all that it entails will show the shelter that you are truly committed to caring for the animal you are about to take home. Very often rescue dogs spend a long time being re-homed and re-sheltered because their new owners did not plan properly for their arrival or did not look into the type of dog that was going to be suitable for their lifestyle.

Make a decision on the size of dog you are looking for. Larger dogs are often more energetic and require more exercise, they are sometimes easier to train and they obviously will take up more room in the household. Their feeding requirements are greater and they usually need plenty of early training to build a good bond between dog and owner and to prevent any potential behaviour problems such as pulling on the lead or aggression toward other dogs.

Smaller dogs are less costly to feed, don’t need as much physical stimulation and are less prone to pulling on a lead or running away from the household. There are obviously exceptions to the rules but generally you can make an educated decision on the size of dog that will fit in best with your lifestyles and household.

You will need to establish exactly why it is that you want a dog in the first place. The idea of bringing a new dog into the home is often more appealing than the reality. The novelty of owning a dog should NEVER EVER wear off in the same way that the novelty of a new born child should last forever. Your dog will never get to an age when it can care for itself, move out and start a family of its own.

You will be entirely responsible for the creature you are about to bring into your lives forever. The dog will depend on you for its every need - that is a very important responsibility. Make absolutely sure that you know why you want a dog and that you fully understand the importance of caring for it every single day of its life.

When you have established the size and character of the dog that will be best suited to you, contact a local shelter and explain your situation. Ask if it is possible to take a look at some of the dogs they have. It may be, that they tell you they have a perfect dog to suit your requirements once you have explained to them what you are looking for. Take the advice of the shelter staff.

They have the very best interests of the dog in mind. They need to make sure that the dog you take will stay with you forever and so they are therefore qualified to tell you if a dog is or isn’t going to fit in with you. On your first trip to a shelter it is always a good rule of thumb to make sure everyone who is going to see the dogs (especially children) is made fully aware that you will not be bringing a dog home that day. It may just be that there is not a particularly ideal dog available at that time and leaving all those other adorable dogs behind is often very hard for anyone. Remember, if you are getting a puppy, you must know what size and shape it will become in little over 12 months time.

What sort of character it will have and if possible if it is not a pedigree dog, what breeds have combined to produce the pup. Cross bred dogs are great! They are very often healthier and happier than some extremely well breed pedigree dogs but you must have some idea, if you are a novice dog owner, what you are letting yourself in for. An 8 week old Boxer cross Collie will look just as small and adorable next to an 8 week old Cavalier King Charles but when they get to eight months old they will become two VERY different dogs and will require very different care and handling.

Ensure that once you have found ‘The Right One’ that you are prepared to accept him or her into your home. Shelter staff may already pay a visit to your home and will always be on hand to assist you but do prepare for the arrival of an animal that will be slightly bewildered, possibly very nervous and certainly not their usual self. Many a dog is returned to a shelter within days of re-homing because its new owners simply haven’t catered for the dog behaving totally out of character in its new environment.

Your new dog may take a few days to settle in or even a few months but do make sure you give the animal a fair chance before making any quick decisions. This is a prime reason why a lot of older rescue dogs make great pets because they have usually lived in a house before, are house broken and are used to the very day hustle an bustle of a living household.

The sad fact is, a lot of these dogs never get the chance to be re-homed because they fall in favour to the cute, playful puppies. A puppy is ALWAYS an un-known quantity. Ask any top breeder and they will tell you they have a good idea how the pup will turn out but a lot depends on how it is cared for and how its character is developed by new owners. An older dog is much more of a ’safe bet’. What see is normally what you get.

There are many conventional ways of treating this aggression, but a lot of the time they are ineffective due a lack of understanding of canine behaviour, If we took a step back and reviewed each and every situation in which our dogs showed aggression we would probably find that we would react in much the same way. However, there are some dogs who demonstrate various degrees of aggressive behaviour which we as dog owners need to understand and then deal with.

It is essential to understand what is likely to make a dog react aggressively. This is quite simple, if it would make you or me react aggressively then it would probably make a dog do much the same. So the first step in dealing with aggressive behaviour is to eliminate as many situations as possible where a dog may want to bare his teeth or growl. It is important to understand your dog and how his mind works to the point of knowing which dogs or other pets he would not wish to associate with. For example, it would not be advisable to leave two dominant, male dogs together unattended if one or both of them was not used to company from other dogs. This boils down to common sense. Dogs should be able to interact with other dogs, but this needs to be done over time if you have an ‘aggressive’ dog.

Gradual introductions to other dogs should help Rover feel more at ease in the presence of Fido and Scout. But this is not to sat that there will not be problems involving aggression, because there could be. This is why it is important for dog owners to know how to read body language. Just like humans can demonstrate aggressive body language like pointing and staring, dogs often initiate confrontation through body language. Tell tale signs include ears becoming pricked up, raised hackles and bared teeth. These are definite signs of aggression and should be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

There are many methods of treating this problem in dogs, one of the more radical yet effective ways involves the use of complimentary medicine. Holistic remedies such as the use of flower extracts offer alternative methods of correction. Used along side conventional behaviour modification techniques cherry plum extract offers an effective alternative to chemical drugs. It helps curb aggressive behaviour and is often effective alongside a dedicated behaviour modification programme. There is however, no substitute for a good well disciplined training regime to help control the behaviour of your dog.

If your dog does not respond to conventional methods of correction it is important to look at what causes his aggressive tendencies and attempt to remove the problem at the source. A dog is very sensitive to his environment, any tension or fluctuation in atmosphere will be sensed by the dog. If he feels uneasy he could turn that feeling into aggression. Monitor his behaviour to see if there is anything causing him irritation or bother. Trial ad error is often the only way to detect the root of the problem, if this is the case and still you cannot find any cause of cure for the aggressive behaviour consult your vet who may be able to refer you to dog behaviourist.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the most effective. A lot of dogs are effected by their diet. Once again trial and error could reveal the root of your dog’s unwelcome behaviour. Certain foods trigger certain reactions in dogs. Allergies can cause your dog to become aggressive. Other symptoms of allergy include hyperactivity, loss of appetite and stamina.

If your dog is feeling run down or generally ill this may cause aggression. Echinacea is an excellent supplement to boost the immune system and is readily available from many health food shops.

Your dogs exercise routine may be agitating him. Does he appear exhausted or even hyperactive after exercise? Is he receiving too much or too little exercise? Once again vary his exercise and diet in order to eliminate causes of aggression.

Holistic remedies, although effective are no substitute for a well trained dog. They are most effective when combined with other behaviour modifying measures.