Puppy Training Articles

One of the most common themes in the many emails I get every day concern problems people have with house training their dogs. In March 2007 I wrote a 160 page eBook titled Common Sense Solution to House Training Problems. We sell it for $12.00 - you can view the table of contents on the link to the eBook.

There's no such thing as an almost housebroken dog. Either he is or he isn't. Saying a dog is almost housebroke is like saying your wife is almost pregnant. When a dog is housebroken he never uses the house for his toilet.

I wrote this article to help new puppy owners wade through the sea of information on our web site and frankly, on the internet. I have listed the specific products I feel new puppy owners should have. These are products we use in our home when we raise a puppy (which we are doing right now for our pup, Favor who is 6 months old).

We get many emails on a weekly basis that deal with problems new puppy owners have as a result of poor socialization. Most of these people feel they have been doing the right thing with their puppies when in fact they have created the problems they face. The fact is socialization is one the most misunderstood areas in dog training.

I get many emails asking if they should neuter their dogs. Neutering animals is an important income stream for many vets, which is why so many vets will advize you to neuter. The fact is unless your male dog is a monorchid (only has one testical) you should not neuter your dog (male or female).

A year or two ago I wrote an article titled "The Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader." This article has been well read but over time it has become obvious that I should have written two articles; one for adult dogs and one for puppies. This article will address the ground work that should be done with puppies

When people bring a new puppy home they are often confronted by problems that were never expected. Biting and chewing problems are just a few surprises they face. Many new owners think they adopted the pup from hell so they sit down and write us.

This article will attempt to explain why puppies bite and what can be done about it.

In both my basic DVDs, Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months and Basic Dog Obedience. I advise people to not allow strangers to touch their dog. This has generated a lot of email questions so I decided to write this article to expand on the reasons and exceptions for this policy. To understand this you must first understand what I expect from a relationship with my dogs. I want a dog that sees me as the center of its universe. I want my dog to focus on me and I want it to ignore other humans (and animals).

These are the standard plastic airline crates. They come in different sizes. This photo shows a medium and an extra large crate. We ship our pups in the medium crates. Airlines will not allow a dog to be shipped in one of these crates unless the animal can stand inside the crate.

I am constantly asked if I think it's a good idea to buy two puppies and raise them together, or people ask what I think about getting their older dog a puppy to keep the older dog company. My answer is simple - "NO!!! It's not a good idea!!!"

I have bred dogs since 1978, over 340 litters of German Shepherds. This translates into raising a lot of puppies and a fair bit of experience with puppy diarrhea. Over the years I have seen my share of sick dogs and puppies. One of the most common problems we see with puppies is diarrhea.

No matter how much information I put in this article, it will never be enough. I have bred more than 170 plus litters of working bloodline German Shepherds over the past 20 years and I still learn something new all of the time. That's the beauty of dog training.

Bringing a new dog into a home is always an exciting time. It's like adding a new family member or guest to the household. While much has been written on bringing puppies into the home - very little has been written about bringing new adult dogs into the home. This article should help you make some decisions that will ease the transition.

I am often asked how to make a new puppy (or dog) get along with the family cat or cats. My answer is always "this is a simple thing to do as long as you are willing to educate yourself on canine pack behavior and make a few changes in the way you live with your cats." I remind people that cats can instigate problems with dogs. This is not always a one sided problem.

I get a lot of emails about taping German Shepherds puppy ears. The majority of these emails come from people who are jumping the gun and worrying too much. By that I mean their pups are 3 or 4 months old and they are starting to panic because their puppies ears are not standing. I tell these people that they need patience, they need to wait until their pup has finished teething.

I have bred over 350 litters of GSDs in the 30 plus years of my breeding career. Over those years we have done our share of caring for newborns that need help. We have also come up with our own newborn puppy formula that I think is the best we have seen.

Today we are going to talk about how using food rewards can effect motivation while training your dog. Outside of normal feeding there are two applications for using food with dogs: 1) Reward or motivator during training or 2) Toys to pass time while the dog is alone

This article will detail three topics concerning dog parks: 1) The original purpose of dog parks. 2) The problems and dangers of taking your dog to a dog park. 3) How to prepare for a dog park. 4) How to handle and protect your dog while in the dog park.

The unfortunate thing about vaccinosis is that people don't get involved in learning about it until after there is a problem, and by then it's often too late.

Vaccinosis is the term used for "reactions our pets have to being vaccinated." It is far more common than we are lead to believe. In fact, most veterinarians refuse to talk about it because they are the ones who give the shots that cause Vaccinosis.

When house training goes well new pet owners assume that this is a cake walk and it should be like this all the time. These people are wrong. More often than not problems come up and when that happens people get frustrated.

The fact is there are many many reasons that puppies and older dogs develop house training problems. There is no one silver bullet that is going to fix each and every dogs problem. With this said the solution to all house training problems lies in owner education.

In the early 1980's I became interested in testing puppies to evaluate their potential to be working dogs. In 1985 I began filming some of these tests. I went on to produce a video titled Bite Training Puppies which included the results of this testing process. The first 45 minutes of that video shows how to do these tests.