Dog Training in Arizona
Call: 602-992-8743
E-mail: tdrugmand@gmail.com
Certified remote collar trainer specializing in problem behaviors, basic obedience and competition. Serving the following cities in Arizona: Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Glendale, Cave Creek and Carefree.
Sit Means Sit, Phoenix
4848 E. Cactus Rd., Suite 200
Scottsdale, Arizona 85254
(across from Paradise Valley Mall on Tatum north of Cactus)
By Kim Droze, Special to LifeScript
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Hands Off
Just as pet owners have a duty to raise their pets right, dog lovers need to show restraint when they meet an irresistible pup. Although you may be inclined to go ga-ga over someone else’s furry bundle of joy, Millan suggests you hold back.
“There are signs not to give affection [like] when somebody pets the dog, it gets nervous. A dog may pee if somebody approaches too fast, too hard, too loud. We need to treat all dogs who are with their owners like they are seeing-eye dogs – no touch, no talk, no eye contact. If a dog wants to meet you, it will bring its nose to you.”
Of course, there are other common sense rules for proper petiquette. Abide by leash laws. Walk your dog, and walk him often.
“We have recently revamped our Dog Swimming Program to meet the needs of our clients who want to improve the overall health and fitness of their dog as well as ensuring their safety and well being,” said Fred Hassen, CEO of Sit Means Sit Dog Training.
Hassen continued, “After basic dog obedience is achieved, the sky is the limit on the activities you can participate in with your dog. We have a number of clients all over the US who own swimming pools or enjoy local beaches, ponds and lakes and they are anxious to learn how to help their dog swim and also behave properly and safely. In public areas, obedience is especially important, so we try to bring improve the fun and healthy benefits of swimming with dog obedience and proper training.”
Swimming is one of the most effective methods of fitness and energy release for dogs of all ages. Traditionally, dog owners use daily walks or runs to exercise their dogs but during the summer months, swimming can actually be a more beneficial method of exercise. Not
only does the dog enjoy the cooling sensation of the water, but they experience non-weight bearing cardiovascular exercise which can strengthen muscles, joints and offer respite from any age related skeletal conditions.
Swimming is one of the most effective methods of fitness and energy release for dogs of all ages.
Believe it or not, house training is one of the easiest things to teach a dog because dogs are clean by nature and don’t like to soil their den area. Using this concept, begin by always supervising your puppy when he/she is not in her den-crate environment. The largest reason people fail with house training is that they give the puppy more freedom than the pup or dog is capable of handling. An un-supervised pup or dog is bound to make mistakes.
Use a Crate to Replicate the Den
If you can utilize a crate to replicate the “den” environment that dogs need and feel secure in it will shorthand the process. If the puppy or dog is given the opportunity to get out of his crate when necessary, it can aid your house training efforts enormously. As the puppy is let out from the dog crate, take him out on a leash to the spot you will want him to eliminate. If he goes, praise him. If not, put him back into his crate and try again in about 15 minutes or so. Continue with this cycle until you and your dog have a routine going. Success earns the pup freedom for twenty minutes or so. Gradually extend the time as he grows older and more reliable. Remember a seven-week-old pup does not have a great deal of bladder control. Don’t expect him to go more than a few hours without having to eliminate, and don’t expect him to wait once he is out of his crate to eliminate.
Use an Elimination Word
Begin the first time you take your puppy out to give a word to associate elimination with. In the beginning the puppy won’t understand the word, but if each time you take him out you say to your puppy, “hurry up”, or “go potty” and continue to repeat the phrase until he goes, praising when it happens, your puppy will learn to associate these words with the action. Later when traveling or out in public it can be a cue word to get your dog to relieve himself in quick time, without having to wait in the scorching sun, or freezing rain.
All-in-One Management System
Sit Means Sit dogs 'Sonic' and 'Beck' taking a bathroom break!
An even easier system for house training is using a crate with a dog door and an enclosed dog run on the other side of the dog door. The dog crate goes up to the dog door. The dog door in the beginning may need to be taped or otherwise rigged up so the puppy can comfortably go through the dog door. The outside of the dog crate should be enclosed somehow to prevent the puppy from getting into any harm, or harm finding him!
Supervise your Pup or New Dog
When the pup isn’t in his crate, you have to use constant supervision to keep him from making mistakes. The easiest way to do this is to literally tie or tether the pup to your waist with a leash or line, or tether him to a piece of furniture where he has no more than three feet of freedom in any direction. Remember that a pup tethered to furniture should be watched carefully or he may chew it. Crating, supervising and tethering are examples of a management system used to support the dog until he is trained. With the crate set up to the dog door system, your puppy learns quickly to let himself out of his containment area to relieve himself. It also helps him develop some independence from always having you to hold his hand, thus increasing the need for the puppy to feel that he needs someone to take him out, he can’t possibly go by himself.
Preventing Separation – Anxiety
Because dogs are inherently pack animals, they prefer to be with us, than be alone. Most cases of adult “separation- anxiety” would never develop if the dog as a puppy had been trained in the crate/dog- door/dog -run management system just described. Early on the puppy would learn to deal with being alone and without the opportunity to dig, chew or destroy things left available. One important thing to consider with this system is that when you first let your puppy out of his crate you would still want to take your dog immediately to the outside area you are encouraging him to go relieve himself in. Even though your crate has access to the outside, puppy may have been resting and not recently “emptied out.” It won’t take much movement on the dogs part to feel the strong urge or need to “go.” We don’t want mistakes that could have been prevented. These are some of the first essentials for a good start with your new puppy. Enjoy him and give him a good start with safe and secure boundaries in your home!
All three dogs are Sit Means Sit trained dogs. They are trained to do fun things which help us educate the public.
“Stuff” Sit Means Sit Phoenix, Toni Drugmand
“Beck” Sit Means Sit Denver, Dave Skoletsky
“Sonic” Sit Means Sit Atlanta, Darin Shepherd
For the many reasons that your dog may chew, you want to be able to address the problem and create a new pattern of not chewing.
Is Your Dog a Chewer?
By Toni Drugmand & Fred Hassen
Does your dog chew your favorite things? Are clothing items and shoes favorite items for your pet? Chewing on things that bear your scent can be a way for your dog to occupy his alone time with. Chewing and becoming destructive are common behaviors problem for many pet owners.
Chewing is a natural behavior
Chewing is a behavior in the wild that is natural. Your dog has to be taught what to chew on. Chewing can happen for many reasons. Puppies chew when they are cutting teeth. You could have a dog that gets stressed when left alone, often called “separation anxiety” chewing or other destructive behaviors result out of anxiety and nervousness. You could have a dog that simply wasn’t taught not to chew when he was teething as a puppy. Now he has developed a habit or pattern of chewing when he is bored.
Supervise
For the many reasons that your dog may chew, you want to be able to address the problem and create a new pattern of not chewing. The most important aspect to consider with the chewing dog is that your dog whether a puppy or an adult must be supervised when he has the run of your home and yard in order to teach him not to chew on inappropriate things.
Contain your Pet
If you are unable to supervise your dog, then you must have a safe secure containment or management system for your dog so that he doesn’t learn a negative pattern of chewing by the reward of doing the wrong behavior when you are not available to supervise his actions. Booby-trapping the potential chewed targets is another way to approach chewing, but this will be very difficult to set up and accomplish reliably.
Test reliability with time
Using a dog crate, dog-run or other means of containment is a helpful tool to get you past the point of having to put your dog away, but until he has proven himself worthy of not being destructive for several months consistently your dog should not have the run of the home or yard if you hope to stop the wrong behaviors.
Interrupt the behavior with the help of a training aid
There are two ways to stop chewing. One is to contain your dog as we just mentioned. The other is to interrupt his flavorful explorations during his supervised free time! When your dog is interested in trying some new and exotic yummy taste of your home, like trying out the dirt in the flowerpot, use a training aid such as a long line that can interrupt the behavior with a gentle tug. Another suggested tool is a spray bottle with water that can spritz at the time of the action, a shake can with pennies is another tool that could be effective, though some dogs are noise sensitive to this. A remote collar is another way to interrupt the pup’s behavior. When using a remote collar, it is best to contact a “DOG-ON-IT” trainer to get you headed in the right direction. Our method uses the remote collar as an attention getter, a way to non-invasively interrupt a behavior and gain attention. It is not used as heavy correction. Seeking a professional is the best way to know how to train your dog for your specific needs.
Obedience Training is helpful
General obedience training can be a helpful outlet as it will relax and tire your dog, but don’t count on “heel”, “sit” and “down” exercises to completely fix the problem without addressing where the dog is left when un-supervised.
There are some dogs that don’t like other dogs in their space. Even a dog which normally is considered “dog friendly” with other dogs can have some issue with certain dogs.
Not every dog enjoys having another dog come up from behind and goose him. It really is not polite to allow your dog to go visit another dog without asking the owner if it is OK.
There are some dogs that don’t like other dogs in their space. (See the tip on Space and Your Dog). It shows responsible and considerate actions towards others in public places when your dog is under control. Even a dog which normally is considered “dog friendly” with other dogs can have some issue with certain dogs. Or, your dog could get too friendly with the wrong dog. In either case, you just might find yourself in the middle of an unpleasant encounter, which could develop into a dogfight! Be polite and courteous with your dog in public which will help insure the dog friendly public will continue to want to have dogs around. It only takes one bad experience to ruin it for everyone.
For those wishing to socialize their dogs with other dogs, try visiting the dog parks that were designed specifically for this purpose.
The key to this Bark command really, and all commands you teach is to first gain your dogs attention. Once you do, your dog will easily be capable of responding to your command to quiet down.
Dogs bark for many reasons. Their ability to bark is a way to claim territory. It is also a way to try and get your attention. While some barking may be just and “OK,” other barking may be annoying, or worse yet may cause complaints from neighbors.
Training your dog to bark on command is a funny way to help address the problem, or 1/2 the problem. If you encourage your dogs barking when you hear him by telling him a command to turn on the bark, you then have a way to trigger barking. We now know he knows what the bark word is because we can easily encourage it. Now the other side, the important side as you may be thinking is to teach him to turn off the bark on your command.
Pick something you know is a trigger for your dog to bark at, like the doorbell ringing. Give your dog a word to associate the barking, like “bark”, or “tell me”. Encourage the barking with a good dog and words of praise, a treat or a favorite toy is fine as well. Now ask your dog to be quiet. Tell him the word “quiet” without getting loud or angry and use something to address the barking at the moment of the command to stop. A water bottle is one way of telling him “quiet” and gives a quick squirt of water towards his nose. There are other methods as well, refer back to the tip on Attention.
The key to this Bark command really, and all commands you teach is to first gain your dogs attention. Once you do, your dog will easily be capable of responding to your command to quiet down. We use a remote training collar, which allows us the easy ability to communicate to our dog what we both do and don’t want from him. His ability to make a quick link to the command you have asked him helps him learn very quickly.
To fairly and safely manage their dogs when presented with another dog in close proximity, owners first need education on issue of space.
One of the most common things we see in dog aggression is really an issue with space and how your dog views space in relation to you and the area he is presently occupying. This is often confusing to the dog owner who simply wants to take their dog on a walk for exercise hoping to reap the enjoyment of letting the dog do “doggy” things like sniff and enjoy an outing together.
Dogs that exhibit aggressive behaviors towards other dogs and sometimes people are often showing signs of claiming territory or space. Sometimes the dog is overly bold and confident, but more often a dog that displays aggressive behaviors is responding out of concern or fear and feels that acting the bully will protect himself. Space issues for your dog can be the immediate area around them, for instance, another dog sniffing at him in a close and personal encounter. This common occurrence can create insecurity for the dog and sometimes an aggressive conflict will arise.
The dog that feels threatened can respond by being forward and becoming a bully, pulling, barking, growling and lunging often are reactions created by feelings of vulnerability. Additionally, a fair number of dogs will claim much larger areas of territory as their space. This could include your home, or your car, the yard, anyone walking by the front window, the sidewalk, even the entire city block. These behavior patterns are more difficult for the normal owner to understand, because generally they see only the “gentle” side of the dog when he is home interacting with the family.
First we want to be fair to our dog and help him to feel secure and non-threatened when other dogs are around. This can be accomplished simply by not allowing another dog to get into his space, this may also include people that want to “honey up” to your dog. The dog being walked down the street doesn’t need to come up and to sniff your dog. Politely explain to your neighbor that your dog isn’t comfortable with this. At the same time don’t allow your dog to be rude and come up the backside of someone else’s dog. This space is very personal and while one dog may not react, or react by becoming submissive, another dog might react very differently and become defensive. Imagine if someone you didn’t know well got right into your “face” without your initiation or invitation. How would you react to this invasion of your space?
The first thing to be aware of is to be fair to your dog and help manage his space well. It is your job to be in control of this. Teach your dog what is appropriate space to feel territorial over. For instance it may be Ok to bark when the doorbell rings, but he should quite down as soon as you tell him that it is OK to do so. At the same time, discourage your dogs forward approach towards sniffing and getting personal with another dog. Help your dog feel safe and secure by keeping other dogs out of his “face” or personal space. This will alleviate a lot of unnecessary negative behaviors. The baffling thing to most owners is that the behaviors always seem to come out of nowhere. It doesn’t take the dog long to learn how to act negatively. The first time he acts out and it works for him simply because you didn’t know how to manage or fix it, in the dog’s mind, these behaviors are successful encounters. Be cause the immediate reward for barking, pulling or other aggressive actions caused the other dog to go away, they worked for him. (He doesn’t recognize that the other guy on the end of the lead was dragging the dog away, or that the mailman was leaving anyway!) From the dog’s point of view, he was successful at defending his territory; he claimed home turf! The next time he will be a little more forward and confident and before long your dog is way out of control.
Remember the Art of Attention from out first tip? If your dog has never learned the art of attention as we discussed in our earlier tip, it becomes very difficult for the owner to manage the dog, especially when he is excited and stressed. This can be uncomfortable, maddening and embarrassing for the owner. It can also become a liability if the dog isn’t educated on how to behave in public and he bites. In such cases many owners seek training as a last resort. Most dogs once taught clearly what is OK to claim as their natural space and once comfortable deferring to their owners position of having things under control so they no longer need to defend the turf, will easily give up the need to act out aggressively.
A remote training collar helps us keep our dog's attention.
Everything you teach your dog starts with attention. There is a bit of an art to teaching attention however. Finding something that motivates your dog to focus on what you want while in the face of distractions can be difficult. A leash and collar might be one way to do this, another might involve an enticing food reward or favorite toy, our system includes any of the mentioned along with the cue of a remote training collar giving us the ability to motivate our dog in the face of a strong distraction such as a cat running in our dogs path.
Teaching attention is the art of presenting your dog with choices and letting him compare them. The old saying which states you can’t know short without knowing tall applies.
