Socialise, socialise, socialise! Every book, every DVD, every TV show emphasises the importance of socialisation. The problem is none of them seem to tell you exactly how this is to be achieved. As a result, many owners know that they should socialise their puppy, but have no idea how they’re supposed to do it. They are told about the importance of socialising their dog with other dogs, with people, with traffic, and with a whole host of other stimuli. But I believe that without the owner being taught how to do this correctly and efficiently, the dog is much more likely to develop training and behavioural problems. And ironically, these problems may be directly attributable to the class that they took the dog to, and to the trainer who with the best of intentions may have created exactly the problem for the dog and owner that they were trying to prevent.

Why is it that when there has never been more emphasis placed on the importance of socialisation that dogs are becoming increasingly aggressive, seemingly to almost everything? I believe the cause of this is down to several factors, and one of these is puppy parties/puppy socialisation classes. In many of the classes that I visit, instructors who are new to instructing are given the puppies to train since it is seen puppies are easier to teach than adult dogs, and this may be true in some ways. However, if you make a mistake with a puppy, there’s a much greater likelihood that you are setting that puppy and owner up for major problems later on. Continue Reading →

Basic Principles of Dog Training and Behaviour

I believe that dogs learn by three basic principles, what’s rewarding, what’s punishing, and what’s of no consequence. The most influential of these to the dog are the rewards and the punishers.

I encourage all of the owners that I work with to help their dogs to understand the rewards of making the right choices and getting paid for it. It is very difficult for a dog to stop making the wrong choices if they haven’t been taught what the right alternatives are. However, once the dog knows what it is that you want it to do, it needs to then learn the consequences for making the wrong choices. These may be punishers – designed to make the dog regret the choice it made. Or you may simply take away something that the dog considers valuable.

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I am horrified by some of the ingredients put in dog foods, and you should be too. While we are actively encouraged to look at what we are feeding to ourselves and our children, we are not looking at what we are feeding to our beloved companions, who are entirely dependent on us for their dietary needs. Below is a list of some of the ingredients to avoid, and what impact on your dog they will have. It makes for startling reading. A survey carried out on one of Britain’s most popular dry foods a few years ago actually found that incredibly, there was more nutrition in the bag than there was in the food!

Get out your dog food packet and see if any of the ingredients listed below are in there. And please don’t assume that just because your dog food is expensive, or vet recommended, that it will be any better than those that aren’t.

Cereals:

Cereals such as wheat, maize and corn are used in great abundance by most manufacturers. They will inform you that they are an excellent source of necessary dietary fibre and carbohydrate. Of course this may in some cases be true, but some dog foods contain up to 80% cereal.

The use of cereals in a pet food is an alternative to more expensive ingredients. Cereals are generally described as “bulking agents”. A bulking agent is an ingredient that provides a lot of bulk but often has little nutritional value and is very cheap for the manufacturer to buy.

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