Learn how you can train your dog for free

Training a dog needs consistency, clarity and patience. Enjoy how your dog loves to do what you ask him to do using the dog training tips and techniques from our site.

House training a dog

The easy and effective way of house training a dog and enjoying a clean house with a happy dog and a happy owner. Dogs love to do their business outside the house, so all you have is to teach them "a trick" how they can get out of the house to do their business. Dogs love to learn tricks, so here goes.

Fun and easy steps to house training a dog

If you don’t ant your dog scratching your door each time he wants to go out, try to train him to ring a bel for example. Some owners teach their dog to bark when they want to go out, but I strongly advice against that: suppose your dog is barking because he hears a burglar and your spontaneous reaction is opening the door… You see what I am getting at.

• Get yourself a bell that’s easy to ring butt strong enough to withstand your dogs paws. Hang the bel on the door knob at your dog’s nose level. You can DIY or buy a dog door bel in your local pet shop:
   
  House training a dog with a dog door bell
• Every time you need to take your dog out to potty, make sure he hits the bell first before you open the door (or you help the bell hitting the dog…). This will train your dog that the sound of the bell is related to the door opening.
• Now put your dog’s favorite treat on the bel. Of course your dog will go for it and ring the bell. So you open the door. Now your dog learns that when he rings the bell, you will come and open the door for him (the dog
  training the master so to speak…)
• Keep on repeating the 2 previous steps until one day your dog rings the bell all by himself. Now make sure you are around, ask your dog if he wants to go out, and when your dog rings the bell again: open the door for him and be sure you just house trained your dog!

Extra accessories when house training a dog

When you are house training a dog, make sure you use a timer, treats and pee pads:

• time the amount of training you are giving your dog. After one hour, your dog is literary dog-tired butt he will never show it to you. So time your training sessions and always end on a positive note.
• food dog treats are the most effective to reward your dog, but don’t exaggerate: use commands like "good boy" or a caress to reward your dog as well. Obese dogs aren’t happy dogs so go easy on dog treats.
• pee pads absorb a dog’s urine very well, so are very useful when you just start to potty train your dog. You rather have your dog using the pee pad than using your carpet when it isn’t house trained yet.

How to punish when house training a dog?

Dogs love positive attention much more than they hate negative attention. Because even negative attention is better than no attention at all and above all, dogs love to play around.

Physical punishments aren’t an efficient training method: your dog will get confused that one time your hand caresses him and the other time your hand punishes him. When your training is not successful, it is mostly you doing something wrong rather than your pet doing something wrong. The best way to show your discontent is a "firm No!".

Totally ignore the dog if he doesn’t obey any of your commands. Do not even look his way as the most severe punishment for not obeying your commands. Dogs thrive on attention and when you ignore your dog, he wont get any attention. If you practice this continually, your dog will eventually make the connection.

Maybe what you are asking is "too complicated" for the dog, so be patient and go over all the steps again that you want your dog to do. Quickly rewarding your pet for each desired behavior is much more effective than punishing the dog over and over again. Your dog will understand fast that something is wrong, butt you need to train him an alternative that is right or your dog will have no choice butt repeating the wrong behavior.

Never let a puppy do something you wouldn’t like a grown up dog to do! Because one day your puppy will grow up as well and not at all understand that why the behavior he had when being a puppy is suddenly wrong behavior. Nothing worse than confusing a dog when training them: always be clear and persistent in what you want and reward your dog when he achieves what you want him to achieve.

If your dog still doesn’t learn to go out when he needs to go potty, then you need to make sure he uses the pee pad each and every time. Once he starts using a pee pad on his own, you need to slowly butt surely introduce it outside the house. Sooner or later your dog will get the hint that he has to pee outside, so all in all: house training a dog boils down to:

• breaking things down in clear and easy steps
• being patient and explaining your dog over and over again
• and worse case scenario when your dog doesn’t seem to get it: accommodating to what your dog does and building on that to reach the desired behavior.

What is so great about this bell-house training a dog? You can bring the bell with you and your dog to any place other than your house. As soon as your dog needs to go potty, he will ring the bell and you know what to do. This way of house training a dog is great when you have an older dog that needs to potty more often and knows how to tell you in advance.

Training a beagle puppy

Enjoy how training a beagle puppy can be fun as well for you as for your beagle puppy.

Training Beagle Puppies

Beagle puppies are often being passed off disobedient, un-trainable, hyperactive and mischievous.

While there is some truth in it, life with a beagle puppy can be enormously enjoyable, fun and downright interesting. What you need is patience, love and the right beagle training principles we will teach you to train your beagle puppy.

Training a beagle puppy cheat sheet

Before training a dog or a puppy, make sure you follow each and every of the following 7 dog obedience tips:

1. Get your beagle puppy to love its food: try several brands of dog food, and use the one that your beagle loves during your puppy training sessions
    
2. Use dog training products exclusive for training: your beagle puppy will look forward to its training session when it realizes that these "toys" are only available during training.
    
3. Start young (minimum 5 weeks) but do remember that beagle pup’s attention span isn’t very long. Start out with 4 or 5 minutes of dog training at a time.
    
4. Be a firm dog trainer, be excited and praise when praise is due!
    
5. You as the dog trainer needs to be the pack leader: dogs are most obedient when they know their place in the pack: you should be on top!
    
6. Keep patient, persevere and make 100% sure you and your dog love the training sessions all the time, every time! Beagles love to have fun, so being excited during their dog training will help in prolonging your puppy’s attention span.
    
7. Use your puppies voluntary behavior: when your beagle puppy does something voluntarily that can be used as wanted behavior, praise your puppy by teaching him the word for that behavior. You’ll be amazed how quick a beagle puppy learn this way.

Beagle dog training

Know your dog breed. Beagles are hunting dogs so they love the outdoors. Make sure you start your puppy training ASAP with letting your beagle puppy out each day for at least half an hour:

• for exercise and
   
• for plenty of fun, human interaction.

Training beagles is fun as beagles love to please!

Start training your puppy in your garden. Once puppies are obedient there, go to the outdoors where there is much more distractive excitement interfering with you training your dog.

At 10-weeks old, you can start calling your beagle puppy "Come here" with lot of excitement in your voice:

• When your puppy comes back to you, praise and if needed or desired, give the puppy her favorite treat.
   
• When your puppy comes back a few times, you are sure she knows the command
   
• Only then when she is disobedient (as all little puppies will do from time to time) punish her by:
   
• waving your finger at her in disapproval
   
• speaking in a harsh, disappointed voice
   
• put her in a "punish position" or on a "punish place" (like what your mom did when she ordered you to stand in a corner).

During beagle puppy training, always make sure your puppy understands that:

• it’s more fun to please you and "play your game" than it is to not obey you
   
• you are the boss, but you are a boss that knows how to make fun!

Once you see your beagle puppy lying on the ground, teach her the "down" command.

Add to that the "keep" command to keep your dog in the same position: hold her tight to the ground with your hands if needed and keep on teaching the "keep" command.

Again when training beagle puppies:

• enforce your command at all costs; otherwise you lost your credibility
   
• NEVER let your puppy get away ignoring you, never!
   
• praise when commands are obeyed and punish with a verbal scolding
   
• always finish any dog training exercise with a command that has been obeyed and give lots of praise.

Teach your dog to go in his doghouse when needed, and add to that the "keep" command so your dog knows he has to keep there.

I train all my dogs to go into their doghouses on command and I keep them there with the ‘whoa’ command. I’ll point to the doghouse and command ‘get in there’, or ‘go lie down’. I do this because I don’t like getting jumped on come feeding time – and a dog in the doghouse is much less apt to get into trouble by barking when they see me coming, or hear the food dishes clang.

Training my dog

Since we use our beagles to go and hunt rabbits, at 3 months of age, we will take our pet rabbit in the garden, let it hop around some time and fix it at one location (we tie it to our apple tree). Then we introduce our beagle puppy in the garden and wait.

We wait until voluntarily until our beagle puppy will notice a new scent in the garden. Once she managed to follow the scent and find the rabbit, teach your puppy the word rabbit.

Then let the rabbit loose: it will run away and excite your beagle puppy to follow it (which goes naturally most of the time). Again you have your beagle puppy voluntary sniffing and looking for the rabbit, so you just have to teach here the command: "find" during the activity.

In order to training a beagle puppy getting used to gunshots, it’s always a good idea to fire a gun at feeding time.

When you want to enjoy more how to positively channel your beagle’s energy and intelligence to build a healthy bond between you and your beagle puppy, we do recommend you buy Zone Training your Beagle (only $22.95, with Money Back Guarantee).

Free dog training guide

Download this free dog training guide : training you how to train your dog.

Expert dog trainer -Darr Houssen- compiled this free dog training guide so you can train your dog in the comfort of your own house.

Her dog training guide is laid out in building block style. This means that you and your dog will be learning a lot of different exercises and commands in 6 sessions.

All training is broken down in small sections so the dog training will be fun and fair for both dog and handler.

The free dog training guide is divided in sessions with a brief outline listed for quick reference and then explained in detail.

Always remember the golden rule in dog training: persistence removes resistance!

Download your free dog training guide here!

Dog obedience training tip

The most important dog obedience training tip you need in order to have a happy dog doing what you want is: being consistent.

Always remember that your dog wants to please you but he needs to have a firm understanding of the rules how to please you.

No matter which dog obedience training method you use:

• clicker
   
• leash
   
• or reward,

you have to be consistent.

Your dog will always test the rules you have set forth for him. It may be only once per month at first but if you don’t react each and every time in the same way, your dog will try more to break the rules.

Other dog obedient training tip that works

• Positive reinforcement results in an increase in the frequency and intensity of a behavior.
   
• Negative reinforcement results in a decrease in the frequency and intensity of a behavior.

In other words: reward your dog when they are doing good and give your dog a penalty when your dog isn’t obedient.

Never punish or scold your dog under obedience training. A punishment will put in negative feelings into your dog. Praise him for a good behavior instead.

Penalize your dog. Make note that "penalize" is different than "punish".

A "penalty" can be anything that your dog does not like. It may be a leash jerk, not moving when he’s on leash so there’s no walk or just ignoring him. This would make him feel guilty and behave in a way he knows pleases you.

Dog obedience training summarized

Dog obedience training can be difficult if not impossible if you do not know what you are doing.

However if done properly both you and your dog will be much happier. Make sure to always follow the number 1 dog obedience training tip: consistency rules!

Dog Spirit Guide

Dog spirit guides in a nutshell should start before you get yourself any guide!

First you need to find out what kind of dog you have and give them the guidance they are breed for. Just like you would do with your kids; find out what they like and give them an appropriate education!

For instance: German Import Rottweilers are good working dogs, so make sure they are trained to do a lot of things. Hunting dogs say it all: they need to be trained to find stuff…

So do some research before you start training your dogs to understand their basic needs, what they are good in and how intelligent they are.

Keep also in mind that each dog is different: my border collie is the nicest playful dog in the world, yet he did put his teeth in my arm whilst training the down command. Just watch a dog show and you will notice that border collies really can’t sit still that well, so a down command needs some special attention.

You need to know that bored dogs cause problems. And big bored dogs create big problems…

But if you keep your dog’s mind stimulated on a daily basis, you will have a happy dog. And happy dogs make happy owners (and vice versa!).

So don’t look at training as a boring class for your dog and yourself: it has to be fun and it will keep your relationship with your dog a happy one!

We will continue posting more dog spirit guide tips in our Guide for Training a dog blog

Cats and dogs

Welcome to our guide for training a dog site.

Today we are still twinkling here and there so mind your step as some dogs will be chasing some cats… We promise that all dogs will behave well tomorrow (that means we have a lot of dog training to do now…).