Dog Care: Bathing a dog

April 18th, 2009

Bathing a dog needs to be done with care, certain areas of the dog’s body needs to be given special attention, for example the ears, if you don’t close the ears with large cotton balls, water might enter into the dog’s ear canals and may cause ear infection. Signs of such infection include constant discharge from the dog’s ears and shaking of head.

Bathing a dog is important but frequency of bathing actually depends on the breed of the dog. If your dog is of a hairy type like the cocker spaniel, then bathing could be carried out once in six to eight weeks. Why take so long you may ask, the answer is simple, if these breed of dogs are bathed too frequently, then the skin and coat loose their protective characters.  However, there are exceptions to this rule, if your dog has defecated on his skin due to frequent digestive upsets leading to diarrhea, it is advisable to give him frequent baths as is required at that stage to avoid bad smell.

Take care to avoid using some irritant soaps or human soaps. Soap materials used for human beings are not suitable for dogs. Similarly, many human shampoo products have some ingredients in certain proportions that are not suitable in the proportions that should be used on your dog. Hence, always try to use the shampoo products that are meant mainly for pet use. A lot of care should be taken when using any new products on your dog.

Bathing your dog should be a convenient activity to both you and your dog, make sure you are not in a hurry when you want to give your dog a bath. Ensure you have all you need close at hand with availability of water source, if you are using a bathtub, have everything in one place and then start bathing of the dog. Try to have a leash, conditioner, towel, and shampoo in the bath place as well, the conditioner will make combing activity easier later.

What is Dog Obedience Training?

January 22nd, 2009

Dog Obedience Training can be defined as “simply training your dog to be obedient”. To achieve this you should teach your dog/puppy the basic commands such as: sit, stay, fetch, heel, come and many more.
There are two basic approaches to dog obedience training, One school of thought believes using negative reinforcement techniques like choke collars and electric shocks ensures you get results, the other believes using clicker and rewards style ensures you get results.

The two methods definitely gives you results but negative reinforcement breeds fear in your pet. It makes your dog/puppy afraid of you and of others. This usually results in aggression and unpredictable behavior. The end result gives you a dog/puppy that bites,nips, destroys your property and in some cases barks incessantly.

While negative reinforcement behaviors may work in the short run, they are not definitely not predictable. to achieve the best dog training results you should ensure that you use training methods that you give you predictable behaviours in your pet.

Training your dog/puppy using positive reinforcement creates a owner and dog bond that will last a lifetime, visit this site regularly for dog obedience training tips that guarantees you a healthy relationship with your pet.

How To Train A Dog The Right Way

December 29th, 2008

Discover how to train a dog the right way and put an end to your dog’s aggression, biting, chewing, digging problems. You can practically get rid of almost all your dog’s behavioral problems over night.