Puppy Socialization - Don't Neglect This Important Part of Training Your Dog

Let's face it, as a new dog owner, you probably haven't thought too much about puppy socialization. However, this is a very important part of dog training. Many cases of canine aggression could have been prevented if the dog's owner had only known how to socialize a puppy.

Why Is It So Important To Socialize Your Dog?

When you expose your dog to lots of different people, different animals, and different places, he learns for himself that new sights, sounds, and people are fun, not scary.

It's better to start socializing your dog while he's still a puppy. You may not know that the best age to socialize a puppy is when he's between the ages of three and twelve weeks. A young dog who has good experiences with new people, other dogs, and even cats will be much friendlier and less fearful of people. This helps to prevent aggressive dog behavior towards strangers when he gets older.

However, it's never too late to socialize your dog. It may take a little longer with an older dog, but you can still use canine socialization in order to help your pooch overcome a fear of strangers and be a happier, more trustworthy friend.

What's The Best Way To Socialize A Puppy?

Actually it's not that difficult to socialize your dog, if you're willing to make a little effort.

Many dog trainers suggest a puppy preschool. This is a series of group-training classes for puppies and their owners. Usually there are about 10 puppies and their people, along with a couple of dog trainers. During these classes, the puppies start to learn basic dog obedience commands like sit, stay, and others.

But the obedience lessons aren't the most important part of puppy preschool. The play sessions are where your puppy learns essential social skills. During the play sessions, the puppies are let off their leashes and allowed to play with each other. Why is this important?

First, your puppy is learning how to get along with unfamiliar dogs.

Second, since there are other dog owners and a couple of dog trainers present, this means lots of unfamiliar people, too. This is a great way for your puppy to learn not to be afraid of new people.

Third, it's a controlled environment. The dog trainers make sure things don't get too wild.

Don't Stop Puppy Socialization Too Soon

Many dog owners make the mistake of thinking that since their dog has been to puppy preschool, their puppy is now socialized. This mistaken idea can lead to problems later on.

It's important to continue to expose your young dog to new faces, new animals, and new places. Sometimes puppies who seemed to be well socialized at a younger age "forget" those early lessons. By the time your dog is between eight months and two years old, he may become fearful of people and start showing canine aggression towards strangers.

Here's some food for thought: even though your puppy has learned basic skills during his first few months, it's important to keep reinforcing puppy socialization lessons throughout your dog's life.

Darlene Norris worked at a vet clinic and an animal shelter, and has had lots of experience with dogs. Visit her new website, No More Bad Dogs, to learn more about puppy socialization. Discover which dog training course she recommends at http://NoMoreBadDogs.com

4 Tips to Train Your Dog to Stop Begging - Starting Now

If you have noticed your dog beginning to beg for food, or worse, if your dog has already established the begging behavior, then it is time to train your dog to stop begging. There is nothing cute about begging and, as you know, it is intensely annoying. Happily, it is not difficult to break your dog of this habit. It is really only necessary to be 100% consistent in your training, patient enough to apply the training without exception for about a month, and able to be assertive, firm, and gentle at the same time. If you can do this, you can correct your dog's behavior, and teach it to stop begging.


A foundational rule regarding dog begging is to ignore your pet when it begs. You must never reward this behavior. If your dog has only recently begun the begging behavior, this may be sufficient, and you can stop at this point. Otherwise, read on.
Reproduce situations in which your dog normally begs. When the dog begins begging, tell it no (or say some other command to be used only for this situation), and put it out of the room, or in a or in some other different space. Praise the dog when obey even for a moment, and give it a treat.
Repeat the above. When the dog begs, put it in another room or some other specific location. Continue to provide praise and a treat.
Each training session should last 10 or 15 minutes. You can do this 2 or 3 times a day if you have the time. Never make any exception and give the dog food when it begs. This is essential. If you break this rule even one time, then you are teaching your dog that begging works, and you will have undone all of your work.

As a final word, here is tip number 5 to stop your dog begging is to put it in its crate with a toy whenever it starts to beg. But only do this if your dog is already crate trained. If you have not crate trained your dog at this point, putting your dog in a crate to resolve the begging problem could only complicate matters.

At this point, I've given you some solid rules of thumb to apply to this situation. These pointers, if applied consistently should train your dog to stop begging.

However, for a more complete understanding, take action and discover step-by-step instructions to resolve this and other training and dog behavior problems.

Dog Behavior Training - Why You Should Train Your Dog

On the surface, dog training may look like a waste of time. Why train your dog to learn tricks? What good are they? Your dog already knows the basics, so why should you do more than that? Oh, sure, Joe's dog can play dead and roll over. So, obviously Joe has far too much time on his hands. Why bother? Well, primarily training beyond the basics has three very good advantages; socialization, safety, and bonding.

Socializing your dog is simply the act of making him a pleasure to be around for people and other dogs alike. Who wants to be around a dog - especially a large one - who jumps on everyone with whom he comes in contact? If you have a dog that jumps, you may feel forced to resign him to the backyard when company visits, which may in turn make an annoying barker out of him as he feels left out of social gatherings. But if you treat the problem by training him not to jump, you will enable him to enjoy the company of others when they come for a visit. You will be able to do things with him like go to the park and walk in areas where there are other people and dogs.

One of a pet owner's biggest fears is losing control over their pet and possibly having them end up hit by a car or worse. Additional training can give you a nice little safety net when faced with those circumstances. Suppose your dog bolted out of the door ahead of you after a cat? When you do catch up to him, he is on the opposite side of a busy street. His first reaction may be to bound towards you. A simple gesture as small as a hand signal can tell him to stop and stay put until you can safely get to him and escort him back across the street.

Aside from those two very practical reasons to train your dog, however, there is a third benefit that busy people sometimes overlook. Time spent training your dog is time the two of you will spend together. If you've ever built a model with your kid or fixed a computer or baked a cake with a friend, you know that accomplishing a goal with a loved one can be a valuable bonding experience. Dogs are not immune to this. If you spend just a few minutes each day training your dog, it will give both of you a sense of accomplishment and bring you closer together.

Don't leave out the party tricks either! As soon as the basics are mastered, there is no reason to stop the learning process. Keep going - see how far you and your dog can go!

Joseph Wilson provides research and excellent tips on a number of dog breeds at http://www.onlinedogbreeds.com You can find a great source and collection of articles on dog behavior, health, and finding the right pet for you and your family.