Dogs Unite

If you’re part of the dog community, then you are in agreement that dogs are by far better than cats in very way.  Some may disagree but, I personally think dogs outrank cats any day of the week and here are some reasons why…

Dogs are always happy to see us.

-          Even when you’ve had a bad day at work, and you come home grumpy, who is there wagging their tail at the door when you get home?  Your dog or your cat?  Of course you answered that question with your dog; he’s the happiest pet in the world.  Your cat is probably clawing up your curtains, and sleeping in your bed when you’re not home.

Dogs are our protectors.

-          Your dog is able to protect you if you are ever in danger.  Numerous stories have been told of how dogs woke their owners up when there was a fire in the house or how dogs attacked a burglar and saved their owners and belongings.  A cat will hide and pretend it never saw anything at all.

Dogs actually listen to you.

-          You say your dog’s name and he comes right over to you.  Dogs can learn tricks and numerous commands with little training. And have you ever noticed that when you talk to your dog as if he were a person, he tilts his head or makes faces at you?  A cat might come to you if you have his favorite toy in your hand or maybe a can of food.

Dogs are truly better for our health.

-          Dogs need constant exercise.   They require you to get up off the couch and take them for walk.  When dogs play with you, it is definitely more involved physically than it is with a cat.  Dogs also give us those warm, gushy feelings and statistics have shown that the happier you are, the healthier you usually are.  Cat require being pet on the couch, which does not do anything for you to make you healthier.

While the debate will always continue about which is better, the dog or the cat, we here in the dog community will always pick the dog first.

Dog Vs. Cat

The training goal of all trainers for flyball competition is to train your dog to his fullest potential.  Training to your dog’s fullest potential does not mean speed, rather speed is the product of good training.  Training takes time and patience.  Know when to push your dog, and when to back off a little, it will pay off in the long run.

Training your dog the correct way, taking things slow and precise, will pay off in the long run.  Retraining a dog to do things correctly after they’ve been doing it the wrong way since the start is a lot more difficult than training the correct way from the start.  Training for speed will only slow you down in competition.  By training for speed, you are not teaching your dog the correct way to each step of fly ball, and will thus slow down his catch, and turn around.

Before you start a training session, make sure your dog is well rested.  Keep the training sessions short and sweet.  You want your dog to have fun, otherwise he’s not going to want to do it.  Lay down the foundations to flyball.  Shortcuts won’t pay off; do things the correct way from the start.  Keep focused on your ultimate goal, but take baby steps along the way.  Doing things step by step and you’ll have a great flyball dog in the end.

Flyball is about having fun with your dog and doing something that they love to do.  Avoid getting frustrated, and keep positive.  Even if your dog is only taking baby steps in learning the game, he’s still making progress, be optimistic about it.  Encourage your dog through everything that he does.  If he thinks you’re happy with how he’s performing, he’ll strive even harder to do better for you.  The most important thing about flyball with your dog is to have fun!

Flyball

One of the most amazing dog stories that I’ve ever come across deals with dogs and cancer.  New studies have shown that dogs can smell cancer in humans. 

A study published in the European Respiratory Journal has found that two German shepherds, an Australian Shepherd and a Labrador Retriever could recognize cancer.  The dogs were given samples from lung cancer patients and people without cancer.  They successfully found cancer in 71 out the 100 cancer samples they were given, and they found no cancer in 372 of the 400 non-cancer samples. 

Owners have often gone to the doctor after their dogs have alerted them to something being wrong with them.  Dogs have caught cancer in stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and even stage zero.  Dogs have a sense of smell that outweighs any kind of test doctors have available to them.  Diabetic dog owners have also reported that their dogs have alerted them when their blood sugar levels have been low.

Research is still underway of how dogs can detect cancer just by smell.  Dogs have a sense of smell that is 1,000 times better than ours.  It is believed that dogs pick up on minute changes in our volatile organic compounds.  These compounds each leave a chemical signature in our bodies, and are often where cancer begins. 

The real challenge that cancer researchers will face next is how to replicate what exactly the dogs are doing and what they are smelling.  If researchers can create some kind of device that can replicate what the dogs are doing, millions of lives could be saved.  For now though, we have our dogs and training has progressed on teaching other dogs to detect cancer.

Dog stories can be found anywhere, but this one is truly a miracle.  The miracle is that “man’s best friend” is really saving our lives, and are really our best chance at detecting cancer early. 

Dog Stories – Cancer

Getting a new puppy and entering the UK dog community, is a very exciting time for your family.  Be sure you have considered which breed of dog will suit you and your family the best.  Do you want an energetic dog to play catch with everyday or do you want one that is just a couch potato?  You will also want to make sure you have a designated place to put your puppy when you get him home.  A collar and leash are also vitally important to have.

When you’re choosing your puppy it is a good idea to see its parents as well.  Gauge their temperaments and how they interact with you and the puppies.  Pay close attention on how the puppies interact together.  Is there one that is more dominant than the others?  Dominant dogs tend to be best suited for families without families or for those looking for dominant features.  Is there one that holds back, but is still more dominant that others?  These types of dogs are often more submissive and easy going.  Is the puppy you’re looking at get pushed back from the rest of the litter while eating or playing?  These types of dogs tend to have nervous traits and are often shy.  Choose a puppy that will fit your family and lifestyle.

When you arrive home with your puppy, be sure to take him for a “potty break” right away.   Praise and reward him when he does go, this is great for beginning potty training.  Let your puppy adjust to his surroundings by allowing him to smell and roam where he would like.  Stay calm…I know bringing a new puppy home is very exciting, but we have to remember that this is a huge change for him, and he is going to need time to adjust.

For more information on how to bring a puppy into your home, visit your UK dog community today.

Puppy Training

Is a dog social network actually effective in helping people learn new training techniques, in learning about their dog’s health or in helping other dog lovers connect with each other?

The answer is yes to all three…

All dogs are different, so all dogs require different kinds of training.  If your training technique is not working for you, you may want to chat with other people to get ideas of what has worked for them.  Sometimes we get stuck trying only one kind of training, we get frustrated and so do our dogs.  By chatting with another dog lover like yourself, you can get new fresh ideas for your next training session.

We are only human, so we don’t know everything there is to know about dogs.  There are so many things we can still learn about our dogs, even if we’ve owned a dog our entire lives.  Chatting with others in a dog community, we can learn from others about dog nutrition, various diseases and much more.  We can learn a lot about our dogs by just listening to others.

With all the things we can talk about with our dogs, you can be sure you can find someone with the same dog interests as you to connect with.  They might even be in your area and you may be able to meet at your local dog park to have a doggy play date.  You won’t know unless you try, right?  With a dog social network, you can also share your latest doggy picture and update how your dog is doing or what he’s doing.

There are so many things we can talk about with other people when it comes to our dogs.  So, whether you just want to show off your latest doggy picture or are eager to learn new training techniques, you can be sure you’ll find it at all at your dog social network.

Dog Social Network

A friend of mine was on Facebook recently and I looked down the left sidebar of her facebook page. What I saw was humorous, but so much like Julie that I only chuckled to myself. Her dog was listed under her “family” as her son. His name is Loki, and he has his own page. Now I have 2 kids, 3 cats, 1 dog and a pet cricket named “Fred” but none of them have their own Facebook pages! For one, seems like Fred would not like his privacy violated with details of his private life and whereabouts…and that’s just one of the reasons I have failed to post my “children” on Facebook. The other reason (besides laziness) is that most of the folks on Facebook are looking for the faces of, well, PEOPLE!

So, it makes more sense to have a site called DogFace, FaceDog, FurryFace, or whatever. That’s where “Dogsunite.com” comes into the picture. Here is a place you can share your intimate doggy details, daily updates of your furry son’s lifestyle, up to date details of recent agility training outcomes, dog health issues. In short – whatever makes your furry friend click – you can share it here. Please join us – create a group, share a dog biscuit recipe, tell us about your woes, your ups, your downs, your specially doggy moments. You name it. We want to hear it. So Join Facebook for Dogs – it’s a canine family and there’s room for every dog. Rich Dog. Poor Dog. Furry Dog. Sadly balding dog. Ostracized Pitbulls, well-healed Poodles. Come one. Come All.

Whether you’ve been part of the dog community for your entire life, or you’ve just recently entered, there are things you need to know not to feed your furry pooch.  We, people, tend to give our dogs our leftovers from time to time, but you should what to definitely not to give them.  Many of “our” foods can cause a dog to start vomit, have diarrhea, kidney failure and even death.

Here’s a list of just some of the foods not to give your pooch.

Avocados

-          Everything in an avocado, its leaves, seeds, fruit and even the bark contain persin.  Persin is a fungicidal toxin.  Although it is usually harmless to humans, consumed in large quantities by our dogs, it can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Bones

-          We seem to think that the bones in our steaks, fish or chicken would be great for our dogs to have.  It’s not! These bones can tear holes in their digestive systems, which may be devastating for your pet.  Our dogs should only consume bones specially made for them.

Chocolate

-          Most of us already know this one, but it’s an extremely important food not to feed your dog.  Chocolate contains caffeine and theobromine which can cause your dog to vomit and have diarrhea.  In very large quantities, it can affect their hearts and nervous systems

Cat Food

-          Cat food is not normally something that we would consider being harmful for our dogs, but it can be.  Cat food tends to be high in protein and fats which in turn can lead our dogs to being overweight and not meet their nutritional needs.

Grapes, and Raisins

-          Grapes and raisins have an unknown toxin in them which causes kidney failure in our dogs.  Because so little is known about this toxin, it is extremely important not to feed our dogs these.

These are just a few of the foods not to feed your dog, but there are so many more.  Make sure to do some research on the “people” food you’re feeding your pooch.  Some foods can be extremely dangerous for your pet and you may not even know it.  Be sure to discuss other foods to not feed your dog with your dog community.

In the dog community, we often use clicker training to train our dogs.  Clicker training is a form of operant conditioning.  Operant conditioning was first developed by B.F. Skinner and is a form of learning where a behavior is increased by a reinforcement or reward.  Positive reinforcement is a sub-type of operant conditioning and is a reinforcer that will the increase the behavior that is displayed.  Basically, your dog does an action, you click, and they are rewarded for the action with a treat.

Clicker training is simple and effective.  The clicker itself is just a metal strip that is inside a little plastic box and makes a distinctive click when it is pressed.  The reason behind using the clicker is because it is faster than just saying “good boy,” and your dog will learn the after the click they will get a treat.  The immediate click lets your dog know that the behavior he displayed was a good one, and the treat will make him more prone to do it again.

Teaching your dog the meaning of the click involves clicking the clicker and immediately giving them a treat following the click.   When teaching what the clicker is, begin with them in a quiet area, you don’t want anything distracting them.  Keep your treats ready and close by.  Begin pressing the clicker and giving your dog a treat immediately after.  You may have to repeat this process 5-10 times.  You can also test the effectiveness of the last steps by waiting until you feel your dog is not paying attention to you and press the clicker.  If he responds to the clicking by looking at you for treats, then it’s time to move on.  If he doesn’t pay attention to you, repeat the above steps again.

After your dog knows what the clicker is, you can move onto the next step in training basic commands.  To get more clicker training tips, visit your dog community today.

Clicker Training With Your Dog Community

Everyone in the dog community knows that dog training has to be fun for the dog.  Keeping things fun and more of a game for them, they will want to do it.  If the training is not any fun for the dog, he may become rebellious, and not want anything to do with the training.   To keep your dog wanting more, treats are often used in training, along with a clicker.

Clicker training is a very effective training method.  In clicker training all you need is a click, which is a metal strip in a plastic box that makes a distinctive click, and lots of treats.  Once your dog performs an action or behavior that you want, you click the clicker and give him a treat immediately after.  The clicker tells your dog immediately after their behavior or action that they have done a good job and that they are going to get a reward.

Clicker training is used on a variety of different animals, including dolphins.   Because you can’t use leashes or collars on a dolphin, a hands off positive reinforcement training is established, i.e. clicker training.   For dogs on the clicker method, the more training that is done without a leash or collar, the more they will learn.  Once your dog has figured out what the clicker means, they will start exhibiting more behaviors, more frequently that they associate with the sound of the clicker and treats.

In contrast to just praising your dog when he’s done something that you approve of, the clicker method gives a clear and concise indicator that your dog has done something that you want him to do again.  Praising your dog can sometimes send mix signals to him.  We don’t use the same praise over and over again, and it takes more time to praise them than to just click the clicker.

Be sure to check out more clicker training tips with your dog community!

Clicker Training With Your Dog Community

If you’re part of the dog community, or even if you aren’t, you’ve probably heard of Cesar Millan.  In Cesar’s theory, dogs are pack animals, and when we bring them into our homes, we need to become the pack leaders of our dogs.  If we do not become the pack leaders, our dogs can become territorial, over protective, aggressive, shy or even too energetic.  Cesar doesn’t believe in training your dog, he believes in training people to understand their dogs and their instinctual needs.

Cesar’s theory starts with walking your dog.  Your dog needs plenty of exercise, and the length of your walk will depend on your dog’s energy level.  On your walk, your dog should be walking along side of you.  They should not be pulling, tugging, or trying to run off.   Dogs consistently need something to think about, so when your dog is walking along side of you, they should be focusing on that, and they will burn off more energy.  Cesar also likes to rollerblade with the more high energy dogs.  They get a thrill out of running, but they should still be focused on you.

The energy you project is what your dog is going to sense.  If you’re scared of your own dog, they are going to know it instantly.  If you’re shy, your dog is probably going to be shy.  If you’re bouncing off the wall and have high energy, your dog will most likely project the same kind of energy.  The best way to act around your dog is calm and assertive.  Being assertive does not mean being harsh towards your dog, it simply means being the leader of your dog.  Know what you want to expect from your dog, and follow through with it.

To discuss Cesar Millan’s people training for dogs even further, be sure to check out your dog community today.

Clicker Training is a Non-confrontational Dog Training Effort