Dog Training and Dog Care: A Guide for Dog Lovers

Are you a dog person? Own a dog? Or do you find yourself staring at your neighbour’s playful awkward dog with grace and feel an itch to pet it, right away?

You own a dog with a bunch of silly canines and always looking for better ways to manage your dog’s lifestyle?

Ultimately, do you want to make your dog’s life and essentially yours better? Dog training and dog care are professions that purely come from affection for canines, maybe turn this passion into a potential career?

Dog training or managing a dog can be as dogged as it can be. It is much more than potty training or to teach your dog to sit and stay. It’s more about training your dog to be a better companion and about her well being.

With the continuous development of behavioural science and canine psychology, now how we teach our dogs and communicate with them to build a lasting bond has changed immensely.

The ultimate key to unlocking this otherworldly relationship is based on interactive trust, respect, genuine compassion instead of intimidation. You need to understand how your pet responds better to you.

First Lesson in Dog Training: Your Dog Deserves Better

Well, you’ve probably guessed already, the first prerequisite to start up a career as a Dog Trainer or Dog Carer is to have genuine feelings for this sweet little beast and craving for some quality dog time.

If you own a dog, then this should be no surprise for you that your dog lives on your attention. You probably already realized training your dog to behave is quite a chore and can be difficult at times in a dog care.

The trick here is to accept and believe that she is an emotional creature.

As humans, our emotions drive what we do, how we do and our biases towards people is mostly intuitive. It is believed that your dogs’ charisma and character are derived from the same.

As sweet and funny as she may be, but to keep her safe, healthy and your surrounding space in order, you need to set a few rules before maintaining her becomes all too chaotic.

Trying to experience the world in your dog’s perspective and evaluating her methodology to life will essentially make you a better dog carer and companion.

There is no quick fix to this in reality, but in the process, you’ll get to learn more about her well-being and a healthy companionship based on trust.

Healthy Eating Habit: Know Your Dog’s Diet

If you own a dog already and playfully ever let your dog grab a bite of your chocolate, you already know a little ignorance can cause an awful lot of pain for both of you.

There is this general sentiment that what we eat, can easily be fed as dog food, some people even go into justifying citing dogs have a stronger digestive system than humans.

But the truth is, certain human food can be so lethal for your dog, that it can even cause a painful death for her. For instance, did you know tomatoes are bad for your dog but it’s okay for her to eat coconut?

Additionally, it is important to understand your dog’s digestive system, at least to have basic knowledge of how it processes food.

An appropriate mixture of food ingredients will ensure your canine buddy is healthy in body and mind, hence less headache for you to take care of due to health-related issues.

Another important habit to be developed is a routine for your dog, be it at your household or in your dog care, i.e. when to eat. An alternative is to let your dog decide when to eat by just leaving his food at a certain regular time.

But remember, if you incorporate this freestyle dine, you should not treat or feed her for the rest of the day.

Positive Reinforcement in Dog Training: Reward System

Say you just did something amazing for your employer, won’t you expect to be appreciated? Perhaps, be rewarded in some way? Even if the whole point of your employment is that you are supposed to do good.

Believe it or not, your dog shares the same attitude and the motivation towards doing something or anything is to impress you, in return to get you to scratch her neck or a light pat on her back.

Rewarding your dog with a treat or appreciating gesture will help her trust you better. She will be self-motivated to behave well.

In the process of dog training, it is very important to discourage unacceptable behaviours as well, for example, it is a proven method to potty train your dog.

The most essential factor incorporating positive reinforcement is having patience and paying attention.

The first step is to identify the issue, understand why and what motivates or discourages depending on her behaviour.

Proceed with kindness and patience, maintain consistency so her brain learns faster about you, and in the process, you understand her better than ever before.

Vaccination, Deworming, and Flea Treatment

Well, there are no two ways about it when it comes to vaccinating your dog. While a few of the diseases are life-threatening, you have to pay attention and take precautionary measurements for worms and fleas on a regular basis.

Vaccination For 5 Most Common Dog Disease

Hepatitis
Canine Distemper
Herpes
Parvovirus
Leptospirosis

Regularly check your puppy’s lumps, teeth, gums, limbs, claws, and other sensitive organs for symptoms. Also look out on scabs, inflammation, swelling, rashes, hair loss and scratching.

Only more important practice in dog care since most of the diseases are contagious and one sick dog can affect the others.

As part of your dog training, it’s good to educate yourself for the threats and measurements, and do not hesitate to seek a professional vet’s suggestion when in doubt.

Precautionary Measures for Emergencies

Your dogs are energetic and messy by nature and if you are not careful, your playful buddies can bring in a lot of pain, both for them and for your heart.

The ideal strategy would be to prevent and take safety measurements. And it is also advised to stay prepared for any unavoidable accident, educate yourself in first aid basics in case of emergency.

Also staying prepared for a disaster situation will save you a tremendous amount of time and will make sure your beloved pet is still there for you once the storm has passed.

Checklist for Emergency Kit

Bottled water, food and medication (for at least 7 days)
ID, contact information of family, friends and emergency services
Flashlights and extra batteries
Blankets and towels
Leash, kennel, dog beds and Toys
Veterinary records and contact information
Any other personal and pet items you think you might need.

Fix a good portion of your day dedicated for your dog

You need to engage with your dog on a daily basis for a considerable amount of time.

Dog training hours are not just limited to the feeding hours, as I already mentioned before, your dog craves for you and demands your attention.
Play with her, assure her with confident love and comfort. Being a domestic animal is not necessarily meant to keep content within household boundaries.
Outdoor activities are as much important for you as for her growth, both mentally and physically.

Take First Aid for Dogs Online Course

And if you are one of those people who choose to care more, you can always start up a career as dog carer, dog trainer or even as a dog breeder. To start, there are excellent courses around the web on advanced and scientific methods to train up dogs, where you can get certified upon finishing tasks and take up an exam.

Because of the ever-evolving nature of dogs’ psychology and behaviour along with humans, it is important you never stop learning, keep educating yourself about the latest research and technologies to become the best caregiver you can possibly be.

Canines are an intelligent creature and her learning growth is a continuous process. The more you invest your time on her, the better she becomes as your companion.

How good she is for you is entirely depends on how much you care for her.