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Training Tips
Crate training: A great way to toilet train pups when used appropriately, ie do not leave your pup or dog for more than 3 hours in a crate during the day, do not use the crate for punishment or time-outs, never force your dog into the crate - it's meant to be their bedroom and place they relax in and feel secure in. If you'd like to crate train your dog but aren't sure it's right for you or you have a pup that is going to be rather large and don't want to spend money having to buy new crates every few months as your dog grows, look into renting a crate from www.vebopet.com.au until you're ready to invest a crate for dog once fully grown. To pick the right sized crate keep in mind that your dog needs to be able to stand up, turn around and lie down fully stretch out in the crate. Chose a spot for the crate that is quiet for the dog at night, and move to an area where they can be a part of family action during the day. You will also need to set your alarm to take your pup outside during the night to toilet as they can only hold on for about 1 hour for each month of life, eg a 3 month old needs to go every 3 hours or so during the night, but all puppies toilet approximately 15 times a day!!!! So taking them out every hour they're awake will help ensure there are no accidents indoors.
Clicker training: Remember to click as your pet is finishing doing what you have asked them to do ("cued") - research has shown animals learn 40% faster when a click is used to mark behaviour rather than a word. Why? Because a clicker's click sounds the same every time, doesn't depend on your mood or tone of voice, doesn't matter who in the family is using it, and the click happens much faster and is therefore more accurate than most people trying to say 'yes'! And you're timing is crucial, if you're too slow to click your pet with get confused about what it should be doing and will either try giving you a lot of behaviours or stop responding altogether.
Rewarding: Always take the reward to your pet rather than expecting them to come to you to get it - you'll just train them to stop doing what you want, eg they can't keep sitting if they have to get up and walk to you to get a reward.
Exercise: This is very important if you have a young dog or a high energy dog particularly those with a working breed or sporting dog need to walk/jog/run with their dog for at least 30 minutes before a training session or you'll have a lot of trouble getting or keeping their focus for even 5 minutes.
Toilet training puppies: If you're having some difficulty with toilet training try keeping a diary of when your pup goes to toilet and when they eat - after a week of monitoring these two things you should be able to see a pattern emerge, eg most pups and dogs need to toilet within 10 to 30 minutes after eating so when they've finished a meal take them outside for a while.
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