Crate Training Your Puppy - free article courtesy of ArticleCity.com

Crate training has many huge benefits, but the biggest by far is how much easier it makes housebreaking.

Crate training works with the puppy’s natural instincts. A dog is, by nature, a den animal. He will feel comforted and safe in his crate, and he will not want to soil where he sleeps. This is your golden ticket to housebreaking. Of course, you may have to convince him that this is his bed at first.

The first few nights your puppy is home, expect he will cry and howl for you to let him out. He wants to be with you. This is natural, as is your desire to let him out. Restrain yourself. He needs to learn from the very beginning where his place is to be. If you allow him to run the house now, be prepared for the mess that will cover your floors by morning and for many mornings to come.

Crate training works very well and after the initial break-in period, his crate will be a favorite place for him to be. Once he knows it is a warm, safe place, you will often find him putting himself to bed when he is tired.

Here are some basic rules of thumb to get started:

Your puppy should be in his crate if you can’t be right with him. If you need to do something or be somewhere the puppy can’t go then put him safely in his crate.

Make sure the crate is always a pleasant place to be. Give him a favorite toy, or an old t-shirt that smells familiar to him. (Unless he is apt to destroy and eat them, then minimize what goes in with him)

Never scold him when you put him in. If he has had an ‘accident’ then scold him and put him outside, not in his crate.

You might even feed him in there so he associates the crate with good things.

Once he goes in at night, do not revisit him, he will settle down....eventually.

The reason that crate training works so well for housebreaking is that it encourages the puppy to ‘hold it’. The puppy does not really want to mess where he sleeps. Make no mistake, he will soil his bed so make sure everything that goes in is washable. The difference is that he really doesn’t want to go there. He will tend to wait as long as he can. He will start to build control over his body this way.

It is important to mention that if the crate is too big then you are defeating it’s purpose. If he can mess far enough away from where he wants to curl up, he won’t mind going there a bit. The crate area should be plenty big for him, but not so big he has no exposure to his indiscretions.

To encourage success, make sure you take your puppy out to the yard as late as possible before you go to bed, and plan to get up with the sun to take him out again. In time he will be able to hold it longer, but when he is very young you can’t expect him to go more than several hours.

He will have to ‘go’ immediately on waking up. Don’t even call him to the door, just pick him up and take him out. You will eliminate many accidents this way.

He will have to ‘go’ about five minutes after he eats. Make sure you are ready to take him out quickly and spend time out there with him until he figures out why he is out there.

Feed your puppy often and offer water frequently. You are creating opportunity to praise! Just be on your toes and try to have him in a place where he should ‘go’. The more success he has the faster he will catch on.

When he goes, praise him, praise him, praise him! Do a little dance, cheer, whatever it takes to show him you are delighted with what he did in that spot.

Conversely, fold your arms, scold, and scowl at him when he picks a spot indoors. Show him his mistake and tell him ‘No’, ‘Outside’ and take him out where you want him to go.

If you have no yard and actually want him to pick a specific area of your home for him to go on newspapers or training pads, the same rules apply except that will be your final destination and you may say something like ‘Paper’ instead.

You need to be consistent with your training for this issue and all others. The more consistent you are the faster progress you will make.

If you can spend a solid 3 or 4 days at this you will probably be able to train him in a week or so. His age will be a variable however, very young puppies simply don’t have the control over their body that they will by 10 or 12 weeks.

Once you have put the crate into play it should not take more than a week until he really understands that it is a good place. You can take his crate, or his crate pad at least, any time you take him somewhere with you. He will feel right at home no matter where he is.

A crate creates a safe place to hide during thunderstorms and windstorms. You will have a safe place to put him if you have construction going on. He will have a safe place to be when fireworks are going off. If there is any doubt as to the surrounding circumstances when you are away, you can put him in his crate and know without a doubt, he will be fine. He will be there when you get home, and your home will be intact. Frightened dogs can do a lot of damage trying to escape scary situations. It is a great relief for you and him.

For more great information on raising your puppy...
http://puppys-place.com/

Dog Training: House training a puppy or rescue dog

Buying a New Puppy? How To Avoid the Pitfalls - free article ...

Many books and articles have been written regarding the art of choosing a puppy (i.e. performing puppy tests, looking for parental OFA certifications, and so on...), but few, if any, discuss the contractual end of purchasing a puppy. I can tell you through personal experience that purchasing a quality show puppy from a famous breeder can be quite a stressful experience because no breeder would give up the pick of the litter to a competitor (for obvious reasons) or to a novice without co-ownership of the puppy. Co-ownership of a puppy entitles the breeder to many rights to the detriment of the buyer. To begin with, the breeder might also be an experienced handler and might contractually require the purchaser to use the breeder as the puppies' trainer and handler. Agreeing to this could be a monumental mistake because the purchaser might be required to pay (even though they might be co-owners) for the breeders time to train and handle the puppy. Agreeing to this can COST you THOUSANDS of dollars.

In the contract, the breeder might require your bitch/dog to whelp/stud puppies. And, of course, they would contractually want the picks of the litter (they may choose either male or a female puppies as they please). Furthermore, you as the purchaser, might be required to pay the costs of breeding and whelping the puppies (i.e. food, vet-bills, housing, AKC registrations, stud fees, breeder's time) eventhough you may not be allowed to get the picks of the litter. What's more, you may not be able to see nor be with your dog for the duration of gestation and delivery. Some breeders have been known to switch animals when they are sent away for whelping or stud service. Therefore, I would recommend that you microchip you puppy and that you get an AKC DNA ID as soon as possible after you purchase your puppy. This way, you will get back your beloved animal without concern as to the nature of its identity.

When you purchase your puppy, most reputable breeders will guarantee your puppy will be free of various ailments for the duration of two years. What they fail to mention, however, is that if your puppy becomes incurably ill, the replacement puppy would be one of their choosing and not yours; which translates to the fact that you may end up with a new puppy with a lousy temperment.

So, remember. The devil is in the fine print. Read your contract carefully, otherwise you may become the victim of your own ignorance.

Dog Training Basics for the Family

Hunting Dogs by Graham Taylor - ArticleCity.com - Free Articles ...

How does one choose good hunting dogs without getting stung? Many dog breeders are like horse traders—you get what you get, and that isn't what was listed. So a dog breeder's reputation, letters of reputation or phone calls, and looking at siblings or mother and father of the dog means a lot when looking for good hunting dogs. Make sure they have some form of guarantee and for how long they guarantee the puppy or dog.

But what is good for one hunter may not mean the same for another, so make sure you know what you want before going out and looking. Do you want versatile good hunting dogs for all-purpose hunting, or one that is excellent at squirrel hunting or coon hunting? Look at where they will be living the remaining time—will it it he be a family member? Make sure the breed you want is one you have information on and have done your homework on. Just because grandpa had one doesn't mean you know what you need to know regarding the purchase of good hunting dogs.

Good hunting dogs need to be disease from and have clean genetic lines, regardless the breed. Make sure routine worming has been done as a puppy—which has usually been done from two weeks. Also, look at their shot records—did they receive a two-week puppy shot series with only two weeks between them, beginning around five or six weeks? Once the puppy is weaned from its mother, its immune system becomes compromised, and it is up to the breeder to maintain that system up to eight weeks of age when it leaves the next. A breeder who sells before then is not worth his/her weight in salt. Good hunting dogs mean that—a good hunting dog, not one that is haphazardly bred to make a quick buck. Georgia is famous for good hunting dogs, as most Georgia hunters think more of their dogs than anywhere else, but make sure you don't get a bad breeder anyway.

More info http://www.hunting-pro.com

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