Advanced Dog Tricks For A Disaster And Daily Life

If you are keen to ensure your dog is useful in the event of a disaster, you do need to teach it some tricks. You can start off with some simple things that all dogs should learn. This includes sit, stay, heel and come. These are the four basic commands that you need as a dog owner. It’s important to realize that these will be important, regardless of whether or not you are using your pet as a disaster dog.

As well as these, there are many more that could prove useful, both in the event of a disaster and in everyday life as a pet owner. On this guide, we’re going to look at some of the tricks that you can teach your dog, and as well as this, we will look at how they could help you as a pet owner and in the event of a disaster.

Leave It Alone

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Leave it alone is an incredibly important command to teach your dog in everyday life and in a disaster as well. Let’s start by thinking about daily life as a pet owner. You will be taking your dogs on walks, outside, perhaps even letting them off their leash. If this is the case, then you need to be careful what the dog eats while it is outside. Dogs can be drawn to droppings due to their smell, but by eating it, they can get worms or any other number of infections. They might also decide to roll in it which will lead to a nasty clean up job for you later.

Many people think dogs do this to show their owner where they’ve been, like a little souvenir stench. So, by teaching your dog to leave something alone, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and protect the health of your dog.

Getting a dog to leave something alone can be accomplished through positive reinforcement. The easiest and safest way to do this is to use a treat in a closed hand. When the treat is in the closed hand, you can hold it at a height in front of the dog where they can smell it. They will nuzzle at your hand, perhaps even using a paw to try and get it out. Use the command and wait until they obey. Eventually, they will grow tired of the game and sit down leaving the treat you are offering. At this point, you can then give them the treat that they have been opening for, repeating the process until they respond immediately to the command. It can take a little time.

Be aware that variations of this command can be useful in a variety of situations including when strangers try to give your dogs treats. It’s very difficult to get your dog to turn down a treat from a stranger because some might drop it right in front of them or hold it out. But, with training and using a family member as the stranger, you can stop them from eating the treat. That’s important because you can’t always trust strangers. Helper dogs are actually trained not to accept treats from other people because it could leave the person they are helping exposed and unprotected to criminal behavior.

Bear in mind that a person doesn’t need to be nefarious to endanger your dog with a treat. They could just give them something that they are allergic to, or that is dangerous to them. These tips are to make sure that your dog is always safe. As such, it’s always best to avoid your dog getting these types of treats.

In the event of a disaster, there could be various issues and distractions around that could injure or endangered either you or your dog if they choose to explore. For instance, there could be loose, live electrical wiring or even something on the floor that is explosive.

 

Close The Door/Pushing Objects

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In basic life situations, closing the door can stop your dog becoming a nuisance. You might just have settled down to watch TV in the lounge, shutting the door, when your dog pushes his nose against it and wanders in to be with you, leaving it wide open. Most dogs will learn to open doors naturally by themselves without any command but closing the door is another matter. You’ll have to teach that one with a sticky piece of food and a few tries at a command. You put the stick piece of food on the door and ask him to wait. Then, tell him to take the treat. When he does, and his nose touches the door, reinforce it with another treat. Repeat it until the dog looks to you after touching the door and remove the first treat keeping the second.

Now you can use the phrase shut the door or move the door, and he will respond to get the treat. You can keep doing this until the treat is no longer a necessity. Once you’ve taught a dog how to move the door, you might be able to use the same trick to get them to move items, and this could be useful in a disaster scenario.

Find An Object

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Lastly, you might want to teach them to find objects. Remember, dogs can find objects by smell and may even remember where something was. As such, they could be incredibly useful during a power outage to find an item that you need.

In general daily life, it could also be a cool trick if you’ve lost your keys or just want them to bring you your slippers. You can do this by starting with your set of keys. Add something to your keys that makes them easy for the dog to pick up like a squishy key-ring and use them as a toy, getting your dog to tug on them or fetch them. Once you have done this, you can get him to exchange the keys for a treat. After you have taught them this trick, you can then get them to pick up your keys off the ground when you have dropped them. Again, exchange the keys for a treat. Keep doing this, and eventually, you can move on to leaving the keys somewhere and asking them to find them.

Any of these tricks could be very useful in both an emergency disaster situation and everyday life. The best part though is that they’re not actually that difficult to teach.

The Dangers Of A Dog That Loves You Too Much

It’s not something that a lot of dog-owners consider a major problem. If anything, more people are concerned that a stoic pooch might not love them as much as they would like. But the opposite extreme can be just as much a problem. A dog that’s overly attached to its owner can develop dangerous behaviors as a response. They can become territorially aggressive over their owners, or they can even develop separation anxiety. Both will play a role in making them harder to command and to take control of a situation, which is especially unhelpful if you’re training them to be a useful partner, not just a pet. So, what do you do about it?

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Assert some discipline

One of the reasons that a dog’s affection of you might get out-of-bounds is that they may not necessarily see you as their pack leader. Rather, they may very well consider you lower in the chain of command than them and, in response, will treat you more like a member of their pack or a possession. They think that you are theirs and act accordingly. Alongside signs of territorial aggression, this will often show as overt disobedience. Make sure that training is complete and ongoing with them and that you can tell the difference between them being disobedient or just reacting with excitement to certain stimuli.

Socialize them

If they are well trained and listen to your commands, then it’s about finding the stimuli that set them off. For many dogs, those stimuli may be strangers and other dogs. If they’re too protective of their own, they might react to these situations with a high-tension response, which can make them difficult to keep control of. All dogs can be socialized. Even when they’re full adults, it’s not too late for them to learn new behavior patterns, though it’s certainly easier when they’re younger. Take them on walks and introduce them to other dogs. Many fear a negative response from their dog and will pull on their leash or shout if they worry about them becoming too excitable or aggressive. This often has the opposite effect, however. Be calm, in control of the situation, and touch your dog to reassure them they’re okay. Just be sure to use a muzzle if your dog has growled or barked at other dogs in the past. Remove the risk from the situation.

Greetings and farewells

You may very well be the stimuli, yourself. There are two big emotional high points that a lot of owners have trouble with. That’s saying goodbye and saying farewell to your dog. Pet your dog, and say your greetings or your farewells, but don’t let it escalate. Acting overly excitable creates a rush for them that keeps them in a high-tension state. It might be all fun and games when you’re there, but it translates into separation anxiety when you’re not there, as Psychology Today states.

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Calming on cue

It might seem like it’s too good to be true, but you can command your dog to be calm. Alongside “heel”, the “settle” command is one of the most useful tools a dog owner can use. Start by using the command indoors on their leash, when their attention is already on you. When they successfully come to a stop, give them a treat. As time goes on, give them distractions to deal with and, eventually, start the training outside. Before too long, you will have them able to “settle” without any treats at all.

Spread the love

Getting them used to other people is just as important, too. Having more than one authority figure in a dog’s life is an important way of ensuring they know that even that they’re beneath you in the hierarchy, that doesn’t mean that they’re above all other humans. Using a dog walking service can be a great way to teach that. However, this is only true if you’re using a real professional. Whistle has a list of great questions to sort out the people who are truly equipped to handling and showing authority to a stranger’s dog, and not just someone making money off a hobby.  In particular, make sure you ask how they might handle any behavioral issues that might come up. If they have no examples of how they’ve dealt with a dog that’s territorial or disobedient, they might not be the right person for this lesson.

Make sure they’re well cared for when you’re not around

Being cared for and treated well when you’re not the one with them is just as important as making sure they can act disciplined with other humans as well. Boarding a dog with separation anxiety or territorial behavior is a big step, but if you do, then places like Fon Jon Pet Care are usually the right solution. Make sure that any dog boarding services you use have experience with training dogs and know that if your dog isn’t yet fit to be socialized that they shouldn’t be.

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Check yourself

Much like with greetings and goodbyes, you should endeavor to keep a closer eye on your own behavior with the dog. Owners might very well often say that they have a deep emotional connection to their dog, and that’s not untrue. Dogs react off the energy of their own. If you approach a situation with a calm and a sense of control, your dog will feel safer in that situation. If you react to every display of anxiety or aggression in them with an escalation, they will continue to do the same. That’s because they’re reading your cues and believing there really is something to be so tense about. Obsessive affection can spread much the same way. Dogs learn from their owners, so make sure you’re a good teacher.

You don’t have to be entirely strict and unemotional with your dog. They need emotional fulfillment just as much as humans do and work better to their task when they have it. Just be cautious of the signs that they’re getting too territorial when you’re there or anxious when you’re not.