Dog behavioral problems can range from cute, but annoying little problems, to full fledged dangerous issues such as biting. While there are many causes of behavioral problems, the solutions are fairly simple. The old adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” doesn’t apply here and with consistent training, you can overcome dog behavior problems. Let’s look at a few simple and easy to implement dog training tips.

1. Be Consistent. This is the absolute key when training any animal. You may be tempted to let them slide every once in awhile, but this will only serve to hamper your efforts. Be consistent with praise as well as with corrections and your dog will begin to understand that you are indeed the master.

2. Positive Reinforcement is Vital. While many older dog training techniques, such as choke chains may be initially effective, they may actually cause more problems down the road. Positive reinforcement helps your dog associate good behavior with good rewards is a very effective means of tackling even the toughest dog behavior problems.

In brief, positive reinforcement means that you reward a dog when they do the right thing, and withhold the reward when they do not. Even the most stubborn dog will begin to respond to these training techniques, when they are applied consistently.

3. Introduce a Crate. One of the easiest ways to put an end to destructive behavior is to provide your dog with clear cut boundaries. Crating them while you are gone, or when you need some space is an effective and humane training aid. You may need to introduce them to the crate slowly, and allow them time to get used to being confined. Remember, be consistent and reward them for good behavior in their crate. A crate should not be used as a punishment device, but rather as a safe place for them to go and relax.

4. An additional cautionary note for you and especially your immediate family members. Once the dog behavioral problems are addressed, and the corrective training has started, it is imperative everyone involved with the dog use the same training techniques. Everyone must be consistent in the handling of the dog. If not your poor dog will become very confused and make act out even more than before the corrective training was initatied.

Once you have these methods in place, you can easily begin to solve dog behavioral issues without undue stress to you or your pet. A well behaved pet is a happy pet and you’ll appreciate the lack of destructive and potentially harmful dog behavioral problems.

The Essentials
Most of the truly necessary items for dog care are fairly obvious. If you’ve got a dog you’ll need bowls for the dog’s food and water. Mid size to large dogs have a habit of moving their food bowls around the room as they eat. This can make a lot of noise and have the frustrating result of requiring the owner to hunt around for the bowl at feeding time. The problem can be solved by using a heavy ceramic bowl that is difficult for the dog to move around. A sturdy plastic bowl with a rubber lining on the bottom can be useful as well. The rubber on the bottom prevents the bowl from sliding around as Rover enjoys his meal.

For taking the dog on walks you’ll need a leash and a collar. These can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like, but of course you’ll want to take the size and strength of your dog into account when selecting them. The collar can (and should) be adorned with a license tag or at least an ID tag that provides your name and contact information in case your dog is lost.

If you live in a big city like New York (Manhattan), Chicago, or other urban area, you’ll need to purchase that miracle of modern doggie convenience the “pooper scooper.” Most cities have laws against owners simply allowing their dogs to “foul the footpath” or leave little Poodle Bombs all over the city park. In some cities there is a hefty fine for such crappy behavior.

Optional Accessories
There are literally thousands of optional items available for people to purchase for use with their dogs. Some of these items, like the gravity refillable water dishes and food bowls, serve a very useful purpose, others – the dog bandana comes to mind – serve no real purpose and are merely decorative or just plain silly.

One item that some owners do find very useful, especially those that live in a hot climate, are “dog booties.” While they may seem like a simply precocious and relatively useless item, they do a good job of protecting the sensitive pads of a dog’s feet from rough terrain, rocky areas, and hot pavement. Those in cooler climates may not understand, but in some places, particularly the desert environments of cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque, the summer pavement can literally become hot enough to fry an egg. You wouldn’t walk barefoot on such a surface and neither should your dog.

Do buy toys that your puppy will enjoy, though. They need the toys to chew on and to give them something stimulating to do. Without toys, they might decide that your shoe and the table leg are fun toys to chew on, instead. Be sure the toys don’t have any sharp edges. Puppies are still learning how to be coordinated and are still learning a sense of balance. Anything that could potentially harm them while they’re in this stage should be removed, and certainly no toys that could hurt them should be allowed.

You want to make sure that the toys aren’t too small. Just like a small baby will stick everything in its mouth without understanding the concept of choking, a puppy will chew on everything, too. Something too small, or something that could potentially be broken or chewed into small pieces, could be swallowed or lodged in your puppy’s throat.

The best place to find puppy toys to purchase is at a pet store. All of their toys are specially designed to be safe and fun for puppies. You can find toys designed to be good for them to chew when they’re teething, and toys in bright colors to stimulate puppies and interest them. Toys that move or roll are ideal. After about 3 months, a puppy will enjoy chewing. Its instinct is to chew, and it helps them cut teeth, just like infants. So anything that they can chew without destroying makes an ideal toy.

It’s not necessary to spend a fortune. Many toys you can find in the children’s department of a store will work well for puppies, too. Balls or cylinders that roll are ideal, as long as there are no small or moving parts and the material is not so soft that your puppy can easily destroy it by chewing. Make sure balls or any toys are not so small that they can become lodged in your puppy’s mouth or can be swallowed.

One of the best toys for puppies (and they make them for several other animals, as well) are Kong rubber toys. They’re a fun shape, and the hard rubber is ideal for enthusiastic chewing. The centers are hollow so you can fill them with dog treats to give your puppy special incentive for chewing.

Squeaky toy are fun for pups, too, but do keep an eye on their condition and throw them away when they show too much sign of wear. The “squeaker” is a small piece that could be potentially hazardous if it comes out.

1. How much time can you devote to your new puppy? There are specific breeds, such as border collies, that require a great deal of attention and do not do well in a situation where they will be confined alone for hours at a time. Be realistic with your expectations and select a breed that is known for their patience and ability to spend a few hours apart from you.

2. Size matters. Although your new puppy may be a small bundle of joy right now, in six months you may be dealing with a monster. If you don’t have a lot of space, or if you live in an apartment, a large breed may not be the best choice. In addition to space constraints, it is also a good idea to remember that large dogs do eat quite a bit more than the average teacup poodle and if you’re on a tight budget, a smaller dog will be more economical.

3. Research breed traits. Buying a puppy should not be based on which dog is the cutest, or which breed you always thought looked nice. Take the time to thoroughly research these traits so that you can make an informed decision. Some breeds shed more than others, while some breeds have known behavioral issues. For example, Great Pyrenees dogs are very beautiful and popular, but they are bred for livestock guarding and not apartment living.

4. Research breed health issues. This is becoming a bigger problem due to improper breeding. Every breed may have congenital health issues, but some may be more severe than others. For example, German Shepherds are known to have issues with hip dysplasia, while some smaller dog breeds may have problems with their eyes.

5. Pick the right breeder. Many future health and behavioral issues can be avoided simply by choosing the right breeder. Once you have decided on the breed of dog that you would like, contact that breed’s registry for an approved list of breeders. This will save you time, heartache and money.

6. Consider a shelter pet. While shelter pets are not for everyone, they may be a good option if you do not have small children or if you do not mind getting an older dog. You can save a life by adopting a shelter pet and still end up with a wonderful and loyal companion.

Selecting a puppy is an emotional decision, but it pays to keep these points in mind before you make your final decision. Once you’re armed with the right knowledge, you’ll be able to pick that perfect puppy that the whole family will enjoy and love.

1 – Be Gentle – Your new puppy is going to be extremely sensitive at first, and as a result will not be able to handle anything that is too stressful on both an emotional and a physical level. Although learning generally quickly takes place, now is the time where your puppy will react poorly to stress or being trained too rough. If fears are picked up too easily during the training process, then it may inhibit the puppy’s ability to learn, so make sure to be gentle but firm in your training.

2 – Keep Things Brief – Puppies have even shorter attention spans than children. Your puppy is only going to learn when his or her attention is on you, and you will not see the results that you are looking for when your puppy is tired physically or mentally. Make sure to be brief when putting your puppy through training activities, and then you can move on.

3 – Exercise Patience – Expecting overnight results is only going to frustrate you and cause your training regimen to lose its focus. Relax, and understand that things like this will take time, and puppies learn in spurts. Puppies also do go through brief memory lapses so do not allow yourself to become overwhelmed if your puppy seems to forget some of its training from one day to the next. Exercise patience when it comes to training and you will be just fine.

4 – Exercise Simplicity – Teaching your puppy should be done in a step by step process if you want to attain the best results. This is the best way that your puppy will learn. Exercise a simple, step by step approach and your puppy will learn more quickly and will enjoy the process more thoroughly than if you were to employ a more intensive training regimen.

5 – Build Confidence - Confidence is the core of every healthy adult dog, and confidence begins with building confidence in a young puppy. Building confidence in your puppy is not hard at all to do; all you need to do is spend positive time with your puppy as often as you possibly can. This will help to build self confidence in your puppy. You should not always be in training mode when you first get your puppy, but instead sometimes you should step back and play with your dog, having fun with him or her in the process. Training is important, but above all else your dog needs to know that you are friends.

These five fundamental training foundations are vital in preparing your puppy for an effective training regimen and will drive better results when properly integrated into your step by step puppy training process.

If you choose to punish a puppy, the most you will do is scare it and make it wary of you. If you smack a puppy, even lightly, all it knows is the pain of the strike and the fear it feels at that moment toward you. It doesn’t learn that it was doing something wrong because it’s too young to understand that concept.

If your puppy is chewing on something for instance, and you punish it with even a light tap, of course it will probably stop what it’s doing. It’s surprised and possibly feels pain from the smack, and now feels very frightened of you. It doesn’t link the punishment with what it was doing, though, and has no way of predicting when it might be punished next.

Shouting at the puppy can also do damage to your relationship. If you startle the puppy with a shout, of course it might stop what it’s doing. But again, the puppy doesn’t understand the relationship between its actions and your shouting. Even the angry tone of your voice can cause your puppy to be afraid for a moment.

If you use these punishments on a puppy, the puppy will learn to be afraid of you, or at the very least it will learn that you can be mean. The puppy might not trust you, because it doesn’t understand why you frighten it. This can keep the puppy from ever really warming up to you, and you’ll be unable to have a good relationship as the puppy grows.

Some dogs are very passive, and will respond to you in a very defeated way. Your dog might stay in line all the time, solely out of fear, but it won’t ever trust you. Other dogs have a more stubborn streak, and because they feel threatened by you may attempt to dislodge you as the one in charge. Dogs are pack animals, and if your dog thinks it should be the leader, you might be in for many behavioral problems big and small.

At the very least, you won’t have as good a relationship with your dog as you could have.

Just as you would do with a very small child, use gentle correction when your puppy does something he shouldn’t do. Use gentle movements and a kind but firm tone of voice, so that your dog understands to stop without becoming frightened.

The tips you will find below are inexpensive and the chances are you will already have some of the ingredients in your medicine cabinet or in your kitchen. I have used everyone of these over many years too treat my dogs. And the good thing is I’m still using them today to treat my ‘best friend’ Princess when she has bug bites and stings.

This first tip is one you may have never even considered or even thought about it:

Meat Tenderizer. Yep! You heard right. All you have to do is pour the meat tenderizer into the bowl and then add water. Once it has thickened into a paste simply apply it directly to the sting or bite. There is a good chance your dog will experience almost instant relief. The really cool thing is you can reapply it if needed, without worrying about it maybe harming your pet.

2nd Tip: Chances are this one is going to shock you, but again it works. Try dabbing ammonia directly to the bite or sting with a cotton ball. However make sure not to apply around the nose and eyes of your ‘Fido’. Also if your animal has extra sensitive skin it’s a good idea not too use it to smooth bug bites and stings.

The 3rd tip I have for you is absolutely one of my favorites, too smooth bug bites and stings and I have to tell you Princess loves it. I apply aloe vera gel, from a aloa vera leaf, when I can get my hands on it. But for a backup I keep a aloa vera gel that I get from my local drug store. Again it’s a simple matter of applying the gel directly onto the bite. The results are almost instantaneous. Not only does it work good on my dog, I use it on myself for mosquito bits and the occasional wasp sting.

Now this tip is one that will reduce the swelling and itching right away. However, it may require some patience on your part and on your dogs (any pet) part. If it’s a sting, search the area where your dog is biting and scratching. There is a good chance the stinger may still be embedded in the skin of your precious pet. Once you find it and remove it then you can apply some healing gel or even bathe it with a cold cloth.

Speaking of a cold cloth this is going to be my last tip to you. Try putting several pieces of ice into a wash cloth and hold directly on the sting or bite. Just like you, your animal will find it will smooth bug bites and stings.

If your wondering if these tips are safe for your dog when your trying to relieve the pain and itching, check with your local vet. Or you can do a search on the internet and find where they are perfectly safe. These smooth bug bites and stings tips are not the only ones out there. It may pay you to find out about others.

Dogs are happy to be around humans and make excellent companions when puppies and adults. They naturally take to people and families because their instinct for packs makes it easy for them to find a place in a group. Pack animals separate their pack into levels, with the leader of the pack at the top. This leader sets the direction for the pack.

The next level is like the second in command, and each one down has less dominance in the group until you reach the bottom. When in a pack, dogs understand where each animal in the group sits on that pyramid, and they fall into those roles naturally. Because it’s their instinct, dogs will also naturally want to be part of a pack, or group, and that’s what makes them fall so easily in a family group of people.

When you bring a puppy or even an adult dog home, it automatically views everyone in the household as part of a pack. And by instinct it needs to immediately determine where it falls into the family pack; it needs to understand what level it belongs in. Your dog will need to understand who leads and who follows.

Problems arise when no one seems to be the clear leader. If you don’t establish yourself as head of the pack right away, your dog will be uncomfortable that there is no leader. And your dog’s instinct will be to become the leader, to ensure that the pack is strong. Even a puppy will attempt to fill the leader role, because it knows that there must be one.

If you establish yourself as the leader right away, though, your dog will fall into its spot on the pack pyramid and happily view you as the one in charge. There are several important things you can do to make sure your dog knows that you’re the boss.

• Physical contact. It’s important that you pet and groom your dog. Even if your pet doesn’t like being brushed or having his nails clipped, don’t show that you’ll defer to his wishes.

• Ground rules. Don’t let her chew on your shoes because you think it’s cute, unless you want her to chew on your shoes forever. You’ll confuse her later for punishing her for doing the same thing.

• Be consistent. If you don’t want your dog to something, stop him every time and don’t ever let it go. Be consistent with your praise, and do praise your dog when he does things right.

Following these basic rules to establish yourself as in charge will save you a great deal of frustration as your puppy grows

Your dog will not become depressed for lack of sex. Dogs aren’t humans, and don’t feel the same way about sex that humans do. They won’t miss the intimacy or the romance, like some people believe. As much as some people seem to think otherwise, dogs are animals, and their drive for sex is only instinct. Not having sex will not harm, or depress, your dog.

Your dog will not become weak or effeminate. Neutering does not affect a dog’s physical abilities or strength. In fact, neutering removes the sexual instinct that has some dogs climbing the walls. Neutering can correct many behavioral problems cause by the sex instinct in some dogs, especially in households with one or more pets and in a household with female dogs as well as people.

Your dog will still bark at strangers, if it does now: The belief that a neutered dog will no longer make a good guard dog is ridiculous. It’s a clear case of humans passing off misguided beliefs about masculinity and strength onto dogs. If the dog happened to be born sterile, would that make it less a dog, or less suited to be a watch dog?

Neutering is a responsible and loving thing for a pet owner to have done: Many people use the argument that neutering an animal is unnatural. But if you follow that to its logical conclusion, then having a dog as a pet isn’t natural either. Dogs used to be wild pack animals, so humans keeping a dog and providing for all its care is just as unnatural. Look at it another way. Your dog relies on you to take care of it. You feed it, pet it, and take it to the vet when necessary. Neutering your dog can protect it. A female dog in heat can make a male dog run from its owner to reach her, possibly getting the dog lost or putting it in danger on a busy street. Male dogs act different and more aggressively around females. Neutering your dog eliminates these dangers.

Your dog won’t get fat or stop being active: If you don’t overfeed your dog and neglect to take him for walks, your dog can’t suddenly bloat up after being neutered. This is a popular misconception because it does happen sometimes�but it’s not because of the surgery, but rather the habits of the owner. Just be sure to feed your dog the proper amount of food, and make sure he gets plenty of exercise.

This breed of dog will also instinctively fight being confined. Their need to chase will lead to the dog giving chase to anything that moves very quickly. This includes animals, running kids, anything. The best safeguard is to always use a leash.

Training will not remove genetic behavior. Despite all of this hunting instinct, the greyhound is surprising in its laziness. They are pretty submissive and calm, and quite the lounger. They will have loving personalities and are capable of following commands pretty well, unless they are in the mind to chase something.

This surprising behavior is a result of breeding for rapid releases of energy. They are meant to spot, give chase and subdue a target in mere minutes. Greyhounds spend most of the day living like a cheetah, sleeping and saving up energy for when it needs to release it.

This does require the owner to be prepared to give the greyhound exercise if its living conditions do not give it such an opportunity. The breed can live in a small apartment or other small confines, but they need space to exercise. The canine will have periods of extreme energy and will release it either on your terms or on his or her own terms.

Just about every greyhound that can be adopted a pet are retired racers. They are trained for routine. If you use outside time for exercise, they may also use the time for bathroom needs as well. Overall, the breed will offer a loving personality and demeanor, and they will lay around the home most of the time.

When it is time to go out, at the exact time they are used to going out, they will perk up and be prepared to exercise and take care of business. As an owner, you just have to be willing to follow the routine. What it comes down to is if you are willing to work with an animal that will follow your lead most of the time, while it is not in a single minded state to chase its prey. Keeping this in mind will prepare you for all of the possible difficulties in the greyhound breed.