Training My Dog With Fun And Reward

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     I remember growing up always wanted a dog, but never had the experience to have one before I was about 20 years. and I do understand that where we lived growing up was not the ideal place for a dog.

There are a number things you must consider if you are planing to get yourself a pet, and particularly a dog. You can't just get a dog because it's cute or you like this type of breed. The most important issue to consider based on my experience is how much time you really wanna spend with your new family member. While I am training my dog.and others it becomes clear that there are as many dog personalities as there are dogs, however most of them have been bred to stimulate one or more human desires. In most urban city's around the world it is not uncommon to see lady's walking with their chivava in their gucci bag. Don't get me wrong, I don't have problems with that but if your personality fits that type of dog don't go and get a dog that is bred to work. I have good friends that have a dog they like to carry in their bag, and I have a very good that have travelled around the world trusting literally his life on his dog. He works with mine detection dogs, and it requires other qualities to those dogs than a chivava in a gucci bag. Most of us are somewhere in between those two extreme examples.

The dog we have in our family now is from the farm of my friend where they breed dogs to meet very specific qualities. They look for natural instincts like hunting and fighting skills. These dogs must have these elements in them to be able to do the kind of work it requires to find explosives in the ground. Our dog is a one year old black german shepherd with a fantastic personality. However I could never have this dog if I had ten minutes to exercise with her daily. I can't put her in my bag and go down town. So to be absolutely clear: Get a dog that fits in to your every day life, and remember the dog is absolutely depending on you as their new family to take good care of it.

When I started training my dog., it is always based on two primary things dogs love (me to), fun and reward. I always teach my dogs what the word now mean, and it's done with reward. The next thing I am training my dog to is simple commands: come here, sit and it is all done with reward that the dog associates it with fun. Once this trust between you and your dog is there there are no limits to what you and your dog can achieve. You have a pal for life, that's for sure.

But it is nice to acknowledge that they are animals and they should be respected for that. Every problem I have seen between dogs and humans is either animal abuse or the common mistake of treating your dog like a human. But this is of course not you,-).
Also remember they are animals born to live in a pack so they will identify a "pack leader" very fast, and this should be you from day one by being firm and ignore aggression. I have to tell you that all the things a have learned about dogs is from the person who trust his life in the dogs. As he once told me: Tom we have been from Kabul to Baghdad, from Angola to Bangladesh and in 17 years I have not lost a single dog. These guys at European Search Dog Center know what they are doing.

Take care of yourselves and your dog
Tom